LEGAL RESEARCH FOR LAWYERS SOURCES TOOLS AND … · LEGAL RESEARCH FOR LAWYERS: SOURCES, TOOLS AND STRATEGIES TO ACCESS ELECTRONIC RESOURCES Ginevra Peruginelli Rapporto tecnico n

ISTITUTO DI TEORIA E TECNICHE DELL'INFORMAZIONE GIURIDICA DEL CNR

LEGAL RESEARCH FOR LAWYERS: SOURCES, TOOLS AND STRATEGIES TO ACCESS ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

Ginevra Peruginelli

Rapporto tecnico n. 20/2004

Keywords: legal education, legal information retrieval

Firenze, 2004

INDEX

LEARNING PROGRAMME p. 3

Course Syllabus p. 3

Course Content p. 7

LESSON PLAN p. 15

CONTEXTUAL ESSAY p. 18

Introduction p. 18

1. Skills, abilities and personal characteristics of learners p. 18

1.1. Personal characteristics p. 191.2. Attitudes to legal research p. 191.3. Type of learners p. 20

2. Reasons for attending the course p. 20

3. Changes that have been in society that results in the learning

program p. 21

4. Reflecting on the role of the information professional in learner

support p. 21

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COURSE SYLLABUS

Course title:

Legal research for lawyers: sources, tools and strategies to access electronic resources

Course description:

The Legal Research Course for lawyers is a lecture/laboratory course. It provides a practical vision to key legal skills which are required for legal work. It permits lawyers to become acquainted with basic and advanced legal research, (core legal skills in using modern hand-held technology, common computer applications and use of the web), helping them in the research problems within the concrete experience of legal questions.Electronic information resources will be showed for the purpose of developing better and more efficient search techniques and to assist participants in determining whether to use on-line resources for their research.

Number of students:

The course is limited to 12 participants

Organisation of the course:

The course is divided into 3 modules, each one comprising different sections plus a final evaluation.

MODULE A: LEGAL RESEARCH FUNDAMENTALS

Sections:1. Legal research for lawyers2. Developing a legal research strategy

MODULE B: LEGAL RESEARCH IN PRACTICE: LEGACY (WELL-ESTABLISHED) DATABASES Sections:

1. Finding Italian legislation2. Finding Italian case law3. Finding Italian legal literature 4. Overview of European and foreign legal databases. English legal

terminology5. Some example of European databases6. Some example of foreign legal databases: Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw

MODULE C: LEGAL RESEARCH ON THE WEB Section:

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1. Additional electronic legal resources (Web sites, guides, specialised search engines). Evaluation of resources’ quality

FINAL EVALUTATION

1. Simulation of legal research

Course duration

The course starts on 10th January and ends 13th March.

Dates

Every Saturday

Time

9:00 a.m. to 13:00 a.m.

Teaching Staff

Avv. Ginevra Peruginelli - Lawyer and information professional in legal research at the Institute of Legal Information Theory and Technology of National Research Council (ITTIG-CNR)

Prof. Giancarlo Taddei Elmi - Professor of legal informatics. University of Florence, Faculty of Law

Course Learning outcomes:

At the end of this course lawyers should be able to:

Knowledge outcomes:

develop a realistic awareness of what the legal research is like in practice develop an expertise in the practical application of legal knowledge demonstrate the ability to comprehend the use of appropriate research

methods gather information from a variety of resources and apply them to the

problem to be solved state the relationship between different information legal sources familiarise with methods of searching for legal information

Skills outcomes:

explore legal research tools, legal research techniques, and legal research systems on the Internet

apply appropriate research methodologies to a specific research problem

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http://www.cnr.it/istituti/DatiGenerali_eng.html?cds=104

retrieve accurate and relevant legal primary and secondary sources in digital formats

use Italian and international legal sources in a professional manner design a legal research strategy focus on legal facts not irrelevancies

Learning and teaching strategy and methods:

The basic techniques and methods of legal research will be presented and illustrated by means of a series of lectures complemented by Web demonstrations, power point presentations, group activities, self diagnostic exercises, practical research work which give lawyers the opportunity to develop the required skills in a supported environment. Independent study, supported by suitable materials, is recommended in order to memorise, consolidate and reflect on course content and further develop the relevant skills.

