Just a quickie this week – have been swamped preparing and presenting training presentations on using Google for legal and business research…
Have you often spent hours flipping through text books and thought “I wish you could hit Control+F in real life!”…Well now you can kinda do that! Oh, you’ve never thought that? Right, it’s just me then. What a nerd. Ok, carry on.
I’ve started putting together a library on Google Books which includes texts on legal research (I’ll probably expand this to Australian legal texts). The beauty of Google Books is that even if the full text of the book isn’t available online, you can still search across the full text of the books. So you can find out whether a book contains your search terms, without having to read the book cover to cover, before you borrow or buy it.
Find it here: Legal Research Rescue – Library on Google Books. (I love the RSS feed feature – I’m off to find some Google Books library feeds to subscribe to!)
Some books are available in full text, some are limited view (only a part of the book is available), some are snippet view (so you’ll just see your search term in context) and some are bibliographical information only. If you can’t access the full text online, use Google Books in conjunction with your uni or organisation’s library catalogue, or the Libraries Australia catalogue, to find out where to get a hard copy from.
Let me know what you think and how you use Google Books – I’d love to hear!
Do you have any other ideas for using Google Books in the legal profession? Please share! Leave a comment, find me on twitter [@laurenaustinLRR] or share a link on delicious [legalresearchrescue].
January 28, 2009
Just a quickie this week – have been swamped preparing and presenting training presentations on using Google for legal and business research…
Have you often spent hours flipping through text books and thought “I wish you could hit Control+F in real life!”…Well now you can kinda do that! Oh, you’ve never thought that? Right, it’s just me then. What a nerd. Ok, carry on.
I’ve started putting together a library on Google Books which includes texts on legal research (I’ll probably expand this to Australian legal texts). The beauty of Google Books is that even if the full text of the book isn’t available online, you can still search across the full text of the books. So you can find out whether a book contains your search terms, without having to read the book cover to cover, before you borrow or buy it.
Find it here: Legal Research Rescue – Library on Google Books. (I love the RSS feed feature – I’m off to find some Google Books library feeds to subscribe to!)
Some books are available in full text, some are limited view (only a part of the book is available), some are snippet view (so you’ll just see your search term in context) and some are bibliographical information only. If you can’t access the full text online, use Google Books in conjunction with your uni or organisation’s library catalogue, or the Libraries Australia catalogue, to find out where to get a hard copy from.
Let me know what you think and how you use Google Books – I’d love to hear!
Do you have any other ideas for using Google Books in the legal profession? Please share! Leave a comment, find me on twitter [@laurenaustinLRR] or share a link on delicious [legalresearchrescue].
January 28, 2009
Back when I was a lawyer, I was given a research task as part of the matter I was working on. I searched for the answer in journal articles, in the limited commentary the firm subscribed to and in the few text books immediately available. As any self-respecting Gen Y lawyer would do, I decided to “Google it” (yes, it’s a verb). Lo and behold, using Google, I found what I needed. From a reputable government website. After receiving the requisite praise for finding a relevant, authoritative, useful answer, I was asked how I found it. I answered, received quite a ridiculous look of faux-horror mixed with condescension and was told “don’t ever admit to using Google for legal research”.
Don't be scared to "Google it" when conducting legal research!
Luckily, it now seems the number of lawyers who recognise the merits of a tool which has revolutionised the way we locate information far outweighs the luddites who insist upon the use of exclusive, expensive, subscribed resources for every research task. Of course, search results of any kind need to be analysed and interpreted to ensure relevance to the task at hand and Google’s results are no exception. This series of articles will look at how Google goes about providing its results (there’s a lot going on in the background that can affect your results) and how you can in turn manipulate those results yourself to ensure fast, accurate and authoritative results.
How Google Works (a non-techie’s version)
What makes Google so powerful for legal researchers is its consistently relevant results. Google’s creators came up with the idea that a search engine which analysed the relationships between websites would produce a better ranking of results than the existing search engines at the time, which analysed how many times the search term appeared on a particular page. It’s particularly important for lawyers and researchers to understand what goes on in the milliseconds between hitting the search button and retrieving a list of results as it can often affect their relevance to the task at hand. Once you understand what is going on behind the scenes, you can decide whether to use the tools below to manipulate those results in a different manner.
