2 The Research Plan and Record

Many assignments in law school somewhat pre-plan your research for you… The assignment often suggests where to look, and sometimes, what to look for.

However, in practical research, we are usually much more on our own, able to (and forced to!) determine our own path to take, sources to use, and techniques to engage. This is another area where spending a little bit of time and thought before starting your research can pay off with major time and frustration savings later on. This process can be part of determining what the real question is, as discussed previously, as the twin questions of “what am I actually looking for/where is it likely to be” are closely interwoven.

A research plan doesn’t have to complicated, and it also doesn’t have to be set in stone… As you progress, you may find that some avenues you planned to explore are dead ends, and other areas that seemed to require only a cursory glance are rich sources of information. Your plan will also vary depending on the depth of the research you need to undertake, and should also consider resource constraints you may need to consider.

With that being said, these are some considerations as you build a research plan, many of which we’ll discuss in depth throughout this text:

Sources

• What type of sources are most likely to address your topic with an appropriate depth of discussion (books, articles, legal encyclopedias)?
• What sources do you have access to? Are some more cost-effective than others? Free isn’t always cheap, if it requires more of your time to wrangle meaningful results out of it.
• Are there certain sources that regardless of what else you’ve already found, you definitely want to check? It’s very easy to fall down a rabbit-hole of research, and forget to check a key source.

Techniques

• What sources are best browsed, versus searched?
• What keywords do you want to look for in indices?
• Are there leading authors in the field, where looking at their collected work may be helpful?
• Do you have cases or legislation that can be noted up?
• If you’re working extensively with legislation, is a legislative history warranted?

Write it down! As you progress through your research, keep a record of where you’ve been, and where you still need to go. This can help keep you on track, and prevent wasting resources on following off-topic leads.

As well, keeping some form of written record of your research can be helpful if you don’t find what you were looking for: Not every research project has a successful conclusion, and sometimes you simply cannot find the answer. Being able to say where and how you looked, can give confidence to whoever you’re sharing your research with that there truly is no answer available, or allow them to spot a gap in your process.

What a research plan looks like is very individual, both to the researcher, and to the research at hand. It doesn’t need to be complicated, but at the minimum, should include what sources were looked at, and what was/was not found there. Be as specific as possible: ie “searched Westlaw Edge Canada and read cases” is vague, whereas “searched the Ontario caselaw database on Westlaw Edge Canada for the phrase ‘de minimus’ and found three cases that are on point (2012 JJCC 1, 2021 JJCC 5, 2007 JJCC 8)” is meaningful.

A simple research plan/record that might work for you in some cases is a three column chart:

“Can affidavits for court be taken remotely, and how does administering the oath work in that case?”