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[rank_math_breadcrumb]Category: Legal Services
Written by David J. O. Tuhusula on 10/09/2022
The author’s views are entirely their own and may not always reflect the views of Putranto Alliance.
Having a well-researched answer is always helpful in solving complex issues. By having all of the necessary facts and precedents, one can produce a complete and satisfying answer. Hence we cannot refute the importance of doing research. Especially in legal aspects, proper legal research may provide the necessary support for the clients – making it one of many cores of law practice.
With this service, we can provide you our expert opinion to help determine whether a proposed new policy would expose your business to liability or harm your business, helping you in your decision-making processes.
Legal research is a process designed to help find legal precedents or to find the fitting “authorities” that can help answer various legal questions/problems. In this case, “authorities” would refer to the rules of law binding on the courts, government, and individuals. The rules of law may vary from statutes, regulations, jurisprudence, and so on. The government generates most rules of law, while some rules resulted from the endorsement of international agreements or foreign constitutions. Opinions of legal experts may also become one of the resources for legal research. Because although the opinions may lack the binding effect that statutes/regulations have, expert opinions may be able to help explain what the law is or what the law should be.
Legal research can generally help just about any case, as we can adjust it depending on the needs and how intense it is. Due to how vast the resources we can use for legal research, correctly interpreting the resources is just as important so that we may conduct proper research. Therefore, finding the right tools and the correct point of comparison may greatly contribute to finding the needed answers.
When it comes to conducting research, of course, there’d also be methodology in play. Depending on the method used to conduct the research, it produces different kinds of results that provide aid and/or solution to different legal issues. As such, there are several types of legal research, described as follow:
Tightly related to legal research, a “legal opinion” is a formally expressed letter from licensed legal professionals (usually lawyers), with the content usually containing legal analysis regarding a certain matter, as requested by the client. The Black’s Law Dictionary defines a legal opinion as a “lawful statement written by a court judge, judicial officer, or legal expert. Decision on an action, condition, or intent being within the law. Also, refer to the opinion of counsel.”
Legal professionals usually provide legal opinions to provide solace for clients who are not familiar with the workings of the current law. However, cross-border business transactions may also benefit from them. In a legal opinion, the legal professional expresses their understanding in writing regarding the connectivity of the legal issue at hand with the governing provisions to identify the issue further and/or the risks that might surface.
For example, a client wants to open a branch for their business in another country, but naturally, the country in question adopts a different kind of law from the client’s country. In this case, the client may ask their legal advisor to contact the law practitioners in the destination country to seek a legal opinion to further understand the law in the said country. By doing this, they can understand whether the type of business is valid, complies with the law, and so on.
Fundamentally, a legal opinion cannot be a substitute for legal advice.
The main purpose of a legal opinion is to inform the client are:
To provide aid to clients optimally, a legal opinion would contain searches conducted regarding the issue, assumptions regarding what the legal professional cannot reasonably check (usually due to privacy/confidentiality matters at play), the qualification of the legal professional (to limit the opinion as it’s not ethical to provide absolute assurance), and the opinion of the legal professional who worked on the opinion itself.
Legal research is important due to its capability of providing law analysis (by categorizing the necessary elements such as issues, facts, and existing regulations into separate elements for more straightforward analysis) and blending the previously separated elements into one coherent legal writing while associating it with doctrinal/theoretical issues (to see if it’s applicable or compliant with the existing situation of the society). As a result, it will be easier for the legal professional to identify the issue and later find a solution.
Conversely, receiving a legal opinion is just as important for the client’s side as it can provide valuable legal documents to protect them even within legal proceedings. Not to mention, clients are sometimes non-experts in law (thus needing advice from legal professionals). The client receives the assistance they need in the form of legal opinion that saves their time and money. This results in the client being able to perform their obligations optimally.
Our experienced legal advisors are well-versed in providing legal opinions (and, if required, legal advice). The involved parties can avoid both legal and/or financial consequences that may prove to be fatal in the future. From doing legal research, analyzing documents, and participating in any possible confrontational situations, we go above and beyond to provide the opinion and/or advice you may need for your future endeavours in business.
Black’s Law Dictionary | Legal Opinion ❯
Cornell Law School | Legal Research ❯
Harvard Law School Library | Legal Research Strategy ❯
Lexis Nexis | An Introduction to Legal Research
North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership | Socio-legal Studies ❯
No, legal opinion and legal advice constitute two different things.
The Black’s Law Dictionary defines it as “legal advice is the guidance given by lawyers to their clients.”
This is important to differentiate because guidance would mean advising the client regarding what future action they should take. A legal opinion is based on past and/or present facts, where the goal that wants to be achieved is to identify and inform any possible legal risks. Whereas guidance regarding what the client should take – for example, should one produce a demand letter, file a lawsuit, and so on – is within the scope of legal advice.
As both legal opinion and legal advice offer different results and might charge a different rate, being aware of the differences helps save time and money while ensuring one gets the help and the aid that’s much needed.
No, but it is more optimal should it be done by people with a background in law education.
In general, just anyone with a need for legal information can perform legal research. It includes but not limited to: laymen, lawyers, librarians, paralegals, and many others.
Generally speaking, legal research is well-known to take a lot of time and effort to be conducted properly. Access to an online research database (and to governmental institutions, should it be required) can be costly, too. Consequently, the client/the requester may be asked for their understanding should the research take a while to complete.
Thank you for sharing
Jl. Denpasar Raya Blok C4/24 Kompleks Menteri, Kuningan Jakarta Selatan, 12950, Indonesia
+(62) 21-520-4989 putranto@putranto-alliance.com
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