RESEARCH STRATEGY

There are many strategies for researching terms and concepts on the Internet. The nature of your research, and your familiarity with its related legal English vocabulary, will determine the best choice. Such research sometimes requires a variety of strategies.

In this example, the problem requires you to examine both broad issues as well as more narrow but complex issues.

Broad research and term identification are often best done using directories (see more about directories in task 10).

1) Are US judgments enforceable in Jersey?

To answer this question, it would be useful to find a directory of legal resources for Jersey.

Using the Google search engine (www.google.com), enter the following search query:

Jersey law

One of the first links is to the Jersey Legal Information Board. Click on that link to find a variety of resources relating to Jersey Law.

Enter the following search query into website’s search bar in the top right-hand corner of the page:

enforcing foreign judgments

Scan through the resulting hits to find out whether American judgments are enforceable in Jersey.

Remember to use your browser’s search function to help you find particular words and phrases (e.g. foreign judgment) on any particular page.

2) Are US judgments enforceable in your jurisdiction?

Use the skills and research techniques you have developed during tasks 1–14 to find out whether American judgments are enforceable in your own jurisdiction.

If you already know the answer to this question, practise the Internet skills discussed in question 1 by choosing an alternative foreign jurisdiction, e.g. England.

3) Are contingency fee arrangements permissible in Jersey?

When searching for narrower or more complex concepts on the Web, search engines can very useful, particularly for identifying terms and definitions.

Using the Google search engine, enter the following search query:

define:contingency fee

This will provide you with at least two reliable definitions.

Now let us find out whether contingency fees are permissible in Jersey. Using the Google search engine, enter the following search query:

contingency fees Jersey

While Google returns many hits, most (if not all) of them are for the American state of New Jersey. The following search query will lead you to all UK-based websites which refer to contingency fees in Jersey (Channel Islands), leaving out all websites with references to New Jersey (USA):

“contingency fees” Jersey –“New Jersey” site:.co.uk

This narrows the search considerably. Unfortunately, none of the hits returned look particularly useful.

Although Jersey is part of the United Kingdom, it does have its own domain name. Find the domain name for Jersey by scanning through the list at the Norid domain registration site (http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html).

The domain name for Jersey is .je.

Using the information above, think of a search query that would find pages with information on contingency fees in Jersey.

Using the Google search engine, enter the following search query:

~“contingency fee” site:.je

The first link is to a university past paper in the area of Private International Law and Company Law (Jersey). Note that this search has taken us back to the Jersey Legal Information Board, as featured in question 1.

Scanning through the paper will provide you with an answer to question 3. However, as a university past exam paper is not a particularly authoritative document and does not make explicit the situation in Jersey concerning contingency fees, it would be worth cross-checking the information with another site.

Unfortunately, it would seem that we have exhausted all of the possible ways of finding out whether or not contingency fees are permissible in Jersey. Let us try one last search:

Using the Google search engine, enter the following search query:

Legal fees Jersey –“New Jersey” site:.je

This will broaden the search to general legal fees in Jersey. Scan through the documents to see if you can find any references to contingency fees.

One promising site is the Jersey Citizens Advice Bureau (http://www.cab.org.je/submenu_page_view.php?menu_id=41&submenu_id=119).

Click on the link and run the search query legal fees through the search bar at the top right-hand corner of the site.

While the site doesn’t make any explicit mention of contingency fees, it does state that the following:

Legal Fees
An agreement on fees should be set out in a letter of engagement. You may be required to pay on account on a monthly or weekly basis. Make sure you obtain from your lawyer an estimate of the fee s/he proposes to charge or the likely range of such fees.

Again, it does not state explicitly that contingency fees are not available. However, at the very least they must be very uncommon, as so far only one website has made explicit mention of them.

To be absolutely sure, remember that you can always contact one of the lawyers listed in the many Jersey websites you have seen. A short email would provide a final answer to your question, and may save much valuable time.

Let us compare our results for question 3 with those for question 4.

4) Are contingency fee arrangements permissible in your jurisdiction?

Use the skills and research techniques you have developed during tasks1–14 to find out whether contingency fees are enforceable in your own jurisdiction.

If you already know the answer to this question, practise the Internet skills discussed in question 3 by choosing an alternative foreign jurisdiction, e.g. England.