Course material:

Course materials will be made available to all students personally in the classroom and/or via the Web.

Taddei Elmi, Giancarlo. Corso di Informatica Giuridica. Napoli, Ed. Giuridiche Simone, 2003.

Peruginelli, Ginevra. Informatica giuridica informativa : handouts. Provided in separate parts at the end of each session or downloaded from the E-prints Archive, University of Florence at the web page http://e-prints.unifi.it/archive/00000468/

Additional readings recommended by the teaching staff.

Entrance Requirements:

For evaluating your interests and attitudes in legal research an interview will take place the 20th of December 2003.

The candidates are expected to be lawyers to Bar. The students are expected to have adequate experience in using ICT tools The students are be expected to have a good knowledge of English

Language of instruction:

Italian

Place:

The course will take place at ITTIG, Via Panciatichi 56/16, 50127 Florence, Consultation Room. The site is equipped with 12 individual computer stations.

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http://e-prints.unifi.it/archive/00000468/

http://e-prints.unifi.it/archive/00000468/

Each computer is installed with all office programmes (Word, Power points, Excel, Access etc…), Internet Explorer and Acrobat Reader.

Enquires:

For further information on organisational matters please contact Simona Binazzi: Tel: 055.4399627 e-mail: [email protected].

Additional seminars on request:

Course participants are given the possibility to attend seminars dealing with on line legal research on specific fields of law of their choice (subject to approval by the course director Prof. Taddei Elmi). Minimum number of attendees: 4. The seminars are supported by a series of practical skills sessions leaded by relevant law firms in Tuscany.

Grading policy

Certificates of attendance are available to lawyers who complete the course.

Fees

The cost of the course is 700 Euro.

Recommendation to participants

Participants are responsible for frequently checking the Web links in ITTIG home page, looking for announcements and other related information. The present programme will be monitored, evaluated, and revised to ensure that it is relevant and reflective of current technologies and learning theories. Class attendance is mandatory. If a participant misses a session, he/she is required to send an e-mail message to Simona Binazzi: [email protected] are expected to bring their textbook, handouts, and disks with them to every class. It is suggested that during the week lawyers read the provided material, in order to be able to ask and answer questions on previously tackled topics. This course emphasises programming! It is fundamental that course participants do not fall behind in this course as it is an intensive course.Significant office hours will be available when the teacher can meet participants, either as posted or by advance appointment request.

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mailto:[email protected]

COURSE CONTENT

10 January 2004


SECTION 1 : LEGAL RESEARCH FOR LAWYERS

Session: 1Timetable 9:00-9:30Title of topic Welcome and course content presentation.

Overview of the sections Activities Introductory lectureLearning outcomes Assess the relevance of legal research for

lawyers professionTools SlidesMaterials given to students

Copies of learning program

Session: 2Timetable 9:30-10:30Title of topic Participants self introduction and

assessment of course expectationsActivities

Learning outcomes Interact with other participantsReflect on personal requirements and analyse professional needs

ToolsMaterials given to students

Brief questionnaire on expectations of participants

Session: 3 Timetable 10:30-12:00Title of topic Basics of information retrieval Activities LectureLearning outcomes Identify and interpret IR key issues and

evaluate its relevance for knowledge acquisition

Tools SlidesMaterials given to students

Handouts

Session: 4Timetable 12:00-13:00Title of topic Basics of legal information retrieval

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ActivitiesLearning outcomes Distinguish relevant features of legal

information retrievalIdentify legal information retrieval usefulness for the legal profession

Tools SlidesMaterials given to students

Handouts

17 January


SECTION 2: DEVELOPING A LEGAL RESEARCH STRATEGY:

