Legal Research

Course Description

PLA1104 – Legal Research is a 3-credit course teaching students to find the law. It is the foundational research course in Florida paralegal programs and a prerequisite for essentially every substantive practice course that follows, including PLA2114 Legal Research and Writing II.

Finding the law is harder than it sounds, and the difficulty is not technological. A legal question rarely arrives with a citation attached; it arrives as a factual situation from which the researcher must identify the issue, determine which jurisdiction's law applies, locate the governing authority, confirm it is still good law, and know when the search is complete.

Content begins with the structure of legal authority: the distinction between primary authority (constitutions, statutes, regulations, and case law) and secondary authority (treatises, encyclopedias, law reviews, and practice guides), and between mandatory and persuasive authority. A student who cannot say whether a case binds the court they are in has not understood the foundation.

Students learn case law research — reporters, the citation system, headnotes and key numbers, and digest research; statutory research — codes, annotations, and the relationship between session laws and codified statutes; administrative research — regulations and agency materials; and secondary sources as the efficient entry point to an unfamiliar area.

Citators — KeyCite and Shepard's — receive real attention, because relying on authority that has been overruled or superseded is among the most damaging errors in legal work.

Florida-specific research runs throughout: the Florida Statutes and Online Sunshine, the Florida Administrative Code, Florida court structure and which decisions bind which courts, and citation under Rule 9.800, Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure.

Offered at approximately 16 Florida institutions with paralegal programs.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Distinguish primary from secondary authority and mandatory from persuasive authority.
• Describe the structure of the Florida and federal court systems and which decisions bind which courts.
• Analyze a factual situation to identify the legal issue and applicable jurisdiction.
• Develop a research plan appropriate to the question.
• Use secondary sources to gain entry to an unfamiliar area of law.
• Conduct case law research using digests, headnotes, and topic systems.
• Conduct statutory research using annotated codes.
• Conduct administrative research in regulations and agency materials.
• Use electronic research platforms efficiently, including terms-and-connectors searching.
• Validate authority using a citator and determine whether it remains good law.
• Determine when research is sufficiently complete.
• Cite authority correctly using the Bluebook or ALWD and Florida Rule 9.800.
• Document and report research results clearly.
• Apply ethical requirements, including the prohibition on unauthorized practice of law.

Optional Outcomes

• Conduct legislative history research.
• Use free and low-cost research resources effectively.
• Conduct research in a specialized practice area.
• Describe public records research under Chapter 119, F.S.
• Conduct factual and background investigation research.
• Evaluate the appropriate use of AI research tools.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• The American legal system — sources of law, federalism, and court structure.
• Authority — primary and secondary, mandatory and persuasive, and precedential weight.
• Issue identification — moving from facts to a researchable legal question.
• Research strategy — planning, sequencing, and knowing when to stop.
• Secondary sources — encyclopedias, treatises, ALR, law reviews, and practice guides.
• Case reporters and the citation system — official and regional reporters, parallel citation.
• Digests and topic systems — headnotes, key numbers, and finding cases by subject.
• Case analysis — briefing, holding versus dicta, and procedural posture.
• Statutory research — codes, annotations, session laws, and statutory construction.
• Administrative research — regulations, agency decisions, and the Florida Administrative Code.
• Electronic research — Westlaw and Lexis; natural language versus terms and connectors.
• Citators — KeyCite and Shepard's; interpreting signals and treatment.
• Florida research — Florida Statutes, F.A.C., court structure, and district court conflicts.
• Citation form — Bluebook or ALWD, and Florida Rule 9.800.
• Ethics — UPL, competence, and confidentiality in research work.

Optional Topics

• Legislative history.
• Free and low-cost research resources.
• Specialized practice area research.
• Public records research.
• Factual and background investigation.
• AI-assisted legal research.

Resources & Tools

• Legal Research, Analysis, and Writing (Putman & Albright), Cengage — widely adopted across the Florida paralegal research sequence.
• Basic Legal Research (Sloan), Wolters Kluwer — a common alternative.
• Westlaw and Lexis+ — most programs provide academic access; competence with at least one is an employment expectation.
• The Bluebook or ALWD Guide to Legal Citation, and Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.800 — Florida practice uses its own citation rule.
• Online Sunshine (leg.state.fl.us) — free, authoritative Florida Statutes.
• Florida Administrative Code (flrules.org) — free access to state rules.
• Florida Courts — opinions, rules, and court structure.
• Free research tools — Google Scholar, CourtListener, and Cornell's Legal Information Institute; genuinely useful, and important for graduates whose employers lack full database subscriptions.

Career Pathways

• Paralegal or Legal Assistant (SOC 23-2011) — research is a core daily function.
• Litigation Paralegal — the largest specialty.
• Corporate Paralegal — regulatory and transactional research.
• Compliance Specialist — regulatory research in healthcare, insurance, and government.
• Law Librarian — requiring an ALA-accredited master's degree.
• Court and Government roles — clerk's offices, state attorney and public defender offices, and agency legal units.
• Law school — though no particular undergraduate preparation is required.

Special Information

Course-code and title variation

The course appears as PLA1104 and PLA1104C, and under the titles Legal Research (the SCNS title), Law Library / Legal Research (Broward, as PLA1104C), and Introduction to Legal Research. The C form indicates an integrated laboratory, typically hands-on database work. Under SCNS the same number at the same level is equivalent regardless of title.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites vary; verify locally. Broward College requires ENC1101 and PLA1003 (Introduction to Paralegal Studies) each with a minimum grade of C. Some institutions require program admission. Because legal research produces written work product, composition proficiency is generally assumed or required.

Position in the curriculum — this is the gateway course

PLA1104 is prerequisite to nearly the entire substantive paralegal curriculum: civil litigation, legal writing, and the practice-area courses all require it. Students should take it early, and should understand that difficulty here compounds — every later course assumes the ability to find authority independently.

Florida's district courts of appeal can disagree with each other

A Florida-specific point that surprises students and matters practically. Florida has multiple District Courts of Appeal, and a decision of one district binds trial courts throughout the state unless the district in which the trial court sits has decided otherwise. When districts conflict, the law can genuinely differ depending on where a case is filed, until the Florida Supreme Court resolves it. A researcher who finds a favorable case must check which district decided it and whether the relevant district has ruled differently.

Validating authority is not optional and takes seconds

The most consequential habit this course teaches is running every authority through a citator before relying on it. Citing an overruled case is an error that opposing counsel will find, that undermines credibility with a court, and that a supervising attorney will remember. The check takes moments and there is no acceptable reason to skip it.

Free resources matter more than students expect

Academic Westlaw and Lexis access ends at graduation, and many small firms, solo practitioners, and nonprofit employers do not carry full subscriptions. Graduates who can work effectively with Online Sunshine, Google Scholar, CourtListener, and the courts' own sites are genuinely more useful in those settings. Instructors increasingly teach both, and students should learn both.