De La Salle University

Legal Research

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment Of the Course Requirements Of COMP2LM

Lara Angela Magulta Aimee Pedayo Legal Management

February 16, 2011

LEGAL RESEARCH

Legal research has been defined as a process of identifying and getting information needed to support legal decision-making. It is not limited to people practicing law but branches out to different professions such as librarians, students and ordinary citizens.

Since the internet is known as a cheap alternative for legal research nowadays, students who study law or those who need information about the law opt to use the internet for their legal research. Not only is it cheap, it also makes researching a lot easier. Just by typing keywords, a researcher will already find many hits that would be of great help to his or her studies. The internet is very practical in researching since primary materials are also available like legislation and case law. Through the internet, legal researchers get the change to have alternative copies of print materials and information that cannot be found in law libraries.

Because of the reasons stated above, there has been a demand in the use of internet in research. Though there are disadvantages in its use, the benefits that one gets in online research outweighs it. Current developments in the field of legal research will be discussed in this paper.

History

Years before, legal research can only be done through library research. Legal information can only be found in books and print legal materials. Due to such fact, there was a burden in locating laws which are relevant to the research that a person is making. The legal professionals in the United States later addressed and noted the problem during the late 1960s. After some time, John Horty, a professor from the University of Pittsburgh, found a way to convert statutes into machine-readable ones. Hortys work

with the Key Words in Combination (KWIC) search system and text retrieval paved the way to the development of the US Air Force computerized legal information program called the Fedearl Legal Infromation Through Electronics (FLITE). It was regarded as the largest collection of machine-readable legal sources at that time, and the first Computer Assisted Legal Research (CALR) program. Professor Horty was later given the title as the true pioneer of computer assisted legal research. After the development of the FLITE system, the Ohio State Bar Association developed and tested a new commercial CALR system in 1960s which was further developed by Mead Data Central in the 1970s. In 1973, Lexis (current name), a full text computer retrieval system, was released to the world. West Publishing later launched its online legal system, Westlaw, in 1975. The two legal research systems became strong competitors of each other, and until now, both dominate the online legal research landscape. In April of 1994, a group of lawyers decided to use their skills to find a market that would cater to the need of providing information regarding legal research. This was the start of the company Cd Technologies Asia, Inc. and is now locally known as CD Asia. They created this company specializing in digitalized legal information to make it easier and more accessible for people doing legal research rather than poring through reams of data on books and paper.1

CD Asia is in the pioneer of creating a shift by compiling legal publications into CD-ROM format. Its first publication, Laws, released in 1994 saw the birth of the Lex Libris series. Soon after, its second title, Taxation, was released. A year after, he company acquired the data bank of Juris et Legis, again becoming the first Philippine company to offer computerized legal research. Soon this evolved into the third title of the Lex Libris

The Philippine Star(2004).CD Technologies Asia marks10 years of steady growth. Retrieved from http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=249088&publicationSubCategoryId=66

series, Jurisprudence (the Philippine Supreme Court Reports). 2

The year 2000 saw another leap for the company with the launch of its website www.cdasia.com designed to be the main source of legal information and research in the Philippines. Also launched was Lex Libris Online (LLO), the most comprehensive Philippine law library in cyberspace. LLO incorporates the same data content and features of the Lex Libris series on CD.3

As of now, web developers are seeking improvements and developments to cater to the needs of legal researchers.

2 3

Id Id

Sources

It is necessary for people doing legal research to know the source where the information was taken from. The sources of legal research are divided into two namely; primary sources and secondary sources.

Primary sources are those published by the agency itself or the Official Gazette. Hence, for Republic Acts and other legislative enactments or statutes, the primary sources are the Official Gazette published by the National Printing Office. Laws and resolutions created by the Congress are also considered as primary sources. For Supreme Court decisions, the primary sources are the Philippine Reports and the Official Gazette but the publication of Supreme Court decisions in the Official Gazette is selective,. A complete report of the Supreme Court decisions can be found in the Philippine Reports.

The Secondary Sources are the unofficial sources and generally referred to as those commercially published or those that are not published by government agencies. Some of the Secondary sources of statutes are the Vital Legal Documents published by the Central Book Supply. For the Supreme Court decisions, Supreme Court Reports Annotated (SCRA), a secondary source, published by the Central Book Supply is more updated and popular in the legal community than the Philippine Reports, the primary and official source. Citations in commentaries or books, treatise, writings, journal articles, pleading and even court decisions show SCRAs popular acceptance. The general rule is that in the absence of a primary source, the secondary source may be cited. This is the primary reason for SCRAs popularity. There was no primary source for complete compilation of Supreme Court decisions for more than twenty (20) years. The publication of the Philippine Reports by the National Printing Office ceased in 1960s. It was only in 1982 when the publication of the Philippine Reports was revived by then Chief Justice Enrique M. Fernando who requested then President Ferdinand E. Marcos to take charge of its publication with special appropriation in the Judiciarys

annual budget.

