Paralegal's useful Screencast

Introduction

Hello! Welcome to my Screencast. My name is Sara Fareh, and I'm a student in the Paralegal Technology program at Ahuntsic College. I'm currently starting my third year, and I love it! The Paralegal Technology program involves forming students into becoming paralegals, helping lawyers with paperwork, researching, and assisting clients. Most of my classes are about law fields: Civil Law, Criminal Law, Penal Law, and Real estate Law. We also do a lot of legal research! If you want to become an S-Tier paralegal, you need to have excellent research skills, and today, I'm going to show you the basics of how to do perfect legal research.

In the legal world, we put a lot of work into the quality of our research and sources. Otherwise, if your sources aren't verified and accurate, you will embarrass yourself in front of the judge or your colleagues. As a paralegal student, I value my legal research greatly because it shows that I care and am dedicated to having the best version of information. People want to avoid getting that look of judgment when presenting research that isn't trustworthy. We all want to make our colleagues proud of their choice to trust us with a file. Right? You will earn many respects in your future law firm if your quality of work is pristine.

Of course, I'm not a professional, but I started at the bottom like every paralegal. At first, you discover what legal research is, and then you learn how to do it —and it looks so complicated! I worked hard to perfect my research method, but now I'm confident with my technique.

In Paralegal Technology, you have two classes of legal research. I am proud of myself because I got good grades in those classes.

My plan with this Screencast is to demonstrate how to do an efficient legal research using the software "Le CAIJ".

Just follow my step-by-step tutorial on how to do a perfect legal research and don't be scared. It won't hurt, and you'll sleep less dumb tonight!

Let's dive in, and I promise by the end of this tutorial, you'll feel ready to tackle any legal research challenge that comes your way!

The Problem

When you work as a Paralegal, it's hard to find doctrines and case laws. It's challenging finding the perfect doctrine and the perfect case law for your case. You must spend hours sorting every case and doctrine, which is exhausting!

If you don't find the right documents, you could lead the case in the wrong way. You will fail your class and when you will work it will be embarrassing for you.

Imagine if you need to find a doctrine explaining article 1463 of the Quebec Civil Code, so you just research "Art. 1463" in "Le Caij," and you're left with exactly 336 results. It's inhuman to check every doctrine and spend hours reading when you could do something more useful.

It can be mentally exhausting, but don't worry, at the end of this tutorial you will know how to do a fast, easy and effective legal research. You will impress your colleagues, your boss and your friends!

The Quest

First, open your browser, type this URL in the address bar, and press enter. You should normally see this page.

When you get in the page, you'll see a lot of icons. It's normal, there're tools that will be useful as a paralegal. In the top-left of the screen you will see the menu with a bunch of options. In the middle of the screen, notice all the different ways you can make legal research! You can search by case laws, legislation and by doctrines. Just below the middle of the screen you will notice the text bar where you can write all your information, and finally next to the menu in the top left corner of the screen there's the website's logo.

The Solution

Instead of doing legal research like a noob, as we've seen before, click here "Questions de Recherches." Then, on. In the text bar, write the article that relates to your case. You can also select the law field related to your research. For the tutorial, I will choose " Travail et emplois" and type article 1463 of the Quebec Civil Code about liability conditions. You will see many questions, and now find the questions that suit the best with your case. You can add some keywords; I will add "Responsabilité des commettants," which is vicarious liability, for more precise results. Then select a question, and you will see some linked doctrines and case law. It's a way of avoiding unnecessary research and researching a question that is close to your case, and you will have some useful sources you can analyze. You can also save a page as a PDF document on the right-hand side of the screen. It's convenient because you can save one document, and this one document contains multiple valuable sources.

The Conclusion

So, if you are in Paralegal Technology or you work as a Paralegal, that's how you can do successful legal research. I promised I would show you how to do fast, easy, and effective legal research using "Le Caij," and I did!

I hope you enjoyed this video and that you'll be a pro in legal research by now! If my tutorial helped you, please leave a like and click the subscribe button to support my channel. Don't hesitate to share my video with someone who struggles with legal research! Thanks for watching.