Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T18:47:57.328Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Legal Information Seeking in a Time-Constrained Environment: A Conceptual Model for Lawyers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2019

Renate L. Chancellor
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The acquisition of legal information is critical to how lawyers conduct their work. The use of information-seeking models as a theoretical lens to analyze user behavior has been exhausted in the scholarly literature. However, very few models illustrate the dynamic relationship between lawyer and information professional. Furthermore, these models do not consider the demands of accessing legal information in a time-constrained environment. This paper explores this phenomenon and proposes a model that aids in understanding how practitioners obtain legal information in a law firm environment.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Legal Information , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , Winter 2010 , pp. 282 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the International Association of Law Libraries. 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Information professional, information specialist and librarian will be used interchangeably throughout this paper. Assistant Professor, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.Google Scholar

2 Molina, Carlos Fernandez. Legal Aspects of Electronic Information in the Training of Information Professionals. Journal of Education for Library Science, 45 (2004): 111–122.Google Scholar

3 Leckie, Gloria, Pettigrew, Karen and Sylvain, Christian. Modeling the Information Seeking of Professionals: A General Model Derived from Research on Engineers, Health Care Professionals and Lawyers. Library Quarterly, 66 (2006): 161–193.Google Scholar

4 Stone, Sue. Humanities Scholars: Information Needs and Uses. Journal of Documentation, 38 (1982): 292–313; Wimberly, Stephen and Jones, William. Patterns of Information Seeking in the Humanities College and Research Libraries, 50:638–645; Chu, Clara. Literary Critics at Work and their Information Needs: A Research-Phases Model Library and Information Science Research, 21 (1999). 247–273.Google Scholar

5 Leckie, Gloria, Pettigrew, Karen and Sylvain, Christian. Modeling the Information Seeking of Professionals: A General Model Derived from Research on Engineers, Health Care Professionals and Lawyers. Library Quarterly, 66 (2006): 161–193.Google Scholar

6 Donald Case. Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs and Behavior. (New York: Academic Press, 2002): 5.Google Scholar

7 Wilson, T.D. Models in Information Behavior Research. Journal of Documentation, 55 (1999): 249.Google Scholar

8 Belkin, Nicholas, et. al. ASK for Information Retrieval: Part II: Results of a Design Study. Journal of Documentation, 38 (1982): 145–162.Google Scholar

9 Siatri, Rania. The Evolution of User Studies. Libri, 49 (1999): 132–141.Google Scholar

10 Ellis, David and Haugan, Merete. Modelling the Information Seeking Patterns of Engineers and Research Scientists in an Industrial Environment. Journal of Documentation, 53 (1997): 384–403.Google Scholar

11 Oxford English Dictionary. Accessed: August 20, 2009.Google Scholar

12 S. Giffis. Dictionary of Legal Terms: A Simplified Guide to the Language of Law. (New York: Barron's Education Series Inc., 1998).Google Scholar

13 Chodorow, Stanley. Law Libraries and the Formation of the Legal Profession in the Late Middle-Ages. Tarleton Law Library Legal History Series No. 7. (Texas: Jamail Center for Legal Research, 2007)Google Scholar

14 Anita Komlodi and Dagobert Soergel. Attorneys Interacting with Legal Information Systems: Tools for Mental Model Building and Task Integration. Papers delivered at the American Society for Information Science and Technology Annual Meeting 2002 Philadelphia, PA 2002.Google Scholar

15 The American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct. 1969Google Scholar

16 Wilson, T. D. and Streatfield, David. Information Needs in Local Authority Social Services Departments: An Interim Report on Project INISS. Journal of Documentation, 33 (1977): 249–270.Google Scholar

17 Leckie, Gloria, Pettigrew, Karen and Sylvain, Christian. Modeling the Information Seeking of Professionals: A General Model Derived from Research on Engineers, Health Care Professionals and Lawyers. Library Quarterly, 66 (2006): 161–193.Google Scholar

18 Sutton, Stuart A. The Role of Attorney Mental Models of Law in Case Relevance Determinations: An exploratory Analysis. Journal of the Systems for Federal Court Applications, 45 (1994): 188–200.Google Scholar

19 Gross, Melissa. The Imposed Query. RQ, 35 (1995): 236–245.Google Scholar

20 Gross, Melissa. The Imposed Query. RQ 35 (1995): 237.Google Scholar

21 Leckie, Gloria, Pettigrew, Karen and Sylvain, Christian. Modeling the Information Seeking of Professionals: A General Model Derived from Research on Engineers, Health Care Professionals and Lawyers. Library Quarterly, 66 (2006): 161–193.Google Scholar

22 Leckie, Gloria, Pettigrew, Karen and Sylvain, Christian. Modeling the Information Seeking of Professionals: A General Model Derived from Research on Engineers, Health Care Professionals and Lawyers. Library Quarterly, 66 (2006): 161–193.Google Scholar

23 Otike, Japhet. The Information Needs and Seeking Habits of Lawyers in England: A Pilot Study. International Information & Library Review, 31 (1999): 19–39.Google Scholar

24 Canadian Department of Justice, 1972.Google Scholar

25 Gillian Kerins, Ronan Madden and Crystal Fulton (2004). Information Seeking and Students Studying for Professional Careers: the Cases of Engineering and Law Students in Ireland. Information Research, 10(1) paper 208.Google Scholar

26 Ibraham Haruna and Iyabo, Mabawonku. Information Needs and Seeking Behaviour of Legal Practitioners and the Challenges to Law Libraries in Lagos, Nigeria. Information & Libraries Review, 33, 1, 2001, pp. 69–87.Google Scholar

Wilkinson, M. (2001). Information Sources Used by Lawyers in Problem-Solving: an Empirical Exploration.” Library and Information Science Research, 23(3), 257–276.Google Scholar

28 Ibid.Google Scholar

29 Ibid.Google Scholar

30 Leckie, Gloria, Pettigrew, Karen and Sylvain, Christian. Modeling the Information Seeking of Professionals: A General Model Derived from Research on Engineers, Health Care Professionals and Lawyers. Library Quarterly, 66 (2006): 161–193.Google Scholar

31 Bates, Marcia. An introduction to Metatheories, Theories and Models. In Theories of Information Behavior, edited by Karen E. Fisher, Sandra Erdelez and Lynne McKechnie. (2005), pp. 1–24.Google Scholar

32 Cole, C., Kulthau, Carol. (2000). Information and Information Seeking of Novice Versus Expert Lawyers: How Experts Add Value. The New Review of Information Behaviour Research, 1, 103–116.Google Scholar

33 Wilson, T.D. and Streatfield, D.R. Information Needs in Local Authority Social Services Departments: An Interim Report on Project INISS. Journal of Documentation 33 (December 1977): 277–93.Google Scholar

34 Dervin, Brenda. What Methodology Does to Theory: Sense-Making Methodology as Exemplar. In, Theories of Information Behavior, edited by Karen E. Fisher, Sandra Erdelez and Lynne McKechnie. (2005), pp. 25–36.Google Scholar