Ethics, accountability, and cost‐benefit analysis in legal research

The ethical standards that govern the legal profession are adopted by supreme courts and enforced through the state bar associations. Central to these codes is a recognition of the two roles of a lawyer, client's advocate and officer of the court, roles that frequently conflict. The codes of ethics necessarily set general standards for professional competency and candor. In a world where both legal issues and sources of legal research are becoming more complex, lawyers must often try to keep research costs down at the risk doing less than thorough research. The lawyer's choice potentially exposes her to either a malpractice suit or bar discipline. To prepare new lawyers better to balance such competing considerations, law schools are now taking a more active role in making the study of ethical considerations central to legal education.

Keywords:

• Law
• ethical codes
• legal research
• advocacy
• computer‐assisted research
• malpractice
• litigation
• adversarial system