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Canadian Legal Research Manual

This reference work was created by the Lederman Law Library to support Queen’s students learning legal research skills.

Introduction: Stages in Legal Research

This chapter breaks legal research into six general stages:

While these stages are listed in sequence, legal research is not a truly linear process. Some stages may be revisited multiple times throughout the process. Our Tips (Before You Start) page includes some helpful information to consider before you get started on the Topic Definition stage.

Lastly, our Legal Research Checklist provides a step-by-step condensed version of the stages for you to follow along as you research.

Note: The goal of this chapter is to provide a novice researcher with a high level understanding of the legal research process. If you are looking for more specific guidance on how to research types of sources like case law, legislation, and secondary sources, consult the in-depth pages found throughout the Legal Research Manual.

Stages in Legal Research

The 6 stages are depicted in order: topic definition feeds into exploratory research, which then leads into the three concurrent stages of in-depth secondary sources, legislation, and case law research. The last stage is to finalize research.