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Getting Started With
Net Research

by Jerry Lawson

"I don't use Internet research because incomplete research gives you a false sense of security."

I avidly read evaluation form comments from CLE programs at courses I teach. One of my favorite comments was from a young lawyer who expressed the sentiment quoted above, one undoubtedly shared by many other attorneys.

She was absolutely correct that incomplete research is dangerous. Her problem was not realizing that in some cases, it is failure to use the Internet that means the research is incomplete. Some useful reference material is readily available on the Internet, and nowhere else. Some law firms have already learned this lesson, while others have yet to absorb it.

If you want your research to be complete, you will need to learn to use the Internet for some research projects. Using the Internet effectively is sometimes more difficult than using conventional research sources. This essay provides a few ideas on the best way to get started.

To Net Or Not To Net

The first step in the decision making process is deciding whether to use the Internet for a particular problem or conventional research techniques. No matter what your most enthusiastic Net-loving friends may claim, there are times when conventional research sources are preferable.

The following explanation from The Complete Internet Handbook for Lawyers may help in making this initial decision:

There is an enormous amount of material available on the Internet, but doing research there is tough going:

	It's hard to find what you want among the masses of data.
	The available information varies widely in quality. Most is poor.
	The depth of information is frequently shallow. There is seldom anything approaching the volume of historical cases that you have in a law library, and coverage of state law cases in general is very spotty.
	There's little uniformity in organization and presentation and usually limited technical support.

There are so many interesting side trails on the Internet that it can be difficult for all but the most disciplined researcher to avoid wasting time.

It's more difficult to become a skilled researcher on the Internet than it is on commercial services like Westlaw, Lexis/Nexis and Dialog.

Despite the difficulty of research on the Internet, there are times when it should be your first choice. While it is difficult to draw a "line in the sand," the Internet is frequently the best choice when the issues to be researched involves one or more of the following:

	Federal law or regulations
	Easy access to monographs written by top practicing attorneys
	Current developments too new to be conveniently available elsewhere
	Some specialty areas like intellectual property and high tech law
	Factual research, like finding information about a business or an expert witness
	Interactive research techniques that have no counterpart off the Internet are the best approach

Don't be penny wise and pound foolish when deciding between conventional research sources and the Internet. Factor in the value of your time. For example, even though you can get all recent U.S. Court of Appeals decisions free on the Internet, if you need the page number citations for a brief, getting them from Westlaw may actually be cheaper.

It wasn't that long ago that most lawyers were not willing to trust the Internet at all for research. Now some lawyers have begun to pressure law librarians to drop their paper collections and expensive commercial services and rely only on the Internet. This makes no more sense than the earlier reluctance to use the Internet at all. The Internet is not "better" than Westlaw and Lexis. It is DIFFERENT.

An Internet connection will open up new research avenues (particularly for factual research) and it may let you reduce your Westlaw/Lexis expenses, but the Internet is not yet close to being a complete replacement for the commercial services.

Net Research: Three Branches

Let's assume you have decided to use the Internet as your first search tool on a project. There are three approaches to choose from:

	Search engines. These are databases of Internet sites that are searchable by key word(s). AltaVista and Lawcrawler are leading examples. The latter is restricted to legal sites.
	Directories. These are sites assembled by humans that attempt to organize links to Internet sites in a logical manner. Yahoo and Findlaw are leading examples, with the latter being restricted to sites about law.
	Interactive research. This means using a virtual community on the Internet to find someone who can answer your question, or help you find it.

More ideas from The Complete Internet Handbook for Lawyers:

Deciding which method to use first in a particular research project is partly a matter of personal preference, partly a matter of experience and partly a matter of the nature of the research project. Do you prefer to think in specifics or broad concepts?

Search Engine Indicators:

Does the type of search request readily lend itself to finding some key words that will probably be in the documents you are seeking? For example, if you have a person's name or the name of a business, a search engine will often be your best bet. Let's assume you are looking for information about a particular legal idea? "Writ of habeas corpus" is a better candidate for search engine treatment than "due process."

Are you looking for very new information? Some search engines index news sources automatically, while directories, which are compiled by human beings, frequently tend to lag.

Directory Indicators:

	Are you unsure about exactly what you are looking for?
	Are you looking for an overview instead of something very specific?
	Are you aware of a particular directory that will link to the information you are looking for? This is where a well organized bookmark list comes in handy.

Interactive Research Indicators:

Is the question one more amenable to human judgment and intelligence than the other methods? For example, do you already know "the law," but want to find out how experienced attorneys handle a matter in practice?

Do you know of a forum where you are likely to be able to find the answer? For example, if it deals with the law of a particular state, is there an attorney mailing list for your state? There is a list of regional discussion groups at Findlaw's Legalminds. If the question is about a particular area of law, you might try one of the many ABA discussion groups, or at the Legalminds subjects list. You can use specialized search engines like Liszt to find discussion groups. See Internet Tools for Attorneys for links to legal discussion forums.

Interactive research may be the least understood and most under appreciated research technique. Smart librarians and other researchers have long used it off the Internet. If you can find someone who is likely to know the answer to a question, just ask them. What gives the Internet version of this technique its special power is the Internet's broad reach and low transaction costs. If you know what you are doing, you can easily get advice from top experts, at no cost but your time. The Internet's extraordinary networking power lets you extend your reach immeasurably, if you know how to use it. The basics of this technique are explained in more detail in another essay at this web site.

Multiple Techniques

Skilled researcher frequently use conventional research techniques to supplement Internet research, or vice versa.

Internet research techniques are often combined as well. An expert researcher will transition easily from one technique to another, depending on the demands of the issue being researched. For example, you might start by posting a question in an intellectual property discussion group. An answer might refer you to a directory at a law firm's web site. That directory might lead you to a specialized search engine for that type of intellectual property law question.

On another occasion, you might start out using Findlaw's directory structure. After you found a particularly good site through it, you might look for others like it using AltaVista's link: search operator to find other sites that had linked to it. (This is done by prefacing the domain name by link: . For example, if you wanted to see which sites referred to http://www.visalaw.com, you would enter the search request link:visalaw.com at the AltaVista search engine).

Conclusion

The first step toward making your Internet time researching, not "surfing," is understanding all the available options and choosing the ones that are most appropriate to the particular problem. Plan your searches for optimal effectiveness, but be open to the serendipitous discoveries that make Internet research so rewarding.

Other General Net Research Resources

	Internet Tools for Attorneys -- Has a research section that parallels the approach outlined above.
	Law Librarians Resource Xchange -- Commonly known as "LLRX."
	The Virtual Chase -- Philadelphia law librarian Genie Tyburski's gift to the legal community.
	Search Engine Comparison Chart -- Diana Botluk, present editor of the West Publishing Company's Internet research bibliography The Legal List, updates her excellent search engine chart.
	The Complete Internet Fact Finder for Lawyers, by Josh Blackman, with David Jank. This web site supports the book, which is also available for purchase from the ABA.

The author, Jerry Lawson, is the author of The Complete Internet Handbook for Lawyers (ABA LPMS 1999).

This page last revised: January 01, 2002 .