Session: 1Timetable 9:00-10:30Title of topic Planning a legal researchActivities LectureLearning outcomes Analyse specific questions or problems and

decide on sources and keywordsDesign a legal research strategy based on specific legal affairs

Tools Slides plus blackboardMaterials given to students

Handouts

Session: 2Timetable 10:30-12:00Title of topic Indexing languages for law

Activities Lecture plus DemonstrationLearning outcomes Recognise and classify different legal

indexing systems Discuss main features of diverse legal indexing systems

Tools Slides /BlackboardMaterials given to students

Chap. 5 of: Corso di Informatica giuridica

Session: 3Timetable 12:00-12:45Title of topic Searching techniquesActivities Lecture and demonstration of searches in

DoGi Database and NIR

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Learning outcomes Focus research and formulate searches appropriately

Tools Slides plus Access to legal information sources

Materials given to students

Session: 4 FeedbackTimetable 12:45- 13:00Title of topic Plan a strategy of searching (to be

conducted at home) Task: find the most efficient strategy (Keywords, type of combinations of terms, consequentiality, etc.)

Activities Delivery of three legal problems1 from which to choose

Learning outcomes Choose the appropriate strategy for a specific problem

Tools Word Processor S/W Materials given to students

24 January

MODULE B: LEGAL RESEARCH IN PRACTICE: LEGACY (WELL-ESTABLISHED) DATABASES

SECTION 1: FINDING ITALIAN LEGISLATION

Session: 1Timetable 9:00- 10:00Title of topic Evaluation of assigned casesActivities Discussion and counselling Learning outcomes Verify, justify and possibly re-evaluate

own’s searching strategy Tools BlackboardMaterials given to students

Session 2: Timetable 10:00-13:00Title of topic Searches on statutes databases:

Norme in Rete – NIR: Institutional legislative source (free of charge)Infoleges: Institutional legislative source

1 To be delivered by e.mail to teacher by 22th January

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(partially on subscription)Centro Elaborazione Dati della Corte di Cassazione (Data Processing Center of the Supreme Court): Institutional legislative source (on subscription)LREG (ANCITEL): Institutional regional legislative source (free of charge)

Activities Demonstration and group exercises Learning outcomes Assess the usefulness and peculiarity of

the various systems in identifying and retrieving legislative material Compare the systems with traditional paper toolsEmploy searching strategy previously learnt to retrieve statutes.Develop an expertise in navigating through legislative references

Tools Web accessMaterials given to student

Short guides to legislative databases

31 January


SECTION 2: FINDING ITALIAN CASE LAW

Session: 1Timetable 9:00-13:00Title of topic Searches on case law databases:

Corte costituzionale database (Constitutional Court) Corte dei Conti database (Court of Auditors) Centro Elaborazione Dati della Corte di Cassazione (Data Processing Center of the Supreme Court)

Activities Demonstration and group exercisesLearning outcomes Develop a critical awareness of practice

and strategy for searching Assess the usefulness and peculiarity of the various systems in identifying and retrieving case law sentences Compare the systems with traditional paper toolsEmploy searching strategy previously learnt to retrieve case law.

Tools Web access

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Materials given to student

7 February


SECTION 3: FINDING ITALIAN LEGAL LITERATURE

Session: 1Timetable 9:00-11:00Title of topic Searches on legal literature databases:

DoGi-Legal Literature Database: Content and functionalityLibrary catalogue of University of Florence

Activities Lecture plus DemonstrationLearning outcomes Familiarise with methods of searching for

legal literature (author, bibliographic references..)Relate DoGi classification notations to search questionsApply bibliographic searching techniques, extrapolating concepts into subject headings


Handouts

Session: 2 Feedback Timetable 11:00- 13:00Title of topic Test on practical legal cases: retrieval of

Italian legal resources and interactive evaluation of assignment tasks

Activities Delivery of legal cases’ examples. Monitoring and analysis of results with the class

