The United States legal system is extremely complex and can get complicated at times. Although a state attorney may spend numerous years in college, learning important aspects of the law, they may never fully understand all aspects of the legal system. Most legal cases are based on previous United States code legislative history. This means that each and every legal case requires hours and hours of law research. Research gives precedence and helps attorney?s understand specific state and federal regulations. Using reputable legal research websites is an important aspect in obtaining trustworthy information for the following reasons.
Ensures greater accuracy
Because a lot of legal cases are either lost or won by precedent cases, it is important that the previous case you are basing your trial on contains accurate information. Using a previous legal case in court that does not have accurate information can severely harm a legal case. It can cause the cause to be lost, for lack of preparation. Accuracy is especially important when a precedence case is being used that took place in a different state than the current case.
To fight for an amendment
Sometimes there are no previous cases to compare a current legal case to. It is also possible that there is a previous case, but it no longer seems relevant. In these situations, an attorney may attempt to change the United States code legislative history. This requires understanding current legal statutes and the ability to compare similar previous cases to the current one.
An amendment may be used when a change in current law is needed. For example, California?s initiative process has long been criticized as flawed, and in 2015, it will see some key changes. If a proposal gets 25% of signatures to reach the ballot, legislators will hold a hearing on the issue?s merits. However, it is important to have current United States code legislative history to ensure that it is being challenge correctly.
Discrepancies in state versus federal law
As states have the ability to set their own laws and regulations, it is possible that a person is going against state law, but following federal law, or vice versa. This is part of the complexity and confusion of the United States code legislative history. It is also unlikely that the two laws will ever completely match up. However, a state attorney may use the existence of a federal law to fight a state level case. For more than one hundred years, state courts have looked to evidence of legislative intent in construing state law. This is another reason that the legal research website used should contain accurate information.
In cases of complicated or unknown history
Up until recently, previous legal cases and laws were reported and stored in paper form. If you require an extremely old law document, it can be very difficult to come across. Although these records are being moved to an electronic storage system, it could be many years until it is all available by internet. If an attorney requires complicated or unknown history for a legal case, they may have to move outside of internet research.
You can usually find these such documents in a court setting. It may take scheduling an appointment and hours of searching, but you can usually come across needed documents. The existence of legal research websites, however, is much more convenient. Attorneys and even residents in some states can also request these paper documents to be sent electronically. Fifteen years ago, California lawmakers decided the public has a right to get government records not just as printed pages, but in any format in which they exist (including electronic records).
The complex legal system requires legal representatives with many years of hands on experience. Even then, there are many areas that are confusing and require many hours of research. Many research attorneys use online research websites for a variety of legal purposes, including research of previous cases, amendments to current laws, when comparing federal and state laws, and to obtain records that might have originally been in hardcopy.