Long gone is the time when attorneys walk into a dusty room with staggering bookcases to find most up-to-date version of a statute or the that will enlighten the judge. Decades ago, legal work was a time-consuming process that required long days and nights buried within a law library. When using the Internet and digitization of books came significant advances and changes in legal resources. Now, this industry that provides these modern tools is often as big, if not bigger, than among the largest law firms in the country.
Attorneys in modern day age have use of comprehensive indexes of cases and statutes with a simple click of a button. These databases and research hubs are operated by a handful of companies that staff hundreds or big employees to what is latest cases which usually published, usually using the state or federal court. The employees then provide summaries of the cases, which highlight the best themes or rulings. In addition, these digital databases offer numerous resources beyond cases and laws. They also contain secondary sources such as law review articles that analyze certain topics in legislation or treatises, are usually respected summaries of certain areas of law.
One of an excellent 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 since 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, do the job gets done by the legal resource firm.
These advances in legal research tools have dramatically changed the size and existence of legal libraries all around the globe. In the past, every respectable India law library firm, courthouse, legal aid center, and law school had large amount of their buildings dedicated in storing books. Now, many of these institutions have dramatically cut down round 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 that has not been dramatically impacted by these modern innovations is the research of legislative history, such as looking at the prior versions of a law or determining the intent of federal government in drafting regulation. Much of this information is unavailable digitally or online, likely because for this sheer volume from the work and the relatively low demand by attorneys. For people resources, legal researchers must turn for the old fashion approach of going with a state or federal library, requesting data in advance, and sitting down and reading.