After performing keyword searches on Westlaw and Lexis, what is the next step?

Finding relevant statutes after performing keyword searches on databases like Westlaw and Lexis is a crucial step in the legal research process. Once you have gathered initial case law and secondary sources through your keyword searches, it’s important to identify and locate applicable statutes that may govern the legal issue at hand. Statutes provide a legal framework and can clarify the rules and regulations that apply to your case.

By locating relevant statutes, you can ensure that your research is comprehensive and that you understand the specific laws that may impact your situation. Statutory law often takes precedence in legal matters, so knowing which statutes apply will strengthen your legal arguments and guide further analysis.

Additional searches could lead to unnecessary complexity without a focused approach on statutes, and simply checking the index might not yield the depth of information needed to inform your legal arguments. Therefore, moving directly to finding relevant statutes is a logical and advantageous progression in legal research after conducting initial keyword searches.