Title 700, 333 – 11th Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta T2R 1L9 Legal Research Synopsis Template The Legal Research assignment is aimed to help students practice and develop the skills necessary for legal research. This is not a legal memo and point form can be an acceptable way to show your work. Students are expected to use their discretion for how to best present their thinking within each part of this Template and to ensure the content is fulsome enough to effectively convey the required information and clear ideas. It is recognized that in your own future legal practice you may be able to pick and choose what steps to take when researching and you may choose to skip some of the steps outlined in this Template; however, for the purposes of the LRW course, you are to complete the whole Template. The goal here is to help you walk through the key steps for effective legal research so you can eventually build your own methods. It is important to be able to refer back to your research as articling students are often asked about their steps and to go back to do further research. A good research documentation process will assist you in saving time when going back and building supervising lawyers’ confidence in the research. There are three key elements to complete: · Part 1: Research Synopsis / notes · Part 2: Case Briefs · Part 3: Research Outline You will likely go back and forth between these Parts as you work through your research. This list is not in the order of how each Part is to be completed. Part 1: Legal Research Synopsis This Part serves as a summary that you can use when reporting to a supervising lawyer or use as a tool when taking the next step, such as a reporting meeting with a client, drafting a research memo, an advocacy letter, an opinion letter, or a legal argument. You will likely go back and forth from this Part to Part 2: Case Briefs. For example, some students first do the research objectives, facts and issues in the Synopsis and then start their research. Once the research is done and their case briefs are complete, they return to the Synopsis. PART 1: LEGAL RESEARCH SYNOPSIS The template for the Legal Research Synopsis follows – you can save this document and use it as your template, filling in each section as applicable to your LRW Assignment: LEGAL RESARCH SYNOPSIS Research Objective: (what is the goal of the research) Facts: (what are the relevant facts of the matter) Issues: (what legal issues are involved in the matter) Non-Legal Issues: (non-legal issues focus on external influences on the matter, such as circumstances of the client or client goals. Consider what the file content so far adds contextually to the matter that does not speak to a legal issue) Research: (Briefly summarize the key research outcomes you identified and why it may help the client’s position or why it is important to know about). Application to the Facts: (Explain how the research applies to the client’s situation. If applicable, outline the legal tests and note how and whether these tests are met based on the client’s situation). Tentative Conclusion: (In a few lines or bullets, what legal conclusions can be drawn for the client based on the law you have identified through your research, and its application to the facts.) Options/Next Steps: (What are your suggestions to the supervising lawyer of what should be done next on the file or by the client, flesh those out and consider the practicalities of each along with the positives and negatives of each option. Consider any non-legal issues here. Is there a direction you believe the client should take? Can you indicate if the client’s expectations/goals are realistic or unrealistic?). Part 2: CASE BRIEFS In a legal practice, each case you rely on should be briefed as that helps you and the supervising lawyer decide how relevant each case is, and acts as a quick reference where further research may be needed. For the LRW course purposes, please brief at least 3 cases. A case brief is a summary of the case, with a focus on those aspects that relate to your client’s fact scenario or legal issue and should not be a copy of the case note. Below is a template for one case brief. Please reproduce the template for each case you are using (minimum of three cases are to be briefed). Case Brief Template Name & Citation: Facts: (what happened factually and procedurally, what facts would make this case analogous to the client’s case or distinguish it from the client’s case, and the judgment that is important for the research you are doing) Issues: (what is in dispute) Decision: (what did the court decide; how was the issue analyzed or what was the legal test developed) Rationale: (the why behind the decision – in law) Part 3: RESEARCH OUTLINE / MAP: This section is where you provide an outline of the steps you took to conduct your research and provide a list of the cases, statutes and secondary sources relied on. This helps you and the supervising lawyers understand the steps taken by you to do the research. Research maps from LexisNexis can be copied into here, but you can also draft your own web or steps. It helps to include the searches you did on the sites visited (i.e.: terms you searched). Research Steps Taken / Research Map Template (include websites/ research tools used, the order you worked through, searches you performed, etc., search terms) List of Research sources relied on: (using the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, list and properly cite all secondary sources relied on as well as any statutes and case law). Title | page 1 VERSIONING INFO