LTT
Searching Google Scholar
I’m trying to post fewer links, which means I’ve been posting less frequently in general. I’m working on some articles, but until they’re ready to publish I’ll still share the occasional link.
This one is a great article from the American Bar Association’s Law Technology Today blog about getting the most out of Google Scholar. Legal research platforms are usually very expensive, so Google’s free alternative is a great way to peruse this stuff.
As a law clerk, I have access to LexisNexis for legal research. But I find Google Scholar is a much easier and faster way to begin a research project. Lexis uses some proprietary search syntax, which I learned in law school but despise having to use.
If you have access to Lexis Advance or Westlaw Next, those products bring simpler search syntax to the paid-research world. But if not, use Google Scholar to get a good sense of the landscape and then head to a paid service to make sure the law is still good, and to follow research leads that may not present themselves in Google Scholar.