Learning outcomes Demonstrate the ability to apply appropriate research methodologies to a specific research problemChoose appropriate sources for solving the problemsEvaluate, revise, discuss own’s search strategy

Tools Word Processor S/W, Web accessMaterials given to students

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14 February


SECTION 4: OVERVIEW OF EUROPEAN AND FOREIGN LEGAL DATABASES. ENGLISH LEGAL TERMINOLOGY

Session: 1Timetable 9:00-10:00Title of topic Overview of European and foreign legal

databasesActivities Lecture and short demonstration Learning outcomes Describe and relate content and features of

foreign legal databases Tools Web accessMaterials given to students

Session: 2 (Details in the lesson plan)Timetable 10:00-13:00Title of topic Basics of English legal terminology Activities Lecture plus ExercisesLearning outcomes Identify and use English law terms

Employ techniques to enrich own’s English legal vocabulary

Tools Slides Materials given to students

Copy of slides

21 February


SECTION 5: SOME EXAMPLES OF EUROPEAN DATABASES

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Session: 1Timetable 9:00-12:00Title of topic Searches on European legal databases:

EUR- LEX: Institutional European legislative source CELEX: Institutional European legislative sourcesCourt of Justice and The Court of first Instance: Institutional European case law sourcesInternational Court of Justice Database: Institutional European case law source

Activities Demonstration and group exercisesLearning outcomes Assess the peculiarity and usefulness of

the various systems in identifying and retrieving European material Develop a critical awareness of practice and strategy for searching European legal acts and case law sentencesEmploy searching strategy previously learnt to retrieve European resources

Instruments Web accessMaterials given to student

Short guides of single legislative databases in Italian

Session: 2 FeedbackTimetable 12:00- 13:00Title of topic Test on practical legal cases: retrieval of

European legal resources and evaluation of assignment tasks




28 February

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SECTION 6: SOME EXAMPLES OF FOREIGN LEGAL DATABASES: LEXIS NEXIS, WEST LAW

Session: 1Timetable 9:00-12:00Title of topic Searches on foreign legal databases:

LEXIS-NEXISWEST-LAW

Activities Lecture and short demonstrationLearning outcomes Evaluate the functionality and services of

the systems and compare them with the other databases


Session: 2 FeedbackTimetable 12:00- 13:00Title of topic Test on practical legal cases: retrieval of

foreign legal resources and evaluation of assignments tasks




6 March

MODULE C: LEGAL RESEARCH ON THE WEB

SECTION 1: ADDITIONAL ELECTRONIC LEGAL RESOURSES (WEB SITES, GUIDES, SPECIALISED SEARCH ENGINES). EVALUTATION OF RESOURCES’ QUALITY

Session: 1Timetable 9:00-11:00Title of topic Overview of legal resources on the Web:

categorisation and issues

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Activities Lecture and demonstrationLearning outcomes Identify, distinguish and relate diverse

semi-structured and not structured Web resources

Tools Slides plus Web accessMaterials given to student

Guides to legal sources on the net (Diritto Italia; Legal Doctrine Guide by ITTIG)

Session: 2Timetable 11:00-13:00Title of topic Criteria for the evaluation of information

sources’ qualityActivities Lecture plus demonstration Learning outcomes Evaluate, criticise and select Web

resources Tools Slides plus web accessMaterials given to student

List of criteria for resources’ quality assessment

13 March

FINAL EVALUATION: SIMULATION OF LEGAL RESEARCH

Session: 1Timetable 9:00-9:30Title of topic Résumé of course topics Activities LectureLearning outcomes Extract major concepts and issues of legal

research Reflect on requirements of learning legal research

Tools Slides Materials given to student

ASSIGNMENT

Timetable 9:30-12:00Title of topic Test on practical legal cases: retrieval of

appropriate resources and evaluation of assignment tasks


Learning outcomes Demonstrate the ability to apply appropriate research methodologies to a specific research problem

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Choose appropriate sources for solving the problems

Tools Word Processor S/W, Web accessMaterials given to student

Timetable 12:00-13:00Title of topic Evaluation of the course Activities Distribution of a brief questionnaire2 Learning outcomes Reflect on requirements of learning legal

research and assess the usefulness of the course

ToolsMaterials given to student

Questionnaire

CONCLUSIONS AND GREETINGS!!

