This session introduces a study of what happens when you ask a novice legal researcher to solve a real-world research problem in different, self-contained legal research systems. For each problem, the researcher attempted solutions in Bloomberg, Fastcase, Lexis Advance and Westlaw. How did the researchers analyze the problems and move to a solution through disparate databases that are continually innovating their algorithmic offerings? What were the elements of a successful solution, or the causes of an unsuccessful one? What were the impediments to ease of solution or solvability, in terms of user interface and algorithms? We attempt to strike a balance between assessing the qualitative difficulties a researcher faced across different research systems with quantitative measures of their interactions. This session will give researchers and teachers of legal research usable insights about the problem solving abilities of law students and young lawyers as they navigate constructed search environments of all kinds.