With the advent of the new information technology, electronic sources became sources of legal information because of these following reasons; updated legal information is readily available, the search engines used facilitate research, and there are no no complete and updated manually published search tools for statute and case law. These electronic sources are in the forms of CD ROMS, online or virtual libraries of the issuing government agency or instrumentality and the now growing websites of law offices.

Many websites have now emerged to help people have access to sources that can be used in legal research. In the Philippines, the most popular online source for jurisprudence is the website lawphil.net:

Lawphil is a legal web site project of Arellano Law Foundation. This was created because the foundation realized the essence of making the law accessible and understandable not only to the legal community but to all sectors of society. It features

cases that have been decided upon ranging from the lower courts up to the Supreme Court. The website also shows presidential decrees, executive orders, administrative orders, lawyers' tools and other legal materials needed throughout the course of legal research.

Another website which is considered to be the online firsthand source of jurisprudence and decisions is http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/:

It is an online bank of decisions made by the Supreme Court and lower courts. Links to other online website of courts can also be found here. The site is updated regularly therefore giving the readers the opportunity to be up to date. News and new court issuances are being published everyday for the readers.

Another

online

source

that

is

popular

among

students

is

the

http://www.chanrobles.com/virtualibrary1.htm, which was created by the Chan Robles Law firm.

The Chan Robles virtual library is one of the most complete websites that people can use in case needed. It has encapsulated the different laws of the country which makes it easier for the people to read the laws without buying hard copies. It features circulars and other sources which a person doing legal research may need. This website is not only limited to laws since it directs people to websites which can help them get more legal information.

As mentioned, the company Cd Technologies Asia, Inc. also came up with a website that would cater to needs of people doing legal research. The company started their business by compiling into CDs, the different jurisprudence, dictionaries, encyclopedias and laws that are helpful for people. But since the digital age has been sweeping the country, the company decided to create a website which would make It easier for their consumers to avail of their products:

Their website informs the consumers on how much their products are and they already thought of making it easier by providing an online store wherein people can buy CDs and sources with the use of credit cards.

Jurists is a legal research service which is Web-based. It does not only provide legal research service it also provides the latest in legal news. It makes use of the Internet

technology to track important legal news stories and materials to rapidly, and intelligibly share it to its readers. Over 30 part-time law student reporters, editors, and Web developers manage the said site. Bernard Hibbitts, a law professor at the University of Pittsburg School of Law in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, leads the team in developing Jurists. Its main purpose is to provide public service for the continuing legal education of its readers and law student staffers. The volunteers of the said website do not get anything from working for the site. All they get from working for the site is the unique opportunity to learn about the latest in legal developments to hone their legal online legal research and computer skills. Most of the users of Jurists are lawyers, judges, policymakers, government employees, law professors, law students, librarians, journalists and members of the public from the United States and even around the world. The users usually subscribe to the e-mail digest service and to its live RSS feeds.

Lexis is a provider of information and solutions for professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, government, law enforcement, accounting and academic markes. It serves customers in more than 100 countries with more than 15,000 employees worldwide. It provides access to billions of documents and records from more than 45,000 legal, news and business sources. The site makes sure that there are solutions to the risk involved in researching online such as fraud and misinformation. The site provides documents in legislation and it supports law enforcement.

Legal Citation

The most common citation of sources being used by students today is the APA (American Psychological Association) citation. It offers general formats for citing sources which is considered to be convenient by those people in the academe. Formats for printed and electronic sources are available and the citations for electronic soureces vary

depending on the source being cited. For online lecture notes and presentation slides which can Cress, C. M. (2009). Curricular strategies for student success and engaged learning [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from

http://www.vtcampuscompact.org/2009/TCL_post/ presenter_powerpoints/Christine%20Cress%20%20Curricular%20Strategies.ppt

If an online periodical is going to be used as a source, If there is no DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for an article found in an online periodical, the URL of the article must be indicated.. If the site can only be accessed through a subscription, or if the URL is very long, the URL of the journals homepage can be the only thing that is indicated. Example of which is as follows:

Cooper, A., & Humphreys, K. (2008). The uncertainty is killing me: Self-triage decision making and information availability. EJournal of Applied Psychology, 4(1). Retrieved from

http://ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/ejap/article/view/124/129

However, people in the legal profession have a different form of citation when it comes to information from the internet. The bluebook citation is being used in different countries but it is originally from the United States. It is complied by the Harvard Law Review Association, Columbia Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. It contains proper citations of statutes, laws and cases but the focus of this paper is online legal research, thus examples of citations of legal sources will be emphasized.

