Noting Up

I like to use “best practices” for specific recurring research tasks. Yes, I am talking about noting up since it should be done (case history at the least) for every case you look at for every research task.

Checklists are good tools for noting. I made one for judicial decisions, one for administrative tribunal decisions, and a special checklist for noting up statutes referenced in cases.

These checklists are formatted so that they can be attached to a decision and the results of the search, like a report card. There is a column with check boxes, a column with the information source, and a column with the method used for noting up with that source.

The noteup checklists are also linked on the Field Library Intranet for the Field Lawyers, however since I am mentioning them in a future Online Law column in Law Now magazine, they are provided above for anyone to use.

Happy research trails, Shaunna