2 Feedback will serve as a self-assessment tool for participants and for course staff to plan next courses

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LESSON PLAN

ENGLISH LEGAL TERMINOLOGY

Particular attention is dedicated to English terminology because more and more

lawyers use English to communicate with other lawyers and with their clients.

In addition to basic language skills, lawyers need to know law specific

vocabulary and terminology in order to communicate clearly, accurately and

unambiguously in their work, but above all to search in foreign databases.

Legal English is quite different from ordinary English. While legal dictionaries do

offer assistance, their arrangement follows the classic alphabetical ordering

and consequently treats words in isolation. However, legal terms cannot be

treated in isolation; English legal terminology reflects English law and is

intrinsically linked to legal concepts in the common law system.

The key language skills that lawyers must learn regard legal vocabulary in

order to improve the ability to:

Expand their legal English vocabulary

Achieve the accuracy a lawyer needs when operating internationally

Interpret legal documents in English

Rapidly and thoroughly understand what they hear and read

MODULE B, SECTION 4

SESSION 2: BASICS OF ENGLISH LEGAL TERMINOLOGY

Time: 10:00-10:30 Title of topic: English language in the legal context

Outline:Nature of English legal language used in the different legal contexts

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At national level: the English legal system; other legal systems belonging to the common-law family; legal systems operating in the English language (no common-law systems)

At international level (language of public international law) At the European Union level English chosen in other legal contexts because of its status as an

international language of communication (for example in international commercial contracts between parties of various nationalities)

Activity: Lecture

Learning outcomes: At the end of the lesson participants will be able to:

Clarify legal English use in different legal and geographical contexts

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Coffee break: 10:30-10:45

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Time: 10:45-12:00

Title of topic: English words and legal meanings Outline:

Similarities and discrepancies between general English vocabulary and legal English

Activity: Exercises

Exercise 1: Words’ legal meaning assessment Participants are given a list of English words Tasks:.

Identify words having a legal meaning Compare ideas with an other colleague (in pairs) and check

together the definition using an on line dictionary available at http://www.m-w.com/ (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

Assess the meaning of selected words and establish possible differences from general English meanings

Exercise 2: Finding out appropriate English terms and possible equivalence in ItalianParticipants are given a list of English definitions Tasks:

Give the correct English and Italian terms for each definition, choosing alternatives terms from a list

Example:the person who takes ENGLISH LAW TERM ITALIAN EQUIVALENT

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legal action against another in civil proceedings

Alternatives: Defendant/plaintiff/interlocutory/judicial precedent/party/damages

Learning outcomes:At the end of the lesson participants will be able to:

Recognise a set of legal terms and explain differences or similarities with general English meanings

Identify and select appropriate legal terms Interpret meanings and use appropriate terminology

Time: 12:00-13:00

Title of topic: Guidelines for building your personal legal vocabulary

Outline: Definition of the elements of a vocabulary card (examples of the term in use in specific contexts, related words)

Activity: Lecture on single steps for developing a “vocabulary card”. Demonstration of practical examples

Learning outcomes: At the end of the lesson participants will be able to:

Construct and manage a set of well established terms for use in the profession

Apply practical techniques and methodologies to construct a personal vocabulary

Extract meaningful terms and prioritise vocabulary according to own’s legal subject field

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CONTEXTUAL ESSAY

INTRODUCTION

The preparation of a course on legal research for lawyers has its validity in the increasing need of this professional category to acquire the appropriate skills to rapidly and consistently retrieve quality current legal information. Research findings and personal experience confirm that law is an information-intensive discipline and practice where accuracy and currency of information sources to support lawyers are vital (Tunkel, 1997; Leckie, Pettigrew and Sylvain, 1996; Oppenheim, 2001). It is true that research skills are continuously improved by experiences but there has to be some foundation to start. The need for legal research learning however is not always clearly perceived by this professional category. Teaching of legal research in Italy is far from optimal. Although legal research is a subject included in a number of Italian universities law courses, at present it is not mandatory, and so far it has been confined within the broader field of Philosophy of law.

