Canadian Legal Research Manual

How do you know when to stop researching?

This is one of the most challenging questions for a novice legal researcher to answer. While there is no definitive answer, general wisdom is that you are done when you start seeing the same sources over and over again.

For example, if your searches are continually turning up the same cases, or the same secondary sources, you are likely done researching.

Once you've discovered as much as possible in the intensive research phases (secondary sources, legislation, and case law), you still have a few steps to follow as you finalize the information you've gathered:

1. Confirm primary sources are still good law.
2. Write and check citations.

Depending on the research task, some time has likely passed since you began your initial research. Whether the process has taken days, weeks, or months, you need to complete a final check of the primary sources that you are relying on in your research.

This means repeating several steps from earlier in the process:

• Note up the cases you are relying upon again to ensure they are still good law.
• Update legislation again to ensure it is still in force and to check for amendments.

You may also need to check for recent changes to the law, such as cases that have been handed down since your initial research. This is where research organization in earlier stages of the process can be very helpful, as a record of your prior searches allows you to easily re-run them to check for recent cases.

►See Researching Statutes and Researching Regulations for how to update legislation. 

►See Noting Up Legislation for more information on finding judicial consideration. 

►See Noting Up Case Law for more information on how to complete this step.

After finalizing your primary sources, the last step in the legal research process is to craft citations in order to integrate your research into your writing product.

Use a consistent citation style to ensure your reader is able to:

• Understand key information about your sources, such as jurisdiction and court level, in the context of your writing; and
• Find your sources to confirm or read the passages you are referencing in context.

Choose a citation style according to either your instructions (e.g. an assignment), the requirements of the Court (if you are preparing documents for court), or the conventions of your workplace.

Two Canadian options are the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (the McGill Guide) and the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide (COAL).

►See Citation Style Guides for access to the McGill Guide at Queen's and supporting resources. 

At this point, you should also check all quotations and references to ensure they are accurate:

• Are quotations and references attributed to the correct source? 
• Are quotations exact representations of what was said in the source?
• Are paraphrases attributed to a source? Do they accurately represent what was said in the source?

Congratulations! You have made it to the end of the Stages in Legal Research. 

At this point, you may still need to generate a written product that reflects your research.

Consult our curated list of Legal Writing resources for assistance with the writing phase for both academic and practical work.