How can I get help with researching a state law problem?
Answer
The research objective for a state law problem is to find and understand the holdings of all relevant statutes, cases, and constitutional provisions that constitute mandatory authority in that state. The best way to ensure that one finds all the relevant laws is to use a variety of research sources and methods. Once you are familiar with the background and terminology relevant to your issue, the annotated code is a logical next step for researching the law of a particular state. Taking the time to understand decisions in a state and decision trends in other states may be very important. Even if the law of a particular state appears to be clear, it may be contrary to what is happening in other states, making existing decisions ripe for being overruled. Researchers can get research strategies and sources for state law in Chapter 8 of the TMLL Guide to Legal Research, Researching a State Law Problem. This chapter includes the following sections:
- Electronic Research Basics
- Boolean Searching
- Field and Segment Searching
- Bloomberg Law, Lexis, and Westlaw
- Composing Searches
- Low-Cost Subscription Databases for Legal Research
- Cost Effective Research Using Institutional Repositories
- Internet Research
For a research consultation or for more information, please contact the library.