Some training in legal research is offered by Italian academic libraries: these courses, although offered to all law students, do not receive much attention and are mostly seen as instrumental for thesis preparation. The academic sector seems not to favour the inclusion of this subject along with the ordinary fields of law, considering it not as a discrete subject in itself, but an application of information sciences to the object of law (Taddei Elmi, 2003.).

A somehow different approach is followed by special advanced schools (Scuole di specializzazione), recently established within some Italian law faculties, providing courses to young graduates wishing to prepare exams for admission to Bar, where these courses can partially replace the prescribed 2-year practice in a law firm. This initiative demonstrates a certain consideration for legal research in the law profession, however the time reserved to it is very limited.

The low consideration that legal research teaching has received in Italy so far and the consequent lack of adequate information skills of the majority of lawyers, as compared to their actual (yet to be stimulated) needs, are the reason for proposing an ad-hoc course for this professional category. The planned course, to be held with the support of the Institute of Theory and Techniques of Legal Information of Research National Council, has, as its main objective, the provision of a context for lawyers to better understand the purpose and use of legal research oriented to electronic resources in the functioning of a law office. It emphasises the role of lawyers as “information workers”, this ability being an essential prerequisite to their work, a sine qua non condition for law interpretation. To this purpose, as resulting from the learning programme, the course intends to make lawyers aware of the current available tools, with special attention to electronic resources, of content and bibliographic legal databases and related

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services, providing them with skills in using them effectively and applying research strategy techniques on the basis of their legal problems; after all allowing them to make the most of legal information sources in a quick and effective way.

1. SKILLS, ABILITIES AND PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNERS

The characteristics of lawyers as learners in legal research have been studied and considered as carefully as possible in planning this course. Indications on their attitudes have been found by collecting and analysing related literature and by organising informal focus group interviews to a number of lawyers. I relied also on my own reflections based on the personal experience I have done in two legal firms after my graduation in law until I was admitted to Bar. As regards the literature review, no relevant Italian documents have been found on legal research for lawyers and literature mainly in English has been used, which reports attitudes and behaviours which are shared by Italian professionals.

A traditional definition of lawyer as found in dictionaries refers to a professional authorised to practice law, conduct lawsuits and give legal advice. Therefore lawyers are operational professionals, having an active role in the application of law. Their main tasks can be summarised as collecting, evaluating and analysing information, applying abstract principles to practical problems, developing, presenting and writing logical persuasive arguments, definitely problem solving. Clearly these tasks require a thorough knowledge of law. The time and effort devoted to tasks involving legal research, according to Leckie, Pettigrew and Sylvain (1996), is likely to vary according to the area of practice where lawyers are engaged, but legal research is a prerequisite and the researcher role of lawyers is an integral part of their role of service providers (Martin, 1998). 1.1. Personal characteristics

Lawyers’ peculiarity is to work and perform under pressure. They tend to work independently while they are used to face a wide variety of people; their general attitude is to be rigorous and proud, scarcely open to changes. Despite their main involvement in ever new diverse questions reflecting changes in society, they are paradoxically one of the most traditional professional category.

1.2. Attitudes to legal research

Lawyer’s research activity comes twice into play: when the research itself is performed and when lawyers will use their results to begin the legal reasoning process, for example for forming an argument for their client. In doing so they will inevitably need to revisit their research tasks. This approach can be very time consuming and wasteful and ability to apply appropriate research methodologies to specific research problems is crucial, whether carried out manually or through the use of electronic databases. (Curran and Higgins, 2000).