Title 700, 333 – 11th Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta T2R 1L9 Legal Research Synopsis Template The Legal Research assignment is aimed to help students practice and develop the skills necessary for legal research. This is not a legal memo and point form can be an acceptable way to show your work. Students are expected to use their discretion for how to best present their thinking within each part of this Template and to ensure the content is fulsome enough to effectively convey the required information and clear ideas. It is recognized that in your own future legal practice you may be able to pick and choose what steps to take when researching and you may choose to skip some of the steps outlined in this Template; however, for the purposes of the LRW course, you are to complete the whole Template. The goal here is to help you walk through the key steps for effective legal research so you can eventually build your own methods. It is important to be able to refer back to your research as articling students are often asked about their steps and to go back to do further research. A good research documentation process will assist you in saving time when going back and building supervising lawyers’ confidence in the research. There are three key elements to complete: · Part 1: Research Synopsis / notes · Part 2: Case Briefs · Part 3: Research Outline You will likely go back and forth between these Parts as you work through your research. This list is not in the order of how each Part is to be completed. Part 1: Legal Research Synopsis This Part serves as a summary that you can use when reporting to a supervising lawyer or use as a tool when taking the next step, such as a reporting meeting with a client, drafting a research memo, an advocacy letter, an opinion letter, or a legal argument. You will likely go back and forth from this Part to Part 2: Case Briefs. For example, some students first do the research objectives, facts and issues in the Synopsis and then start their research. Once the research is done and their case briefs are complete, they return to the Synopsis. PART 1: LEGAL RESEARCH SYNOPSIS The template for the Legal Research Synopsis follows – you can save this document and use it as your template, filling in each section as applicable to your LRW Assignment: LEGAL RESARCH SYNOPSIS Research Objective: (what is the goal of the research) Facts: (what are the relevant facts of the matter) Issues: (what legal issues are involved in the matter) Non-Legal Issues: (non-legal issues focus on external influences on the matter, such as circumstances of the client or client goals. Consider what the file content so far adds contextually to the matter that does not speak to a legal issue) Research: (Briefly summarize the key research outcomes you identified and why it may help the client’s position or why it is important to know about). Application to the Facts: (Explain how the research applies to the client’s situation. If applicable, outline the legal tests and note how and whether these tests are met based on the client’s situation). Tentative Conclusion: (In a few lines or bullets, what legal conclusions can be drawn for the client based on the law you have identified through your research, and its application to the facts.) Options/Next Steps: (What are your suggestions to the supervising lawyer of what should be done next on the file or by the client, flesh those out and consider the practicalities of each along with the positives and negatives of each option. Consider any non-legal issues here. Is there a direction you believe the client should take? Can you indicate if the client’s expectations/goals are realistic or unrealistic?). Part 2: CASE BRIEFS In a legal practice, each case you rely on should be briefed as that helps you and the supervising lawyer decide how relevant each case is, and acts as a quick reference where further research may be needed. For the LRW course purposes, please brief at least 3 cases. A case brief is a summary of the case, with a focus on those aspects that relate to your client’s fact scenario or legal issue and should not be a copy of the case note. Below is a template for one case brief. Please reproduce the template for each case you are using (minimum of three cases are to be briefed). Case Brief Template Name & Citation: Facts: (what happened factually and procedurally, what facts would make this case analogous to the client’s case or distinguish it from the client’s case, and the judgment that is important for the research you are doing) Issues: (what is in dispute) Decision: (what did the court decide; how was the issue analyzed or what was the legal test developed) Rationale: (the why behind the decision – in law) Part 3: RESEARCH OUTLINE / MAP: This section is where you provide an outline of the steps you took to conduct your research and provide a list of the cases, statutes and secondary sources relied on. This helps you and the supervising lawyers understand the steps taken by you to do the research. Research maps from LexisNexis can be copied into here, but you can also draft your own web or steps. It helps to include the searches you did on the sites visited (i.e.: terms you searched). Research Steps Taken / Research Map Template (include websites/ research tools used, the order you worked through, searches you performed, etc., search terms) List of Research sources relied on: (using the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, list and properly cite all secondary sources relied on as well as any statutes and case law). Title | page 1 VERSIONING INFO