Covering Legal Issues

• Author: Mark Bourrie
• Pages: 51-62

51

chapter four

Covering Legal Issues

A. LEGAL RESEARCH

ere are two very dierent ways to do legal research in Canada. One

is expensive and easy; the other is much less expensive but a bit more

dicult.1

e easiest way to do legal research is to have an account with one

of the big online database companies. Westlaw (owned by the Canadian

company omson Reuters) and LexisNexis are the two largest. Not

only are these databases up to date with caselaw, they also have expert

commentary. eir customer support sta can train you to use these

databases eectively and help when you run into snags. However, it’s

very unlikely that your media organization will pay for a subscription

to one of these services.

You may be able to get access to these databases at a county law asso-

ciation library or a municipal library, but that will depend on where you

work. If you are a reporter on the justice beat, it’s imperative that you

befriend a law librarian. Legal research is extremely complicated, since

it requires a knowledge of legal concepts, current issues, and an under-

standing of the places where data is stashed. Even if your publication is

1 I am very grateful to Brenda Lauritzen, librarian with the County of Carleton Law

Association, for her generous help with this section. Researchers should under-

stand that librarians are their best friends and allies, and she has made my life

much easier.