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Between the complex and routine tasks lawyers are involved in, the first require a constructive process of interpreting, learning, creating, and involve developing one’s own theory of a case and constructing a way to present the information as an interesting and persuasive argument. To accomplish these tasks a vast category of lawyers prefer printed texts over computer databases (Kuhlthau and Tama, 2001). They want to see the hard copy, as the electronic sources are for them often not enough user friendly, unable to offer options for examining a wide range of information at one time. This makes lawyers loose track of their train of thought and become frustrated. The result is a lack of confidence in electronic systems to access the range of information needed for constructing cases in preparation for trial. They maintain an old fashioned approach in the organisation of their work, but inevitably they have to be aware that legal research nowadays is a mixture of electronic and printed sources. An additional remark is that a number of lawyers assert that no information sources can substitute day-to-day practice, that the law office pressure is too high and time must be used for billable tasks, and that they are generally comfortable with resources they use frequently and lack time to learn new systems.As regards formal and informal sources, Wilkinson (2001) reports that interviewed lawyers are often reluctant to rely on legal research based on formal sources as a general method for problem solving. Informal sources such as colleagues, partners, external committees, clients and their families and friends, and other professionals are relevant in satisfying their information needs in problem solving.

1.3. Type of learners

Lawyers are not a kind of professionals familiar with continuing education and above all do not consider themselves as needing to learn by attending courses. This is due to their specific background, where self-direction, self confidence and counselling are their peculiarities. They are definitely specific learners who do not want to be considered as such. Their perceived motivation is likely to be not to learn, but to improve their job and the planned course on teaching legal research tries to emphasise this aspect in making them approach research strategies and methodologies based on their own legal problems.

They are adult learners: autonomous and self-directed. Being goal-oriented, they tend to appreciate a course that is well structured and has clearly defined topics with specific learning outcomes in order to make them assess if the effort in attending the course is worthwhile. The designed learning programme where detailed topics and learning outcomes are recorded in each section is a response to such requirement on the basis of these learners’ characteristics (Lieb, 1991).

Another requirement, typical of adult professionals and as such of busy lawyers, is that they are relevancy-oriented and must see a reason for learning

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something, which must be applicable to their work. Showing them specific rich legal content databases, after an explanation of how to plan a search strategy, is likely to capture their interest and make them appreciate the comprehensiveness and rapidity these tools can provide in accessing relevant information.After all, lawyers can be identified as pragmatist and activist learners, focusing on aspects of a lesson most useful to their specific work, non being interested in knowledge for its own sake. On the other hand they also share some of the theorist learners’ characteristics as they are likely to be willing to verify on a logical basis if the proposed research methodologies adequately match their requirements.

2. REASONS FOR ATTENDING THE COURSE With the ever increasing complexity of the law and its sources, what is needed is to be qualified and versatile lawyers. As stated above, for their work to be successful, they need relevant, precise, timely and current information, they must be informed on available products, be trained how to use new resources and how to evaluate their quality.Some lawyers acknowledge that they were often overcome by colleagues who had access to more recent information in the process of litigation. Moreover the lack of availability of adequate and current legal information at the immediate disposal of lawyers could lead to endless adjournment and prolonged litigation. As no single mechanism exists for enabling access to legal information, a complimentary range of sources and solutions must be provided and the course tries to respond to these requirements.

