I.

LEGAL RESEARCH PROCESS

A. Gather and Understand the Facts of Your Case

The first step is to write a statement of facts. This includes dates of when the
incident took place, the developments of the story, and the ongoing status of the
subject. The dates and statement of facts can be used to make a case timeline. On
the case timeline, the dates will be coordinated with the problems and the events
that occurred. As a visual learner, this will serve as a visual reference that will
help me keep important dates in the subject matter of my case as I go through the
legal research process.
B. Determine Your Legal Problem and Your Desired Outcome
This part requires me to be realistic as to what I am going to do with the
information. Will it just help me ace my recitation or will it just make me learn
more about a certain subject matter or could it actually change the views of other
people? The degree of formality depends on the use of the actual knowledge for
the subject matter. The potential number of recipients of the results of my
research will be the determining factor if I will put it in a certain medium with the
necessary degree of formality and conciseness.
C. Finding Legal Information and Reading About the Law and the Problem
1. Check my available printed sources for topics related to the subject
matter. These include my law books, memory aids, and my codals, and my
notes from our class lectures. Sometimes I look for audio recordings from bar
lecturers on YouTube for additional information. For this matter I will give
preference to the Primary Authorities and second to the Secondary Authorities
fill in gaps in my knowledge pertaining to the subject.
2. Check online material. If the information I am looking for is not available
from such printed sources, I will search from the internet using the Google
Search engine. I will limit my search to information that are only applicable in
the Philippines.
D. Legal Analysis/Legal Writing and beyond. During legal analysis, the application of
the law to the facts of the case will be commenced. Sometimes I think about
hypothetical scenarios in order to test if I really understand the law or if the law
applied really is the applicable law for all scenarios relating to the subject or just the
specific facts in the case that I worked on. Once I have determined which law applies
to my case and make sure it is binding and current, and have read up on it and have
sufficient knowledge on it, then it is time to start my legal analysis and writing.
Normally, this is when practicing lawyers will write a “legal memorandum.” A legal
memorandum summarizes the facts, states the issue, applies the laws to the facts, does
a counter-analysis from the other side’s perspective, and predicts what the likely
outcome of a case will be. 1

1
2. Legal Research: Steps to Follow, Texas Law Help.Org, available at https://texaslawhelp.org/article/legal-
research-steps-follow, last accessed at October 15, 2020
2.1 Basic Legal Research, Northern Illinois University College of Law, David C. Shapiro Memorial Law Library,
available at https://libguides.niu.edu/c.php?g=425200&p=2938282, last accessed at October 15, 2020