Time-saving tips for legal research
Whether you've been practicing the law for 20 years or 20 minutes, all UK lawyers can benefit from these time-saving legal research tips.
1. Only use natural language for your searches
One of the most significant time-savers for modern legal research is natural language searches.
Instead of constructing complex queries, you can simply enter your research question or topic in plain language, just as you would discuss it with a colleague.
Lexis+ will interpret your query and retrieve relevant results, saving you the time and effort crafting intricate search strings.
2. Make use of search suggestions
As you type your search terms into the search box, you should see suggested searches, documents, sources, and questions.
These suggestions help you refine your query and quickly find the most relevant information, reducing the need for multiple searches and saving valuable time.
3. Explore Search Term Maps
The Search Term Maps feature on Lexis+ UK is a powerful visualisation tool that can significantly enhance your research efficiency.
It analyses your search terms and presents the results in a graphical format, allowing you to identify patterns and areas with the highest concentration of your search terms within documents. This feature can help you quickly pinpoint the most relevant sections, saving you from having to read through entire documents.
4. Leverage filters and search within results
After running your initial search, Lexis+ UK provides a range of filters that allow you to narrow your results based on various criteria, such as practice areas, topics, jurisdictions, courts, and timelines. This targeted filtering can help you quickly zero in on the most relevant information, reducing the time spent sifting through irrelevant results.
Additionally, the "Search Within Results" feature enables you to further refine your search by entering additional terms or queries within your existing result set. This powerful tool can help you quickly find the specific information you need without having to start a new search from scratch.
I ant o w ore about search term maps
5. Utilise the Research Map
The Research Map on Lexis+ UK is a comprehensive research trail that displays a chronological record of your research activities, including searches, filters applied, documents viewed, and actions taken. This feature can be invaluable for keeping track of your research progress, allowing you to easily revisit previous steps or pick up where you left off, saving you time and effort.
Moreover, the Research Map enables you to compare search results, find similar documents, and navigate your research history with ease, further streamlining your research process.
6. Bookmark and save frequently used filters
If you find yourself frequently applying the same set of filters for certain research tasks, Lexis+ UK allows you to save these filter selections as "Favourite Filters." This feature can save you significant time by eliminating the need to manually apply the same filters repeatedly, ensuring a consistent and efficient research experience.
7. Stay up-to-date with Practical Guidance
Practical Guidance on Lexis+ UK provides a wealth of resources, including overviews, practice notes, Q&As, checklists, flowcharts, and precedents, covering a wide range of practice areas. By leveraging these materials, you can quickly gain a comprehensive understanding of legal topics, saving you the time and effort required to research from scratch.
Additionally, you can browse or search within the Practical Guidance section using natural language queries, further enhancing your research efficiency.
8. Take your legal research to the next level with Lexis+ AI
Lexis+ AI provides quick, accurate answers to legal questions, summarises legal documents in seconds, drafts contracts and clauses, and provides deep analysis of your uploaded documents.
The best part: Lexis+ AI is grounded on LexisNexis legal research and legal guidance content, and provides citations to all sources uses.
By streamlining the research process and providing highly relevant, accurate results, Lexis+ AI helps lawyers save valuable time and ensures accuracy, allowing them to focus on strategic legal analysis and client service.
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By implementing these time-saving tips and leveraging the powerful features of Lexis+ UK, you can streamline your legal research process, increase your productivity, and provide better service to your clients.
Efficient research not only saves time but also contributes to better-informed decision-making and higher-quality legal work.
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