Long gone are the days when attorneys walk into a dusty room with staggering bookcases to find newest version of a statute or circumstance that will wow the judge. Decades ago, legal work was a time-consuming process that required long days and nights buried in a law library. Using Internet and digitization of books came significant advances and changes in legal resources. Now, the industry that provides these modern tools could be as big, if not bigger, than many largest law firms in the america.
Attorneys in contemporary age have regarding comprehensive indexes of cases and statutes with a simple click of a button. These databases and research hubs are operated by its big companies that staff hundreds or big employees to appear at latest cases which can be published, usually using the state or federal court. The employees then provide summaries of the cases, which highlight the most important themes or rulings. In addition, these digital databases offer numerous resources beyond cases and regulations. They also contain secondary sources such as law review articles that analyze certain topics in the Indian law library or treatises, which are respected summaries of certain areas of law.
One of the best aspects of persuasive legal writing is the citation of cases that are current and still good law. That means there cannot be subsequent cases that overturn or negatively affect the holding reached in the original case. This task used to be accomplished by the time-consuming process of cross-referencing and reading extra cases. However, with these modern digital databases, the work gets done from legal resource business.
These advances in legal research tools have dramatically changed the size and existence of legal libraries all across the country. In the past, every respectable law firm, courthouse, legal aid center, and law school had large stages of their buildings dedicated in storing books. Now, many of these institutions have dramatically cut down across the size of physical legal books and case books. Some may retain a small portion of their previous collection as ornaments rather than practical resources.
One realm offers not been dramatically impacted by these modern innovations may be the research of legislative history, such as looking at the last versions of a law or determining the intent of the government in drafting the law. Much of this information is unavailable digitally or online, likely because for this sheer volume of the work and the relatively low demand by attorneys. For those resources, legal researchers must turn to the old fashion approach of going any state or federal library, requesting the details in advance, and sitting down and reading.