NOTES ON LEGBIG

 Electronic legal research – technology that allows lawyers and judges to bypass the traditional law
library and locate statutes, court cases, and other legal references in minutes using a personal
computer, research software or a modem.
o A.k.a Computer Assisted Legal Research
 Optical Media – CD ROM, DVD ROM
o Red book format – used in music
o Yellow book format – documents
 The Internet – the infrastructure
o Massive network of computer link together
o World Wide Web (www) – compilation of info
o URLs (uniform resource locators)
 Advantages of ELR
o Access to a large amount of legal information
 Millions of pages of legal information, with thousands added every day
o Portable
 Device or media can be carried around easily
o Space saving
 Device or media can be as small as the palm of one’s hand
o Time saving
 Search engines and customized search templates can produce focused search
results within seconds
o Information in electronic format is flexible and more easily manipulated
o Info is easier to update and be more current
 Files are easily processed and uploaded
o Cost-effective
 Cheaper in the long run; con…… considerably larger volumes
 Factors in choosing Database
o Currentness
 Is the database up-to-date? Is the information up-to-date? When was the site last
updated?
o Accuracy
 What are the sources of the information?
 Are the materials faithful to the originals?
o Reliability/ Credibility
 Who is the publisher?
 What is the publisher’s track record?
o Usability
 Is the information properly arranged? Have a subject inde?
 How powerful is its search engine?
 Does it come up with focused results?
 Can the information be cited as a mandated or persuasive authority
 Is the library a primary or secondary source of legal information?
 Features
o Good to have a subject index
 A list of topics arranged in alphabetical order
 Materials (i.e. legislation, court decisions)
o Nice to have a hyperlink
o Must have a Search Engine
 General or site-specific search engine
 Used together with search templates and indexed or tagged information
 Boolean Method
 Used of words or phrases using logical operations “and”, “or” and “not”
 Operators
 AND bribery AND malversation
 OR bribery OR malversation
 NOT bribery NOR malversation
o Special characters
 * Word extender
 ? Character replacer
 $ Synonym finder
 % Proper word extender
o Sample search parameters
 Sample search parameters with operators and special characters
 Ex. Is the sale of mineral water subject to value added tax?
 Sale$(we want to find synonyms), Water, Value added tax
 Sales$ and water and (value added tax)
o Phrase searching
 Use quotation marks (“ “) to capture
 Ex: “qualified theft”, “consummated felonies”, “national territory”, “breach of
promise”
o Promixity Searching
 Allows user to find terms that appear within range
 Proximity symbols
 ~:death penalty” ~ 5
 Finds documents containing the words “death” and “penalty”
 Google (w/n)
o
o Search parameters
 Sample proximity search for statutory citations
 Ex. Look for all citations of Republic Act No. 6713
o Can be cited as follows:
 Republic Act No. 6713
o Ordered Proximity Search can be done
o Other techniques
 Fuzzy Searching
  Finds search terms even if they are misspelled or do not match a search
term exactly (close matches)
 Concept/ Synonym Searching
 Foreign Online LegaL Resources
o FREE ACCESS SITES
 Non-commercial; access is free
 There are over 500,000 sites on the web with lega information
 Examples of foreign sites
 Cornell Legal Information Institute ([Link]
 World Legal Information Institute ([Link])
o Commercial or Subscription
 LEXISNEXIS
 Has content from over 60,000 sources
 12 million documents added on a weekly basis
 Feature the Shepard’s Citation Services
o Shapardize – if law is still Valid
 Resources on Optical Media
o Government Publications
 Case Law – Supreme Court e-library (distributed to courts)
o Publications of Private Companies
 Accesslaw, Inc.
o CD Asia publication
 Company of Prof. Libunao
 Partner with various government agencies
 Free Access Sites
o Government sites
o Chan Robles – [Link]
o Lawphil – [Link]
 Commercial Sites
o CD Asia Online
 Distinctions
o Search engine
o Content
o Organization
o Other features
o Cross-referencing
o Cited in
 CONCLUSION
o There are many resources available for legal research
 USE YOUR DISCERNMENT
o It’s worthwhile to invest in good legal research resources
FOR FINAL EXAMS, WE’LL GET ACCESS TO CD ASIA

 nWe’ll be given complementary login details

Babelfish? = FINE TRANSLATOR

ASSIGNMENT

meyose@[Link]

Send to Ma’am legal online resource not mentioned in class with URL (Send in PDF Format)

o 3 FOREIGN ONLINE RESOURCE