Electronic Research

• Author: Beau Steenken, Tina M. Brooks
• Pages: 106-141

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Chapter 5

Electronic Research

I think it’s fair to say that personal computers have

become the most empowering tool we’ve ever

created. They’re tools of communication, they’re

tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their

user. – Bill Gates

The good news about computers is that they do

what you tell them to do. The bad news is that they

do what you tell them to do. – Ted Nelson

5.1 Learning Objectives for Chapter 5

In working through this chapter, students should strive to be able to:

• Use and combine the basic processes of online research: searching,

browsing, and limiting results through the use of filters.

• Construct well-tailored searches with terms and connectors.

• Use a computer to find legal authorities and apply them to a given

set of facts.

• Compare the value of human-created citators to computer-

generated citators.

• Use electronic citators both to update legal authorities and to

discover related legal authorities.

Note: The images presented in this chapter all link to external

screencasts of the processes described. Readers are encouraged to

watch the screencasts to see the techniques in use. Screencasts may

be accessed by clicking on the URL provided in each image’s

caption.

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5.2 Introduction to Electronic Research

While the advent of computers and the Internet have revolutionized the

practice of law, aspiring legal researchers should note that the goals of legal

research remain the same regardless of whether one uses computers or

books. At its core, the practice of law consists of locating relevant legal

authorities, applying the authorities to a set of facts, and then

communicating the predicted or desired result of the application. Thus,

legal researchers seek the same sources of law with computers that they do

with books: constitutions, statutes, judicial opinions, and administrative

regulations.

Furthermore, computers did not achieve prominence until roughly a

hundred years after the professionalization of the practice of law. As a

result, the major legal publishers originally crafted their information systems

in a strictly paper-based world. While the same publishers later quickly

realized the potential advantages of using computers for legal research, they

did not abandon their underlying information systems. Thus, not only will

legal researchers find the text of the underlying legal authorities to be the

same in electronic format as in print, but the publishers also provide the

same added-value content, such as key numbers, case headnotes, and code

annotations.121

Though they facilitate the same goals of research as print-based resources,

computers do revolutionize the process. Electronic research can be a much

more efficient way of accessing legal authorities than finding them in books.

Computers, particularly networked computers (i.e. the Internet), by their

nature hold vastly more information than a single book. Furthermore,

hyperlinks allow researchers to jump from one information object to

another without the need to retrieve a separate volume for each piece of

information. While a researcher using print resources might use four

volumes from three different sets just to find a single case,122 a researcher

121 The use of editorial content, even in electronic form, can be a highly efficient

way to research. Students are encouraged to make use of relevant headnotes and

annotations at every opportunity. However, as not all legal research platforms

benefit from the inclusion of editorial content, in this chapter we will focus on the

basic processes of electronic research that can be used universally.

122 For example: a volume of the Descriptive Word Index of the Kentucky Digest,

2d; a main volume of the Kentucky Digest, 2d; a volume of the South Western Reporter;

and a volume of Shepard’s Kentucky Citations. This example also leaves out the

pocket parts, supplements, and advance sheets that should be consulted.

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using a computer might find several cases in a fraction of the time using just

a few clicks of a mouse.

Another advantage computers offer the legal researcher stems from the fact

that they process large amounts of information very quickly. As such, a

computer, and the research platforms built on them, can “read” a

document much faster than a person can. However, computers are not

actually good at understanding what they “read.” Thus, while a search

engine could help a researcher quickly find every instance of the phrase

“custodial interrogation” in Kentucky state court cases from the past

decade, it would not yet be able to summarize accurately what Kentucky

courts have held to be the key features that render the interrogation of a

suspect by the police “custodial.” A researcher would need to read through

the results to find the appropriate rulings but would be spared the work of

actually gathering the results.

Given the efficiency boost computers provide to legal research, it should

come as no surprise that creating and maintaining electronic legal research

tools has become a large and profitable business. Equally unsurprisingly,

many of the major players in the electronic legal research platform business

began as traditional paper-based legal publishers. After all, the publishers

already had on hand not only the ultimate goals of legal research, the

primary legal authorities, but also their proprietary information systems and

added-value content. Practicing attorneys were already accustomed to using

the proprietary systems to great effect. Furthermore, the pre-computer

systems actually help to address computers’ weakness in the comprehension

department. For example, the West key number system features a key

number for the issue “what constitutes custody,”123 and by using the

headnotes labeled with this key number, the researcher from the above

example could narrow in on the relevant parts of individual cases that

appear in the search results.

As with most industries, the legal research platform business features

various market segments. At the top end of the market lie full-service legal

platforms such as Westlaw and Lexis Advance that will meet fully the needs

of legal researchers across American legal topics and jurisdictions. More

recently, Bloomberg L.P. (an electronic resource publisher focusing on

news and finance) has branched into the legal information market and now

offers Bloomberg Law as a third full-service legal research platform. A key

123 Criminal Law (110) k 411.21