Legal Problem Solving – Reasoning, Research and Writing, 8th Edition

This bestseller has been widely adopted by Canadian colleges and universities, and used by Canadian law schools for more than 20 years. The author provides readers with practical commentary on effective legal research in the context of the complete legal problem solving process, and offers a structured framework to efficiently navigate paper-based resources and online databases. This text introduced the well-recognized FILAC structure to legal writing adopted by professors and lawyers across Canada.

Features of this book
The book provides a step-by-step guide for identifying, researching and analyzing legal problems, as well as determining and communicating the relevant solution. Users of this reference book will discover:

• Advice on how to use print, paid online subscription services, and free online databases of caselaw and legislation
• Practical suggestions for tackling research problems and identifying and applying the law
• Direction on the skills necessary to analyze and solve legal research problems
• Helpful checklists, summaries and samples to facilitate learning
• An author team which brings a wealth of knowledge of legal research and problem solving

New in this edition
This updated version of Legal Problem Solving – Reasoning, Research and Writing contains the latest insight and tips on how to find the law and legal information, including

• Revised chart showing how to locate different resources in a law library
• Reviews new features in electronic legal databases such as Lexis Advance Quicklaw and WestlawNext Canada
• Contains updated illustrations of interface of large commercial legal information providers that have undergone changes since the last edition
• New sections about newly launched digital repository for legal scholarship named LawArXiv
• New section on emerging artificial intelligence and predictive analytics databases and emerging tools available such as Loom Analytics and Blue J Legal.
• Information about CanLii’s new feature: CanLii Docs
• Discusses research tools and supplements only available in the print version of the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (CED)
• Lists new legal newspapers including The Lawyer’s Daily
• Updated section about when it is that statutes come into force
• Discusses the unofficial way to locate amendments to a statute
• Revised section on how to find statutes using Lexis Advance Quicklaw with helpful screen snapshots to familiarize the reader with the website layout and to assist the reader in their legal research
• Completely revised and updated appendix providing a comprehensive checklist on how to find and use commentaries using legal encyclopedias, textbooks and looseleafs, legal journals and periodicals, law dictionaries and books of words and phrases, forms and precedents, blogs and wikis and other providers.
• Appendix 7C on “Legislation on Government Websites” has been updated to contain new URL’s to find legislation on provincial and territorial government websites
• Revised note on how to find ‘rules of court’ using Lexis Advance Quicklaw
• Useful information about free online database: vLex Canada Open. Explains how to use the free source vLex Canada Open as well as the paid subscription version that includes additional resources.
• Discusses how to use Thomson Reuters’ The Canadian Abridgment to locate cases and digests
• Section on how to write a case citation has been largely re-written to explain the hierarchy of case citation and how to cite a case with a neutral citation
• Completely revised section and checklist of how to find cases using Lexis Advance Quicklaw

A great resource
This text provides a structured and effective framework to guide lawyers, law students, legal assistants, and paralegals through the legal problem solving process. In particular, Legal Problem Solving – Reasoning, Research and Writing would be an excellent acquisition for:

• Academic institutions providing a necessary and widely adopted text for law students at law schools as well as colleges offering paralegal and law clerk courses
• Law libraries providing comprehensive reference materials to users
• Law firms to provide to articling students and associates to help provide solutions to legal research and writing problems they may encounter