Why is it so important to validate your legal research?

Question

Why is it so important to validate your research results? Will anybody ever know if you don't?

Answer 1

The reason authority is carefully cited in legal documents is so the authority can be relied upon for the principle stated. Anybody can go look at the source to make sure it is accurate and in context. The next step is to check to see if the principle is still the law.

You validate your reseach by checking your cited the authority (i.e. case, statute, etc.) for subsequent treatment. You don't want your legal position to be based on a case or statute or rule and anything else that changed was by some later action. Sometimes, as you probably know, a legal principle in a case will be overruled and/or changed by a decision by another court.

Someone will very likely know if your authority is no longer valid if you are using for anything even remotely important to anybody else. It take 2 seconds to check case history using Westlaw or similar legal research databases. In can also be done the old fashion way through reference books in a minute or two.

It's every lawyer's dream to crush an opponent because some overturned decision or repealed statute is cited for a critical issue in dispute. Not only do you win the issue (assuming you have the correct authority in your favor), but you get to humiliate the other attorney and destroy his or her credibility for some time to come.

Answer 2

Say we're both lawyers. You represent your client as the prosecution, and I represent my client as the defense. Your client claims that my client has injured him in some way. I go and find some defense to the charges you've filed against me. I write up my brief and submit it very cleanly. Before we go to trial, you notice that my defense was overturned by the state's supreme court just 5 months ago. In trial, you argue that I don't have the right to argue my defense for my client because the court has overturned it. I lose, you win - I should have validated my legal research.

If the research is acadmic, it's important for a similar reason. If I write an academic paper based on outdated law, you can write an academic paper pointing out this fact and I look like an idiot.

Answer 3

In the legal profession, it's a major thing to validate legal research by using proper citations, this is so you wouldn't plagiarize and so that the judges could see that your research of caselaw is accurate and up to date...plagiarizing by an attorney can cause him/her their license in some states. Usually, in the legal field, they use what is called The Blue Book: A Uniform System of Citation to keep their research in check.

In law school, students also use this book and APA format as well.

Answer 4

Can you validate my parking?