Long gone is the time when attorneys head to a dusty room with staggering bookcases to find the latest version of a statute or the that will stand out the judge. Decades ago, legal work was a time-consuming process that required long days and nights buried in a law library. With the Internet and digitization of books came significant advances and changes in legal resources. Now, the industry that provides these modern tools may be as big, if not bigger, than among the largest law firms in the globe.
Attorneys in present day age have access to comprehensive indexes of cases and statutes with a simple click of the mouse. These databases and research hubs are operated by some of companies that staff hundreds or thousands of employees to appear at latest cases usually are published, usually using the state or federal court. The employees then provide summaries of the cases, which highlight the primary themes or rulings. In addition, these digital databases offer numerous resources beyond cases and regulations. They also contain secondary sources such as law review articles that analyze certain topics in legislation or treatises, tend to be respected summaries of certain areas of law.
One of the most important aspects of persuasive legal writing could be the citation of cases that are current and still good law. That means there cannot be subsequent cases that overturn or negatively affect the holding reached in since case. This task used to be accomplished by the time-consuming process of cross-referencing and reading extra cases. However, with these modern digital databases, the project gets done through legal resource manufacturer.
These advances in legal research tools have dramatically changed the size and existence of legal libraries all across the country. In the past, every respectable India law library firm, courthouse, legal aid center, and law school had large stages of their buildings focused on storing books. Now, many of these institutions have dramatically cut down over the size of physical legal books and case books. Some may retain a small portion of their previous collection as ornaments rather than practical resources.
One realm which not been dramatically impacted by these modern innovations is the research of legislative history, such as looking at the first sort versions of legislation or determining the intent of brand new in drafting legislation. Much of this information is unavailable digitally or online, likely because with the sheer volume in the work and the relatively low demand by attorneys. For all those resources, legal researchers must turn for the old fashion approach of going several state or federal library, requesting data in advance, and sitting down and reading.