The Research Center curates legal research guides on a number of general legal research topics, as well as Florida-specific research and legal technology. If you are given a topic to research and you don't know where to start, locate a guide on the topic by searching here.
Keep in mind that you have access to your commercial databases (Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg) while you do for-credit school work. However, your office may want you to use their research materials for tracking purposes (or billing purposes, in a firm). Resources may also vary across different research platforms; for example, Lexis Advance does not index the Florida Bar News, an important source of legal updates for Florida lawyers.
Congratulations, you've just been given your first legal research assignment at work! Now what?
You should ask yourself some preliminary questions before beginning any assignment:
Always do a final check before you submit work to ensure you're citing to good law:
Often, a guide or handbook on procedural rules or practice is necessary for understanding the application of the rules themselves. The "Florida Practice Series" on Westlaw and the Matthew Bender publications on Lexis are good places to start - they will have subject-specific guides on many states legal areas.
Any time you hit a wall in your research or need help getting started, the librarians are available for consultations. You can fill out our Ask-a-Librarian form or email us at studentref@law.fsu.edu.
Although every legal research issue is different, there is a basic checklist of resources you can run through to see if you've covered your bases. The checklist is also a good way to brainstorm where you may not have looked!
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