There are basically 4 steps to the Google search process:
- It searches its index - Google searches the billions of web pages to find each page that contains the word or phrase or group of hos you have entered;
- It analyses those pages for relevance - Google then screens those web pages for factors such as how many times the words you searched for appear, whether they appear in the title, and (if multiple words are entered) how close to each other they appear;
- It analyses the reputation of those pages - Google then evaluates how often other pages link to a particular page and how authoritative those other websites are; and
- It ranks them - Google then ranks the results so that (hopefully) the most relevant results appear at the top of the result list.
Google interprets a link from one page to another page as a “vote” by the first page for the second. However, it is not quite that simple – Google then looks at more than just the number of “votes” – it also analyses the page that casts the “vote”. “Votes” cast by pages that are deemed to be more important (using this same process) are considered more reliable and thus help to rank other pages favourably. It’s the circle of life. Or something. What’s important to take away from this process is that there are a lot of assumptions made about what is relevant to your query. What’s important to take away from the rest of this article (and the upcoming parts 2 and 3) is that you can manipulate and manage this process yourself by using connectors, operators, modifiers and the advanced search function.
Connectors and Operators
Some of Google’s connectors and operators are fairly well known – yet some of the most useful ones aren’t. In the examples below, I’ve started with the basic and move onto some examples that you may find useful in conducting research.
There is no need to include “and” in your search terms.
federal court smith discrimination will find any mention of “federal” and “court” and “smith” and “discrimination”
Quotation marks around phrases will find references to that exact phrase.
“federal court” smith discrimination will find any mention of “federal court” and “smith” and “discrimination”
Using OR (in capitals!) between words will find references to either of the terms you enter.
discrimination smith abc OR “Alpha Beta Corporation” will find any mention of:
“smith” and “discrimination” and “ABC”; as well as
“smith” and “discrimination” and ”Alpha Beta Corporation”
Using the minus symbol (-) immediately before a word will remove results that include that term.
discrimination abc –smith will find any mention of “discrimination” and “ABC” which doesn’t include a reference to “smith”
Google sometimes excludes common words and characters such as “how”, “of” or numerals.
Google will also automatically search for variations of words. The plus symbol (+) immediately before a word or character will ensure that it (and only it, not variations etc) is included in the search.
ABC smith no. +2 will find any mention of “ABC” and “smith” and “no. 2”
ABC smith + sexual discrimination will find any mention of “ABC” and “smith” and sexual discrimination – but not sex discrimination
Using the tilde symbol (~) immediately before a term will find that word and its synonyms.
“federal court” smith ~discrimination will find any mention of “federal court” and “smith” and discrimination or prejudice or hate crime etc.
Using a hyphen (-) between words (no spaces) will find variations including the hyphenated version, the one word version and the two word version.
smith hate-crime will find any mention of “smith” and hate-crime or hate crime or hatecrime.
A few tips to remember:
- Google ignores capitals - If you enter “smith” and “abc”, it will find references to “Smith” or “ABC”.
- Google will only return results with all your search terms by default. Use the OR connector (don’t forget the capitals) if needed.
- Don’t think you’ll remember the connectors and operators above? Don’t miss the (somewhat hidden) “Advanced Search” from the main Google page – almost all of the tricks and tips above can be replicated by entering your search terms into the appropriate field.
In Part 2 and 3 of this article, we’ll look at using modifiers to limit your searches to certain sites, domains, site types, file types and more, as well as using services such as Google Scholar and Google Books for legal research tasks.
In short:
- Whilst a Google search only takes a matter of milliseconds, a number of assumptions and processes occur in the background which will affect the results you are shown.
- You can use terms and connectors and/or the “advanced search” function to modify your results yourself.
Do you have any other tips or tricks for using Google terms and connectors for legal research? Please share! Leave a comment, find me on twitter [@laurenaustinLRR] or share a link on delicious [legalresearchrescue].
