We want LI to be one of the friendliest places on the internet, where lawyers and law students help each other with their career related queries and occasionally discuss other stuff that might affect their lives too. In other words:
1. Be kind, respectful and helpful to each other.
2. Be bona fide, truthful, genuine and curious.
3. Assume the best intention of others.
Therefore, in using the site, you must agree to do your best to uphold these community guidelines.
Note that what you find here is written and moderated by anonymous people on the internet.
Therefore everything you read here is very likely unverified, rumour, speculation and/or downright false.
In continuing to read anything here, you must therefore agree not to take anything you read here as factual and that you will exercise due caution, diligence and common sense before acting on any information you may come across here.
You also agree to report any inaccurate or malicious comments with the buttons. Moderators take action within 24 hours, as required and appropriate under law.
Our full terms and conditions apply too.
Do you solemnly agree to all of the above?
- In a simple document - put the query on top.
- In the first para (like a summary) give a clear yes or no response (or respond that it is a grey area). Keep this short, crisp and to the point. Give the reasoning in a line or two AND no more. If you don't have this level of clarity - your research is deficient and you need to look at more things. Write in first person.
- In subsequent pages - provide more details.
Some points on how you can conduct and present the research.
Case law
If you are citing case law - extract relevant paras and mark the relevant portions - with a brief one liner on top regarding the case's relevance. Might also be helpful to summarize the facts in a line or two. Don't give self prepared summaries of the case (like u might be used to in law school - as they are pretty useless and the associate will have to re-read the case to confirm the accuracy of what you've written).
- Make sure that you check that the case has not been overruled (if it is a HC case - like a FAO - double check on SC website if it has been challenged). Learn about how cases move through the system. Sometimes, you might find the relevant point in an interim order. See if that can be used to make the general point you are making.
- Send PDFs of the cases along with your research (downloaded from SCC or Manupatra - the latter often contains errors).
Commentaries and Statutes.
Definitely extract the statute provision in the note. Try to check the provisions around the one you are citing (do a CTRL+F) sometimes it leads to new insights.
See if there are any govt issued materials on the provision (like committee reports, FAQs etc.) they will have more meaning than a random commentary that you are citing from.
Check parliamentary questions.
Use reliable commentaries. Check with your associate which commentary they prefer.
Keep everything very readable, crisp and to the point. Always remember, everything you write must try to answer one or more aspects of the question you are asked.