Legal Research: How to Find & Understand the Law

by Stephen Elias, Editors of Nolo

Legal Take the law into your own hands

Do you have legal questions at home, at work, or as part of law-related course work? Legal Research provides everything you need, laying out easy-to-follow research methods that will help you find the right answers. Find out how

Genres: Law, Legal, Nonfiction, Reference

363 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1988

Reviews

[Creed Jones]

Unfortunately 2012 practices are not super relevant today. Also felt like most of the book repeated “it would be nice if you use westlaw…but you cannot afford it because you are not a large law firm” lol. I still thought there was some great background about how the us legal system operates!

[Pansy]

I am an attorney and I had to read this book for a library science course as part of my Master’s degree program. It does have the virtue of being written in a manner that makes it accessible to the layperson. But in my opinion, it is too basic to really provide a competent basis for doing one’s own legal research (if not legally trained) without the assistance of an attorney. I guess it’s a good introduction for the aspiring law librarian, but those aspiring to that profession need something more substantive than this. That said, for the general layperson, it’s certainly better than nothing, but it isn’t comprehensive enough. I would recommend something like a textbook on legal research for paralegals as an alternative for the layperson who is interested in becoming competent in basic legal research.

[Adrienna]

This is not a typical reading book but a resource tool for legal research (of course). Browsing and reviewing (reading) some of the pages, but some of this I vaguely remember when I had took legal research in master's degree for library science (but we learned the basics without reading books like this). I also will be taking a class in legal writing and research in a month from now (for a semester); so just reviewing ahead of time.

Leisure read 2015, research.

[Maria]

Very comprehensive overview of the US legal system—- there’s guidelines on how to do your own legal research, write your own legal memos, and how to navigate the court systems. I know at least have an idea how things work, and where to go if I need more answers.

[Terry]

Re-read. Not enough detail for serious legal research, but good enough for those who want the basics or as something to read before delving into the more academic legal research books.