Long gone is the time when attorneys head to a dusty room with staggering bookcases to find geared towards version of a statute or the that will make an impression on the judge. Decades ago, legal work was a time-consuming process that required long days and nights buried from a common law library library. When using the Internet and digitization of books came significant advances and changes in legal resources. Now, the industry that provides these modern tools is as big, if not bigger, than any of the largest law firms in the globe.

Attorneys in present day age have associated with comprehensive indexes of cases and statutes with a simple click of a button. These databases and research hubs are operated by its big companies that staff hundreds or thousands of employees to seen the latest cases usually are published, usually using the state or federal court. The employees then provide summaries of the cases, which highlight present themes or rulings. In addition, these digital databases offer numerous resources beyond cases and regulations. They also contain secondary sources such as law review articles that analyze certain topics in the law or treatises, are usually respected summaries of certain areas of law.

One of the best aspects of persuasive legal writing is the citation of cases that are current and still good law. That means there cannot be subsequent cases that overturn or negatively affect the holding reached in since case. This task used to be accomplished by the time-consuming process of cross-referencing and reading extra cases. However, with these modern digital databases, the project gets done from legal resource agency.

These advances in legal research tools have dramatically changed the size and existence of legal libraries all across the globe. In the past, every respectable law firm, courthouse, legal aid center, and law school had large levels of their buildings dedicated to storing books. Now, many of these institutions have dramatically cut down across the size of physical legal books an accidents books. Some may retain a small portion of their previous collection as ornaments rather than practical resources.

One realm which has not been dramatically impacted by these modern innovations may be the research of legislative history, such as looking at the last versions of legislation or determining the intent of brand new in drafting legislation. Much of this information is unavailable digitally or online, likely because with the sheer volume in the work and the relatively low demand by attorneys. For all those resources, legal researchers must turn towards old fashion approach of going several state or federal library, requesting data in advance, and sitting down and reading.