It is important to note that when citing online sources, the whole URL where a

person gets information must be cited accordingly and if search is required, instructions on how to get there must be included as well. If two formats are available, such as html and pdf, the latter is favored. When the document is also available in print then the word available can be omitted. An example of this would be:

WASH. STATE SUPREME COURT, TASK FORCE ON EQUAL JUSTICE FUNDING, THE WASHINGTON STATE CIVIL LEGAL NEEDS STUDY (2003), available at

http://www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/content/taskforce/CivilLegalNee ds.pdf

Advantages and Disadvantages

Online Legal Research has proven to be advantageous to people nowadays because of the ease and accessibility of it anywhere. Whether in a caf, school or house; a person has the ability to do legal research when needed. It lifts the burden from people since searching for information just by typing a few words is possible unlike using books which would take a longer time to scan. It also a cheap alternative compared to the various cd and websites with subscriptions. This is probably one of the most common reasons people say when asked why they prefer online legal research. In online research, there is immediate accessibility of the information that you will need even though a person plans to just do research at home. There are already a number of sites that provide access to databases that will provide information about cases and legislation, thus making the researching easy and fast. Though it has proven to have advantages, online legal research can also bring trouble if not done properly. In late 2010, a controversy erupted amongst the members of the court when a lawyer exposed that the decision made by Justice Mariano Del Castillo, one of the justices of the Supreme Court, contained large chunks of information that was not properly credited to the author. This is in turn brought up the problem of plagiarism.

Based on the decision the Supreme Court has come up with, the issue of plagiarism done by Justice Mariano Del Castillo was not really a crime since he did not do it with malicious intent. Because of this decision, the definition of plagiarism in the Philippines has changed and oppositions to it has aroused. Based from research, there is no clear penalty for plagiarism whether online or on printed documents. If plagiarism occurs, the usual punishment for the one who committed is in the form of a public apology, warning, suspension or dismissal from work.4 Due to this common fact, many people are still committing plagiarism because they are aware that the law does would not punish them. In an article entitled Plagiarism and the 'ponente' system, plagiarism among journalists due to the accessibility of articles in the internet is becoming more and more concerning. It does not really bother them when they have been caught since all they have to do is issue a public apology and to make matters worst is that the decision of the Supreme Court has now been used to escape plagiarism complaints against people. One of the main reasons why plagiarism is widespread is because of the convenience of the internet. This in turn makes people lazy and thus they resort to copying of materials found in the internet. The bad thing about this is that sometimes people tend to disregard checking their sources whether they are credible or not and end up using information which is not reliable at all. If done within the chore of doing legal research, the person may later suffer the consequences since it is a wide fact that lawyers do check every little detail of a document. Therefore, getting information from the internet must be done cautiously and carefully to avoid having problems in the future. As mentioned, the credibility of the information from some free websites may not be reliable and this is a great disadvantage when relying only from online searches. Often than not, the more credible websites have to be paid a monthly subscription fee first
Arao, D. (2009). Cyberethics, plagiarism and online journalism. Retrieved from http://risingsun.dannyarao.com/2009/10/15/cyberethics-plagiarism-and-onlinejournalism/
4

before a person can use them. This is true in the case of the United States but since in the Philippines, people do not really appreciate the paid websites when they can get it for free, many law firms and institutions now offer free websites wherein people can search for legal information without limitations. Another disadvantage would be the cost of accessing databases and scholarly journal articles. The price is usually high and some researchers would find it as a waste of money since they would not be using it on a daily basis. Also, there have been observations that researches conducted using the internet can be risky. The reason for it is that most researchers encounter secondary sources that are incorrectly copied from the original source. This may also be due to the reason that most journals published online are not usually based on evidence, it is rather based on opinion. As a result, researching online would imply that the researcher must be more cautious because of the possibility that he or she would gather false information. The risk of copying wrong information is higher if the research materials are gathered online.

SOURCES The Philippine Star. (2004).CD Technologies Asia marks10 years of steady growth. Retrieved from

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=249088&publicationSubCategory Id=66 Panganiban, A. (2010). Plagiarism in the Supreme Court?. Retrieved from http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100807285530/Plagiarism-in-the-Supreme-Court Arao, D. (2009). Cyberethics, plagiarism and online journalism. Retrieved from http://risingsun.dannyarao.com/2009/10/15/cyberethics-plagiarism-and-onlinejournalism/ Wardell, K. (2009). From Caveman to Cavebase: The Evolution of Legal Research through the Technological Stage. Retrieved from

http://epubs.scu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=lib_pubs