Learning To Love Legal Research

The Legal Research Masterclass

Legal Research is the essential foundation for success for both law students and professional lawyers alike. We therefore decided to create this brief series of educational videos to introduce law students and aspiring lawyers to some of the key underlying principles of legal method, fact management, authority analysis and case preparation. We hope that they will prove to be valuable resources to kick-start a life-time love of legal research.

...Or at least to help students to create their own method of thorough, reliable and sustainable case preparation which they will be able to take into a successful practice of law.

The videos are best watched sequentially but can also be viewed as standalone introductions to varying aspects of legal research. Do get in touch with any questions, comments or feedback.

Emily Allbon & Andrew Worthley

The Brief

In this short film Andrew introduces the brief - explaining what it is and what format it takes, as well as discussing the merits of hard copy v digital briefs.

We look at what the challenges this offers for barristers.

The Facts

This deals with the Who - What - Where - When of a brief. Andrews talks us through how he picks out the key facts and manages them effectively.

We hear about the differences between substantive law and procedural law and start to think about what resources might be best to help us kick off the research for our case study.

The Research

Here's where we talk about the research!

We've taken one aspect of the problem from our brief - relief from sanctions and we show you how we may use the White Book to track down useful authorities to help form the submissions in our skeleton argument.

The Authority

Here we look at one of the leading authorities around relief from sanctions, Mitchell v News Group Newspapers [2014] 1 WLR 795.

Andrew takes us through the case, showing his thought processes and research strategy - here you get an insight into what you are looking for when you read through a case.

The Skeleton

Following on from the research steps seen in the previous films - this one covers how you take what you've gleaned (e.g. CPR r 3.9 and the 2 cases, Mitchell and Denton) and draft these into a skeleton argument.

To give you some idea of what such a skeleton might look like we've given you an edited version.

Disclaimer

The information contained in this video is for general education and guidance. Any opinions expressed are for information purposes only. They are not intended to constitute legal or other professional advice, and should not be relied on or treated as a substitute for specific advice relevant to particular circumstances. If you need more details on your rights or legal advice, please contact a lawyer.