There are three essential steps in doing legal research: 1) finding the law; 2) reading the law; and 3) updating the law. these steps must be undertaken in this order, and each is an important and necessary step in the overall process. Finding the law necessitates first distinguishing primary sources from secondary sources. Primary sources are the law itself as found in constitutions, statutes, court decisions, and administrative regulations and decisions. Secondary sources consist of everything else, such as writings about primary sources. The goal in finding the law is to locate mandatory primary sources bearing on the legal issue involved, and the next goal is to find any relevant and persuasive primary authoritie