January 20, 2009
It’s one of those afternoons – you’ve sent one of those dreaded “capacity emails” – not because you actually want to work, but because the blank timesheet staring back at you is making you start to hyperventilate. The only task you’ve received in return is one where you need to provide copies of legislation for a hearing tomorrow. Easy right? You’re sure the SA has only given this to you because she felt sorry for your desperate-billable-unit-plea and wants her secretary to pick up her dry cleaning instead anyway. Surely you didn’t go to law school to hit Control-P from an AustLII page…
Before you get in a huff about your lack of “quality work”, be warned that the reliance on out-of-date legislation, even if only out-of-date by a day, has been known to cause lost cases, failed negotiations and embarrassment for the lawyers involved. Hit Control+P from AustLII at your peril: you might not need need to worry about billable units for much longer. Goodbye grad offer.
Go straight to the source for Australian legislation
In practice, working with current legislation is essential. Clients don’t have questions about legislative provisions that have remained unchanged for years and can be safely reprinted in each edition of your textbook without amendment. They tend to work in areas of constant policy development and legal challenges – the stuff of legislative amendments. Before you rush this task so you can tag along to some schmoozy client lunch meeting, remember that the ability to find what the law is at any given time – with confidence - is what you’re here for. This article will help you get it right and get it done in time for the lunch.
(more…)
January 12, 2009
It’s one of those afternoons – you’ve sent one of those dreaded “capacity emails” – not because you actually want to work, but because the blank timesheet staring back at you is making you start to hyperventilate. The only task you’ve received in return is one where you need to provide copies of legislation for a hearing tomorrow. Easy right? You’re sure the SA has only given this to you because she felt sorry for your desperate-billable-unit-plea and wants her secretary to pick up her dry cleaning instead anyway. Surely you didn’t go to law school to hit Control-P from an AustLII page…
Before you get in a huff about your lack of “quality work”, be warned that the reliance on out-of-date legislation, even if only out-of-date by a day, has been known to cause lost cases, failed negotiations and embarrassment for the lawyers involved. Hit Control+P from AustLII at your peril: you might not need need to worry about billable units for much longer. Goodbye grad offer.
Go straight to the source for Australian legislation
In practice, working with current legislation is essential. Clients don’t have questions about legislative provisions that have remained unchanged for years and can be safely reprinted in each edition of your textbook without amendment. They tend to work in areas of constant policy development and legal challenges – the stuff of legislative amendments. Before you rush this task so you can tag along to some schmoozy client lunch meeting, remember that the ability to find what the law is at any given time – with confidence - is what you’re here for. This article will help you get it right and get it done in time for the lunch.
A note about “current” Acts
The idea of a “current” compilation (or reprint – they’re the same thing for our purposes) of an Act can be misleading and is the reason I refer instead to “most recent” compilations in this article . The “current” compilation is only ever the most recent compilation of an Act that the government has produced. Each compilation is just that – a compilation of all the amendments made to a particular Act up to and including the date of the compilation. These are only produced periodically. This is extremely important to note because it means that a “current” compilation is not necessarily the current state of the legislation as at the particular moment in time during which you are viewing the legislation.
Lost? Try this example: You’ve located the Act you’re interested in. The most recent compilation is dated last month. However, legislation which amends the Act has come into force earlier this week. In this situation (which happens often!), the truly current state of the legislation is the most recent compilation + the amendments that have since come into force. So even though the “current” compilation doesn’t show these most recent amendments, those amendments do in fact reflect the true state of the law as at “today”.
Before you ask – no, there is nowhere on the internet (or in print) where you can you find what a piece of leg says as at this minute/date. Surprising, huh? Perhaps not once you consider the sheer amount of legislation passed each day, and each and every amendment to other legislation that new legislation could contain. Maybe one day they’ll write the macro… until then, the closest you can get is to locate the most recent compilation and then to check that no amendments have been made since that compilation.
Go straight to the source – use Government sites for locating legislation
Before we look at actually retrieving the Acts, it’s important to note that Government sites are the most official online source for legislation. It is from these Government sites that you will find the authoritative PDF versions of the Acts (if they exist) that Counsel and the judiciary often insist upon. No matter what you’ve been taught in law school, it is, without doubt, best practice to get the information straight from the legislature’s mouth.