In particular these are the reasons for a learning programme on legal research for lawyers:

There are no opportunities in Italy for practical lawyers to have legal research education. Legal research needs to be optimised for effective performance of lawyers’ tasks. In fact most lawyers research by unsystematic hit and miss methods3. Even when information sources are available in a law firm, they are useless if lawyers do not have the expertise to unreveal the intricacies that ever so often occur in a search for legal information.Assessing the quality of web resources is paramount. Methods are needed for their evaluation and for coping with the ever increasing number of legal material available on the net.The presence of a librarian or information professional in law firms is extremely rare in Italy and this results quite often in a time consuming searching activity by lawyers themselves on legal and judicial traditional directories, due to a

3 A fundamental problem derives from the combination of free-text and boolean processing as a means of retrieval. Expressing an information need satisfactorily in Boolean terms has proved difficult for lawyers, meaning that assembling and applying effective search requests remains a specialist job. It is important also to note that lawyers do not formulate their information needs in terms of 'keywords' but shall instead use abstract concepts such as legal issues involved in a case.

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scarce awareness of up to date tools and databases available, and to an inevitable lack of expertise in using information sources effectively. When used, legal databases are often only partially exploited; they are not thoroughly studied so that the richness and complexity of facilities offered are missed: this is observed by Dijkstra (2001) and perfectly fits in the Italian situation. Studying the single content databases is a key factor taken into account in the learning programme. Interpretation of law and its organisation is always open for discussion. Owing to the multiplicity of classification and subject indexing systems, it is necessary, rather than knowing the specificity of each system (that is impossible), to acquire the ability to fit the specific case into the different indexing languages.Due to the globalisation and increasing legal relationships world-wide, English terminology knowledge, as tackled in Section 4 of LP, is crucial both to communicate with foreign lawyers and clients and to use the appropriate terms for searching foreign legal databases.

3. CHANGES THAT HAVE BEEN IN SOCIETY THAT RESULTS IN THE LEARNING PROGRAME

The major factor underlying the planning of this course is the widespread availability of a multiplicity of legal content databases produced, distributed and retrieved through the use of new technologies, allowing lawyers to access a wealth of relevant information. This implies the need for skills not only to effectively use these resources, but also to select them for specific legal problem solving.

Further changes are represented by the fact that in the past few years, many full-text resources have been put up on the Web that greatly enhance legal research. The quality of these resources has now greatly improved and the original diffidence by lawyers is now on the way to be replaced by some appreciation of their content, which nevertheless has to be carefully evaluated according to specific criteria and this requirement is reflected in the course.

There is a trend towards an increase in specialisation because the volume and complexity of law multiplies, and statutes, regulations and related judicial reports are created at local, national, and international level. This also results in increased competition from greater globalisation and law firms have to face the legal market equipped with high standard professional work, where knowledge and skills for designing and conducting professional research are an essential prerequisite.

4. REFLECTING ON THE ROLE OF THE INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL IN LEARNER SUPPORT

Teaching legal research is not a linear process and the information professional has a specific role in meeting lawyers’ expectations according to their learning style and point-of-need. This can be accomplished through a balance of skills in

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information handling, knowledge of law, awareness of lawyers’ needs and their working environment.

This is not certainly an easy task. Although referring to the particular context of law firms, Eaton (2001) reminds that teaching legal research has been compared to herding cats: here reference is made to definitely a very specific, independent, diverse target audience, represented by lawyers.

One main pre-requisites for the success of the course is to fully understand lawyers’ mentality and their way of reasoning during the whole process of problem solving.It is up to the information professional as teacher, to re-create the working environment centred on legal problem solving and to try to actively involve learners in the learning process, serving as facilitator for guiding them to their own knowledge rather than supplying them with facts. Particular attention should be devoted to periodically recheck lawyers’ profiles since their interest may change over time.Feedbacks on what has been learned are essential and are to be placed at strategic steps, focusing on real cases. Their evaluation is to be done together with learners and teacher in a critical and constructive way; the purpose of this shared evaluation is to discuss and explore the different research strategies, the choice of sources and the search terminology. The overall aim is to assist lawyers in developing a powerful reading, learning and working culture, contributing to the advancements of the ideals of development and administration of justice.

REFERENCES

BAST, Carol M. and PYLE, Ransford C. Legal Research in the Computer Age: a

Paradigm Shift?

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