This document discusses various techniques for conducting effective legal research. It covers selecting an electronic research service based on scope and cost, using different search techniques like source-driven or content-driven searches, effectively using terms and connectors to retrieve relevant results, reviewing and filtering search outputs, and maintaining research through alerts or public internet sources. The key aspects of research discussed are selecting appropriate tools and methods, executing targeted searches, and ongoing management of results.

1. Honing in on the Right Information When
Conducting Research
Paralegal Rainmakers

2. Selecting an Electronic Research Service
Selecting a Search Technique
Planning and Executing a Search
Reviewing and Filtering Search Results
Case Research
Manual
Research
Electronic
Research
Writing Briefs
Statutory
Research
Federal Legislative
History

3. • Consider scope of coverage of service
• Consider the cost of service

4. “(R)esearch requires the poetic quality of the
imagination that sees significance and relation
where others are indifferent or find unrelatedness;
the synthetic quality of fusing items theretofore in
isolation; above all the prophetic quality of piercing
the future by knowing what questions to put and
what direction to give inquiry.”
Frankfurter, “The Conditions for, and the Aims and Methods
of, Legal Research,”: 15 Iowa L.Rev. 129, 134 (1930).

5. • Retrieve a document from its citation
• Execute a source-driven search
• Execute a content driven search

6. • For word searches, consider search
options
• In Westlaw and Lexis be aware of
differences among search algorithms
• Use terms and connectors effectively

7. • Relevance, date, or other result ranking
choices affect which documents appear
• Use terms and connectors commands

8. • Use an alert or clipping service to keep
search up to date
• Use publicly available internet sources

9. • Use an alert or clipping service to keep
search up to date
• Use publicly available internet sources