The contents of Researching Texas Law are based on instructional materials prepared by the authors at Baylor Law School for courses in Legal Analysis, Research, and Communications and Advanced Legal Research. Both courses provide extensive instruction in general research skills as well as Texas-specific resources. This book is intended not only for law students but also the more than 83,000 attorneys who practice law in Texas.

Developing legal research skills has always been a challenge, and the many textbooks that have been published over the years have approached the subject with some variety.  The traditional collection of resources, including case reporters, digests, statutory compilations, encyclopedias, annotated law reports, and so forth, remain important in the legal profession. However, today’s law students require instruction and training in a wide array of additional types of sources across various media. Law libraries generally are full of various treatises, practice-oriented guides, looseleaf services, and many other specialized legal resources, not to mention the vast electronic subscription databases, Internet resources, and CD-ROM titles. Even the most thorough basic and advanced legal research courses cannot possibly cover in much detail all of the resources that are necessary for the practice of law.

The complexity of legal research is compounded in Texas due to its rather unique legal system. In practically every area of legal research, the resources and the nature of legal authority in Texas differ from what is typically covered by the major legal research textbooks. Examples are plentiful—a bifurcated appellate system for civil and criminal cases; a seemingly endless process of codifying statutes into subject matter codes; nonconsecutive numbering of the titles of the state’s administrative code; and many others. Teaching legal research in Texasoften involves a comparative process, whereby students must learn not only the “general rules” of legal research but also the many distinctions present in Texaslegal authorities.  Moreover, legal researchers in Texasare “both blessed and cursed” with an ever-growing body of practice-oriented materials from a variety of publishers and organizations, further complicating the legal research process

The objective in preparing Researching Texas Law  was to produce a practical manual for legal research in Texas, focusing on those types of resources and research processes commonly encountered by modern-day practitioners.  It covers not only the basic skills that are needed to perform legal research in the day-to-day practice of law, such as case law research, statutory research, administrative research, etc., but also such areas as jury instructions, briefs and records, civil jury verdicts and settlements, and attorney general opinions. The authors have developed this website to supplement information contained in our book.

The authors hold Juris Doctor and Master of Library Science degrees, and both are members of the American Bar Association, State Bar of Texas, McLennan County Bar Association, American Association of Law Libraries, and Southwestern Association of Law Libraries.