The Law Society of Northern Ireland boasts a modern and well-equipped reference library. It holds a comprehensive collection of electronic and hard copy legal resources together with access to a vast network of external resources and specialised legal collections. The library also offers a range of services which many solicitors use on a regular basis, including enquiry and research work. The service provides access to precedents, caselaw and legislation as well as details of expert witnesses. The KnowAll database, which is accessed via the library section of the website is an important portal of legal information for practitioners in this jurisdiction providing access to NI cases, legislation, practice directions and the library catalogue of books.
The online course will be a shortened version of the in-person course and will include:
- the law-making and law-finding processes in Northern Ireland and the intricacies of conducting legal research in a small jurisdiction to ensure you are relying on good law;
- whether to use hard copy or electronic resources and the development of search strategies according to the best bibliographical resources available;
- Tips and techniques for using the internet for legal research, including some useful search techniques when using commercial databases such as Lexis and Westlaw and the library database KnowAll.
