Legal Research Checklist

Talk through the question with the assigning partner or senior associate before opening Westlaw. Confirm the deliverable (memo, email summary, brief insert), the page or word ceiling, the deadline, and the budget cap. Vague assignments are the most common reason research time gets written off.

Pin down federal vs. state, circuit, and venue. For diversity matters note the Erie analysis — substantive state law, federal procedure. For multi-state contracts, check the choice-of-law clause before assuming the forum's law applies.

List the facts that actually move the legal analysis — dates, parties, contract terms, conduct. Separate from background facts. The fact pattern shapes which elements you research and which subtests you can skip.

Pull working definitions from Black's Law Dictionary or a treatise before running queries. "Constructive eviction," "reasonable reliance," and "transacting business" all carry jurisdiction-specific meanings that boilerplate searches will miss.

For each state in scope, identify the relevant statute and the leading appellate decision. Note where states split — majority rule, minority rule, Restatement position. Flag jurisdictions with no on-point authority for the partner.

Check for choice-of-law clauses, Restatement (Second) Conflict of Laws factors, and any forum's most-significant-relationship test. Don't assume the forum applies its own law just because the case was filed there.

Wright & Miller for federal practice, Moore's Federal Practice, Witkin in California, Couch on Insurance, Corbin on Contracts — pick the right treatise for the issue and read the chapter overview before searching cases. Faster than building the doctrinal map from primary sources.

American Law Reports collects cases nationwide on a narrow issue with majority/minority breakdown. Excellent shortcut for surveying how courts have come out on a specific factual variation.

Restatement (Second) of Contracts, Restatement (Third) of Torts, Restatement (Third) of Agency — find the relevant section, read the comments and illustrations. Note which jurisdictions have adopted, modified, or rejected the section.

Get the current statute text from the official code (USC, state code) — not a casebook reprint. Check the historical notes for recent amendments and the regulatory cross-references for implementing rules. Statutes change; cases citing the old version may be superseded.

Build queries with terms-and-connectors, not natural language, when precision matters. Use jurisdictional filters and the relevant headnote topics. Fastcase and Casetext (Cocounsel) are alternatives if the firm doesn't carry Westlaw.

Read the full opinion of every case you intend to cite — not the headnote, not the AI summary. Note the procedural posture, the holding, the dicta, and any concurrence or dissent that signals where the doctrine is moving.

Run KeyCite or Shepard's on the leading case and review citing decisions filtered by jurisdiction and treatment. The most-cited follow-up cases often refine the rule in ways the original opinion didn't anticipate.

Run every case, statute, and regulation through the citator. Red flags = overruled, reversed, or superseded — do not cite without addressing the negative treatment. Yellow flags = distinguished or limited; review and decide whether the case still supports the proposition.

For each red or yellow flag: read the negative-treatment opinion, decide whether your proposition still holds, and document the analysis. If a leading case has been narrowed, find a replacement or address the limitation in the memo.

Check the legislative session for pending amendments and the effective date of any recent change. Westlaw and Lexis sometimes lag a few days behind state legislatures — for high-stakes work, verify against the official legislative website.

Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion — or CRAC if leading with the conclusion is the firm's house style. Lead with the answer; the partner reads the bottom line first. Bluebook citations throughout (or ALWD if firm-standard).

Pull every cited case, statute, and quotation. Confirm the pin cite, the quoted text, and the parenthetical accuracy. Sloppy cites are the fastest way to lose credibility with the assigning partner.

Save the final memo to the matter folder in NetDocuments / iManage / Clio with the matter number and a clear file name. Log time in the PMS against the research budget. Note any open questions the partner may need to address with the client.