Representing People with Disabilities - Chapter 22 Legal Research

For the last twenty-nine years law students enrolled in the disability rights clinic at Albany Law School have represented individuals with disabilities on an array of legal issues. While students are often adept at doing internet searches, they generally need some guidance on which research and referral resources are reliable. To address this need, several years ago I began to develop a research manual for the students to use while they were in the clinic. The two parts of this chapter share with the reader the legal research resources that we have found useful over the years and a list of resources for legal representation, advocacy and support. While there are bound to be some resources that we have missed, these should provide sufficient information for anyone wishing to advocate for people with disabilities in New York. Not surprisingly many of the resources are available for free on the internet. Most of the government agencies that oversee the various programs on which our clients depend or the agencies that are responsible for enforcing our clients’ civil rights host websites where an advocate can obtain a tremendous amount of useful information including statutes, policy directives, regulations, administrative decisions and more. Further, many advocacy and public interest organizations host sites which can be used by an advocate to access resources which interpret the law, identify possible legal arguments and even provide sample documents that can be used as a starting point when drafting many legal documents. The user of this chapter should understand that this is by no means an exhaustive list. There are more resources available than we could possibly capture. Also, some of the links provided will change and may cease to work. However, this will not necessarily mean that the site no longer exists. A quick web search may reveal that the web address simply changed. We have not attempted to recreate all of the useful information that students receive in their first year legal writing courses. Therefore, the traditional resources used by lawyers such as Westlaw, Lexis, and N.Y. Jurisprudence are not even mentioned here. While we continually add to the list of resources, readers should feel free to identify additional sources and to use the sources with which they are already familiar. Some mention should be made of how I evaluate a website. I consider three questions: What is the purpose of my research? Who is providing the information? What effort is made to show that the information is reliable? There are a number websites that offer advice on how one should discern the reliability of a website and a fair amount of attention is placed on the ease with which one can post a website. While one may imagine that publication itself insures that the information is reliable and objective, many published articles do not receive this level of editing scrutiny. All products that are produced by humans have a bias. It is up to the reader to explore what that bias is when deciding whether or not to depend upon the material.Many of the websites that I have endorsed are written by individuals who are approaching their area of expertise from a particular perspective and some of the material found on the website will likely reflect that bias. For example, while the government websites often provide both secondary and primary information that is extremely useful, they are also attempting to instill in the reader confidence that their policies, programs and actions are always consistent with the civil rights of individuals with disabilities. One only needs to do some civil rights case law research to know that this is not always judged to be the case. A critical reader must be able to distinguish the law from the rhetoric. It may be tempting to warn never to use resources that are not filled with footnotes, and to disregard any rhetoric that is provided. However, as lawyers we must approach our work with cultural competence. This requires that we consider the perspective all of the parties and policy makers in the given system. Therefore, I say go ahead and read the rhetoric, pay close attention to it and use it to help shape your understanding of the social and political factors involved in the matters you undertake. When doing research try to consider three questions. Why are you doing the research? If you are looking for a general understanding of an area or just attempting to generate some ideas, you might benefit from accepting a broader range of sites, but you should look at multiple sites so that you can get a full perspective. If you are writing a brief to a court, be very selective in the material that you use and be sure that you choose material which will convey the greatest sense of reliability to the court. Who has written the material? Readers cannot begin to evaluate the material unless they know where the material has come from. Look around on the home page or the about us section. What does it tell you about the source of the information and the bias that the writers may have? What, if anything, do you already know about this source?How does the site attempt to persuade the reader that it is accurate? Are there footnotes and or references to primary sources? Are the dates for all of the articles provided? Is information provided about the manner in which topics are chosen and developed?