Legal research can be complicated. While there’s plenty of free legal information online, it may not always be accurate, complete, or detailed enough to answer your questions. If you’re handling your own legal problem, visiting a law library is a smart step. Law librarians can guide you to helpful resources and show you how to use them.
What Librarians Can (and Can’t) Do
Law librarians cannot act as attorneys. Their role is to help you find and use legal resources, not to provide you with legal advice.
Librarians can:
- Point you to books, databases, statutes, and other legal research tools.
- Show you how to use indexes, legal encyclopedias, and databases.
- Identify the general areas of law where you might begin your research.
Librarians can’t:
- Give opinions on the strength of your case.
- Interpret the law or explain what it means for your situation.
- Write legal documents for you.
- Tell you which statute or cases apply to your situation.
Think of librarians as research guides, not attorneys. For example, if you want to research workplace discrimination, a librarian might give you the titles of key texts on employment law, point out the sections of the state code where labor laws are found, and show you how to use a legal encyclopedia to look up cases. But you must read and interpret the materials yourself.
It may feel frustrating if a librarian won’t define a legal term or tell you which law applies to you. But this protects you—only an attorney can give legal advice tailored to your situation.
Working with a Librarian
To get the most out of your time with a librarian:
- Share information about your issue — Librarians need to know a little about your legal problem so they can point you to the right resources. But you don’t need to share identifying details or other personal information.
- Be patient — Legal research tools can be complex and take time to learn. Remember, librarians often help many people at once, especially in public law libraries connected to courts or universities.
- Listen carefully and take notes — The steps to use a database or code index can be easy to forget. Writing down instructions will help you when you’re working on your own.