Legal research requires that you define your problem clearly and request a solution based upon law. You must find laws or cases that support your case. In order to find the cases and laws, you must use digests and codes. You will also have to determine if the cases and laws are still good law, meaning that later court decisions have not overruled your case or code section. Primary authority is the law itself as issued by various branches of government.
Secondary authority is commentary about the law.
Secondary authority books can be found by using the on-line catalog and searching by subject headings. Structure of legal publishing To find laws and cases, legal researchers search by the facts or issues pertinent to their cases in indexes and digests. Characteristics of legal books Law books look like other books, but law books need to be updated with new laws and cases to reflect changes and developments in the law. The list below describes how law books can be updated. A book can be completely re-written.