The Question Method of Legal Research Interactive Legal Research Modules
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Chapter 2 · Educational

Reading a Results Page

A search can return hundreds of results. You will never open them all. The skill is skimming the few facts on each result that tell you, in seconds, whether a document is worth your time.

How to use this: click the highlighted parts of each result to learn what to skim and why. Then try the filter rail on the left, and the question below the results.
(landlord OR lessor) AND habitability AND heat

4 results · sorted by relevance

Stop and think

Notice your four results come from four different jurisdictions — Arizona, Michigan, California, and a federal court. Only your jurisdiction's law (plus the federal law that reaches it) binds your court; the rest is, at most, persuasive.

Your matter is in Arizona state court. Which filter narrows this cluster to the law that could actually bind you?