AustLII, for example, is a database that draws its information from the Government sites and collates it into its own database. Now, I’m not an AustLII hater by any stretch (its case law resources are world class), but I offer this piece of advice from experience – AustLII’s legislative databases are not kept as up to date as they should be. The truth is, amendments will be noted and/or incorporated into legislation on Government sites before they will be on AustLII. The delay might only lag by a matter of days (it has run into weeks or months in some instances) but it is not worth the risk. AustLII’s one-stop-shop for all Australian jurisdictions can be tempting, particularly compared to the alternative of remembering which Government sites to use for each jurisdiction. However, there is a way around that problem – Lawlex(with which I have no affiliation).
Lawlexis as a portal which links out to the most authoritative Government site for any given piece of legislation, without the user having to remember which website should be used for each jurisdiction. The ability to search and link to legislation is a free service. There are other paid services within the Lawlex platform, but in this instance I am focussing on free resources to assist in finding Commonwealth legislation (to go through each jurisdiction would make this already long article unbearable).
Locating the most recent compilation of an Act
This part’s easy – simply enter the Act name into the Lawlex search screen, locate the Act you are after and click. A tip for new players – don’t bother with the “full text” search – I’ve found it to be a bit hit and miss. Leave it on the “Title” search. For the purposes of this article, we’re simply looking at locating legislation. I’ll write about conducting legislative research in another article. Once you’re on Lawlex’s page for the Act you’re after, click on the title of the act – it is a link to the most recent compilation of that act direct from the official government site.
Checking whether an Act has been amended since the last consolidation
If you have a subscription to Lawlex “Premium Research” you will have access to a table on Lawlex’s page for the Act which details all amendments made since last consolidation. simply click on “Check for amendments since last consolidation” and you’ve covered your bases! If you don’t have a subscription, you will be able to see the link to the table below the red ”Premium Research” bar, but you won’t be able to access it. However, as this is not a tutorial on how to use Lawlex, I’m going to outline the freely available government resources to use for finding the same information.
Most lawyers are aware of the “notes” section at the end of each Act which specifies amendments made to the act up to and including the date of the consolidation. What the notes section will not include is a list of amendments made to the act since that consolidation. For Commonwealth legislation, you will need to locate the Act on Comlaw. Once you are on Comlaw’s page for that act, and assuming there have been amendments made to the act since it was last reprints, there will be a section titled “Unincorporated Amendments”.
Comlaw
In the example above, there were two acts which had amended the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth) since it’s last consolidation (at the time of writing). This means that there are at least 2 amendments (possibly more) that are not contained in the most recent reprint. To view the amending Acts, simply click on one of the Act titles (eg Family Law Amendment (De Facto Financial Matters and Other Measures) Act). To see a list of all amendments, including those that have not yet been incorporated into a reprint, click on the “Principal + Amts 1973+” tab.
Comlaw
You will need to view each of the amending acts and search (Control+F on a PC, Apple+F for Macs) for the relevant amendment/s. Yes, it’s clunky. If you don’t like it, subscribe to Lawlex and let them compile the table for you.
In short:
- “Current” compilations of Acts are only current to the date of the consolidation – to ensure you’re working with up-to-date legislation, you must check for amendments made since the last consolidation.
- Use Lawlex, or at least the Government sites themselves, to locate legislation. AustLII’s legislation databases are not always up to date.
Do you have any other tips or tricks when it comes to locating Australian legislation? Please share! Leave a comment, find me on twitter [@laurenaustinLRR] or share a link on delicious [legalresearchrescue].
January 12, 2009
Do you currently type in a party name, or a keyword or 10, and hope that a relevant case pops up in the first page of results? Do you spend hours reading all 8 million cases on “directors’ duties”, desperately hoping you’ll come across one that relates to your case or assignment? Do you worry that you haven’t covered the field when looking for a case?
The type of database you use for any given legal research task can make all the difference when time is of the essence (and when is it not?). There is one sure-fire way to drastically reduce the time spent on case law research – and it doesn’t involve inaccurate recording of billable units, warping the space-time continuum or ‘delegating’ to someone with less of a clue than you. The answer? Know what you’re searching across. Understand the difference between case citators and full text databases.
Case law research sending you crazy?
Which products are citators? Which are full text?
There are many examples of both types (none of which I endorse, nor have an affiliation with) but I will stick to a few well known examples. LexisNexis’ CaseBase and CaseSearch (UK), AustLII’s new LawCite and Lawbook/Thomson’s FirstPoint are the case citators that most Australian lawyers and law students would be familiar with.
