For a lawyer to remain relevant he needs to be able to do legal research.

A lawyer must know where to find the law. Finding relevant law reports and statutes is a necessary prerequisite to preparing any legal advice.

To achieve success in practice you must be able to know you way around a law library and be able to navigate legal databases on the internet. You must know how to use physical law library and electronic sources.

WHY LEGAL RESEARCH

• As the law changes daily it is important that you know how to keep abreast of the changes
• You must change with the law else you will become out-dated
• You start to loose clients if you fail to improve.
• Law governs conduct of individuals, firms and organization’s activities
• The law is dynamic and it keeps on changing
• Hence, legal practitioners must find the current law
• The only way to find the appropriate current law is to have good research skill

Establishing facts of a matter

Before going into research, the legal practitioner must know the facts of a matter he is to research on.

Facts of matter can be gathered in the following ways;

• Client
• Witnesses
• Documents
• Physical items/inspection

Legal classification of a matter

• The analytical skills acquired during the course of legal education will be used to classify the matter into a legal category
• Thus matters can be categorized as either international or domestic law
• It may further be categorized as either criminal or civil
• It may be classified under specific area of law
• It could be substantive or procedure, and
• It could be specific area like pre-trial, trial or post trial matter

Sources of Nigerian law

It is important to the sources so you know the law that is applicable. E.gReceived English law, customary law

There are primary, secondary and tertiary sources of law.

Examples of tertiary sources digest of Supreme Court cases, index of legislations, index of cases and encyclopaedia of laws in Nigeria. Note: you should be able to distinguish between the 3 sources and examples of the 3 sources 

Hints and aids on legal research

Practitioners must carry put effective research and to ensure this ,the following hints are desirable

• Array of dictionaries
• Note taking or jotting of key points
• Photocopies of vital documents
• Consultation of colleagues and court officials
• Make it a habit to read case law and pay more emphasis on ratio instead of obiter
• You cannot rely on obiter as ratio
• Learn to distinguish cases
• You just learn to set aside time each week to look at current legal development

CLOSING OF FILES

Preliminaries……

• There must be an end to litigation
• Files must be opened at the commencement of a matter. Once a lawyer takes a brief a file must be opened. This is necessary so the lawyer doesn’t lose certain important information or material that relates to that matter
• Files must be closed at the end of a matter
• Closed files are stored at a location

Types of file

1. Electronic file/soft copy
2. Hard copy

Whose property is it?

• It remains the clients property
• It should be returned to him
• If client fails to collect the file after a reasonable notice has been given, it may be destroyed
• Before destruction, the firm may elect to store the content electronically

Merits of returning the file to the client

• It gives the client opportunity to appraise the work you have done
• Opportunity to appreciate cost of the work done
• Law firm is saved the responsibility and cost of preserving the file

DESTROYING A FILE…….

• Firms are empowered to destroy a file after being retained by them for a reasonable period
• There are different interpretation of what amounts to a reasonable period e.g 20 years , statute of limitation

Modes of destroying a file

• Burning
• Shredding
• Any manner adopted by the law firm

Note that some files may not be destroyed by the firm. It depends on the contents of the file .

Factors that may lead to retention or destruction

• The nature of the materials in the file
• Whether there is the need to return such materials to the client
• Whether the file contains special papers which ought to be retained indefinitely

When to destroy…

1. After a period of two or three years
2. Relevant date may be form the date of close of the case or notification
3. Closed files may however be retained for a maximum period of seven years.
4. The time the matter becomes stature barred may be sued as a model to determine when to destroy a close file.
5. The file may be retained indefinitely