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Article: Teaching online legal research. (Using WESTLAW and LEXIS) (Column)
- Article from:
- Online
- Article date:
- November 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Information Today, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Teaching law students or attorneys about online legal research can be a challenge. One reason is that novice researchers sometimes get lucky with a rough, poorly-constructed search, and then consider themselves masters of the system they used. Another reason is that those who have truly understood the Rule Against Perpetuities (RAP) may approach the systems with a clueless, yet overly confident attitude.
A case in point involves a law student we'll call Iggy. I attempted to teach Iggy about online legal research using LEXIS with the following hypothetical problem. "Suppose a man goes into a bank wth a bar of soap that he has carved to look like a gun. He ...