Resources such as the LexisNexis Cases database (within the LNAU online service), Thomson’s Lawbook Online, the cases in CCH and any “unreported cases” databases such as AustLII are generally full text services.
Where do they look for my search terms?
Case citators: Case citators, AKA case digests, don’t search across the full text of case. They simply search across that citator, or summary, document that you are probably be familiar with. The details you are most likely searching across include party names, case citation, court, jurisdiction, judge etc. Other details such as keywords or catchwords, references to other cases, legislation or journal articles (which, in my experience, may not be comprehensive or even correct in some cases) may be searchable, depending on the database you are using and the age of the case.
Full text databases: You guessed it – full text databases search across the full text of judgments. So you can plug in quite specific search terms and, as long as those search terms appear somewhere within the text of the judgment itself, you’ll usually get hits on your results pages.
So, plug a long, specific phrase into a case citator and chances are you won’t get any hits. Why? Because it is not searching the full text of the judgment, only the summary/citator document.
What cases are included when I search?
Case citators: Generally, case citators will have an entry for all reported cases (and sometimes unreported ones), regardless of which publisher publishes the report series they appeared in (sometimes they do play nicely!). This is the reason why citators are great for locating cases… case citators are the place to go when you need all cases in one, searchable, spot.
Full text databases: Most full text databases will search across only those cases that are published by that publisher. For example, when you search LexisNexis Cases, you are not searching across those cases that have only been reported in a Thomson-published report series. And vice-versa. When you consider that legal publishers are business competitors, it makes sense as to why they don’t always play nicely with each other.
Unreported databases are the exception to this limitation – they include all cases released by the relevant courts before they are “reported” in one or more of the publishers’ report series, but their databases don’t often go back as far as the publishers’ databases do.
When would I use each type of database?
Full text databases: Use full text resources when you need comprehensive research on a topic, issue or phrase judicially considered - it’s the only way to make sure you are searching the entire text of the case. Full text is perfect for searching for specific words or phrases within a case that are not likely to be picked up in the keywords/catchwords part of a citator document. If you run the same, well structured, search/es across each publisher’s case database, you can usually feel confident you have conducted your research thoroughly.
Case citators: Citators are great for locating cases when you already have some detail that is likely to be in the citator document - eg. a party name, a judge’s name, a citation etc. You can also usually use the search functions within the citator to narrow your search by date range, jurisdiction and more. In short, citators should be used for locating known cases and not for researching a topic from scratch.
Case citators are also good for locating alternate citations (eg. when you need a version of the case as reported in an “authorised report series” for handing up in court).
In short:
- Case citators such as CaseBase and FirstPoint are not full text and are best used for locating cases.
- Full text databases such as LNAU Cases and Lawbook include the full text of cases published by that publisher only and are best used for research on a phrase, topic or concept.
Do you have any other tips or tricks when it comes to using case law citators or full text databases? Please share! Leave a comment, find me on twitter [@laurenaustinLRR] or share a link on delicious [legalresearchrescue].
January 4, 2009
Legal Research Rescue (LRR) is a place for legal research tips and tricks for junior (and not-so-junior) lawyers, law graduates and law students.
Having worked as a legal research specialist, legal conference producer and lawyer, there have been many skills that I’ve learnt along the way that I wish someone had taught me in law school. Or at least, that I wish I’d paid attention to at the time… the problem was, as is the case with much theory based learning, it was often difficult to contextualise the content of “Legal Research 101″ before you’ve had to write a few essays, advices or articles.
LRR is for those of us already working or studying in the legal field who are interested in concise, relevant tips to make their legal research easier, faster and more accurate.
I plan on posting articles on legal research tips, strategies and tools at least once a week, commencing in January 2009 (Want more? Follow me on Twitter). Topics will based upon all those legal research tips I wish someone had told me before I’d started out – and of course any questions or topic suggestions are welcome.
Please subscribe to the RSS feed, leave a comment, follow me on Twitter and/or join my network on delicious. I look forward to sharing some (hopefully) time-saving and quality-enhancing legal research tips with you in 2009 and beyond.
-Lauren
December 30, 2008
Next page
