Professional Reading: Has the Use of Online Legal Resources Affected Legal Analysis and Writing?

Elizabeth M. McKenzie, Director of Moakley Law Library and Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School, finds that the use of full-text online legal resources has changed the way lawyers think and write. McKenzie observes in this very interesting empirical study that the impact of format for research has profound implications for legal education.

Computers in Law: Changing the Way Lawyers Think
Elizabeth M. McKenzie, Director of Moakley Law Library and Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School

Abstract: Using textual analysis, the author empirically measured changes in legal practice brought about by the use of computers. The author compared briefs and decisions with an issue of first impression from a decade before computers entered the practice of law and again, a decade when computers have become ubiquitous. When a lawyer or judge must deal with a case of first impression, there is no precedent available. They either make policy arguments based on what would be the best policy or they use reasoning by analogy. The research found attorneys and judges in the pre-computer decade used reasoning by analogy much more frequently than they did in the recent decade. That change reflects the different way a researcher performs legal analysis when searching in books compared to creating a query for online research.

Hat tip to Lee F. Peoples, Associate Director, Oklahoma City University Law Library. [JH]