New Book Display: Legal Research and Writing


Finding relevant information and leading cases can be difficult as the law is constantly changing, as well as how it is recorded and delivered.

These titles, ranging from 1987-2019 to give a brief overview of the changes in legal research and writing.

Print Resources Available in the Library:

How To Use A Law Library 2nd ed. by Jane Dean and Philip Thomas

On Using A Law Library 5th ed. by Margaret Banks

Legal Research Handbook 3rd ed. by Douglass MacEllven

Guide To International Legal Research 2nd ed. by The George Washington University Journal of International Law and Economics

Strategic Legal Writing: Preparing Persuasive Documents by Law Society of Manitoba Education and Competence Department

The Practical Guide To Canadian Legal Research, 4th ed. by Nancy McCormack et al.

Electronic Legal Research For Luddites! by Law Society of Manitoba Education and Competence Department 

 The Comprehensive Guide To Legal Research, Writing & Analysis by Moira McCarney

Legal Writing and Research Manual by John A Yogis

Legal Research Boot Camp by The Law Society of Manitoba

Electronic Resources

Online

The CanLII Primer: Legal Research Principles And CanLII Navigation For Self-Represented Litigants / The National Self-Represented Litigants Project (2016)

The Canadian Legal Research And Writing Guide, 2018 – CanLII

desLibris (available behind the Law Society’s Member’s Portal)

Legal Research and Writing 4th ed. (2015) by Ted Tjaden

Guthrie’s Guide to Better Legal Writing by Neil Guthrie

New Guides – How to Find e-Resources and How to use dèsLibris

We subscribe to several e-services on behalf of members of the Law Society of Manitoba, and we want to make sure you use them. Sometimes, all we have to do is tell you about them. Some platforms, however, are not very intuitive, so Allyssa McFadyen has created tutorials on how to use them. 

First off, we want to make sure you know where to find these resources. This guide on Accessing Library Resources Behind the Member’s Portal shows you how to sign in. 

Our dèsLibris subscription gives you access to the Irwin Law “Essentials of Canadian Law” series. The platform can be a little difficult to navigate. Allyssa has put together screen shots showing what we consider the easiest way to use it. 

All our guides are available on our Legal Ease page. If there are other resources you need help using, let us know. Allyssa will be happy to put together an instructional tutorial for you. You are also welcome to visit the library for in person assistance in using your resources. 

New Guide – How to Search Manitoba’s Hansard

Hansard is the official record of all debates and meetings of the legislature. It is an invaluable resource when researching the intricacies behind particular legislation. Manitoba’s Hansard is online from 1958 to the present, however, using it can be quite challenging,  particularly when you’re looking for information prior to 1996.

Legal Information Professional Allyssa McFadyen received some tips from staff at the Legislative Assembly’s Reading Room, and developed this easy-to-follow guide.

If you have further questions or difficulty with finding out what the government was thinking when they designed a particular statute, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Guide to Creating an Alert on CanLII

As information professionals, we are specialists in finding answers. But we also love to share our methods with everyone. One way to do this is by creating guides and tutorials on how to do what to us, are simple tasks, but to others, may be a challenge. The first guide we’ve created is on how to know when there are new Manitoba decisions on CanLII.

Manitoba’s courts have been distributing their decisions for free on CanLII since the turn of the century. Currently, we distribute the decisions to the legal publishers the day we receive them. CanLII usually has them available online within 24 hours.

Our guide, created by Allyssa McFadyen, demonstrates how to set up an alert in your calendar program to remind you to check CanLII for new results, or how to set up an RSS feed to be notified when new content has been published. Once these systems are set up, it is a simple matter to stay on top of new caselaw.

We plan to publish additional guides in the future, on such topics as how to search Hansard (Manitoba edition), and how to use our catalogue. If you have suggestions for research methods you would like explained, please let us know. Check our page, Legal Ease, for new content. It happens to be RSS-ready.

The Great Library will be closed from December 25, 2024 to January 1, 2025 for the winter holidays. Regular office hours will resume on Thursday, January 2, 2025.