Basic Legal Research Skills

What You'll Learn:

• How to search for laws, cases, and legal commentary
• Using free and official legal databases
• Building the habit of verifying sources and legal accuracy

Who This Is For:

• Beginners needing to support their arguments with law
• Self-representers preparing submissions

18. Legal Research for Beginners

What You'll Learn:

• Navigating legislation.gov.uk and BAILII
• How to locate relevant statutes, case law, and rules
• Research checklists and shortcuts to avoid overwhelm

Who This Is For:

• Litigants or students learning legal research from scratch
• Anyone writing their own legal documents

19. How to Use Legislation.gov.uk

What You'll Learn:

• Navigating UK primary and secondary legislation
• Understanding updated vs original versions
• Searching for sections relevant to your case

Who This Is For:

• Anyone citing laws or defending a claim
• People confused by long, complex Acts of Parliament

20. Reading Case Law: Understanding Precedent

What You'll Learn:

• How to identify ratio decidendi (the key legal principle)
• What “binding precedent” means and when it applies
• How to use cases to support your argument in court

Who This Is For:

• Self-represented litigants using past judgments
• Anyone learning legal argument structure