I am currently a third-year law student and have completed a few litigation internships where I was regularly assigned legal research tasks. One challenge I repeatedly face is that a single legal issue often has 20–30 relevant judgments, many of which are 100–300 pages long. As an intern working under tight deadlines, it is simply not practical to read every judgment from beginning to end.
The problem is that I am never sure how experienced lawyers approach such research. If I skim through a judgment, I worry that I might miss an important observation, a distinguishing fact, or a key legal principle. On the other hand, if I try to read every judgment in full, I spend far too much time on the assignment and struggle to complete my work within the expected timeline. I often find myself unsure about which parts of a judgment deserve close attention and which sections can safely be skipped.
My question is: When you are researching a legal issue with dozens of lengthy judgments, what is your practical approach to reading and analysing them efficiently? How do you quickly identify the ratio, relevant facts, and key observations while ensuring that you do not overlook an important point or precedent? Are there any techniques for the same?
