Uwakwe abugu

6.
Legal research methodology is simply a way of addressing and exploring 
unsettled legal questions or issues. Legal research methodologies are 
techniques by which one acquires legally relevant information, analyzes, 
interprets and applies them to resolving issues at hand and presenting the 
findings. 
Thus, legal research methodology is a scientific and systematic way to 
solve any legal question. Legal research methodology also refers to rules of 
interpretation of legal problems and issues. It is a systematic effort of 
making an argument to arrive at a true or accurate account of the subject 
matter under consideration. 
The researcher should explain properly why he uses a particular method to 
evaluate research results either by the researcher himself or by others. The 
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adoption of a particular methodology should stem from the research 
objective and research purpose. 
7. 
Types of Legal Research 
It is important to know and understand the different types or methods of legal 
research available to legal researchers. In this Paper, we shall consider most of the 
types or methods of legal research as follows: 
7.1  Descriptive Legal Research 
Descriptive Legal research is defined as a research method that describes the 
characteristics of the population or phenomenon that is being studied. This 
methodology focuses more on the “what” of the research subject rather than the 
“why” of the research subject. In other words, descriptive legal research primarily 
focuses on the nature of a demographic segment, without focusing on “why” 
something happens. In other words, it is a description based which does not cover 
the “why” aspect of the research subject. 
For example, a lawyer that wants to understand the crime trends among FCT, Abuja 
will conduct a demographic survey of this region, gather population data and then 
conduct descriptive research on this demographic segment. The research will then 
give us the details on “what is the crime pattern of FCT, Abuja?”, but not cover any 
investigative details on “why” the pattern exits. The reason is because, for the 
lawyer, trying to understand these crimes patternsand the nature of their crimes is 
the objective of the study.
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7.2  Quantitative research 
Quantitative Legal Research is a characteristic of Descriptive Legal Research 
Methodology that attempts to collect quantifiable information to be used for 
statistical analysis of the population sample. It is a popular research tool that allows 
us to collect and describe the nature of the demographic segment. Quantitative 
Legal Research collects information from existing and potential data using sampling 
methods like online surveys, online polls, questionnaires, etc., the results of which 
can be depicted in numerical form. After careful understanding of these numbers, it 
is possible to predict the future and make changes to manage the situation. 
An example of quantitative research is the survey conducted to understand the 
turnaround time of cases in the high court and how much time it takes from the time 
the case is filed until the judgment is passed. A complainant’s satisfaction survey 
template can be administered to ask questions like how much time did the process 
take, how often were they called to court, and other such questions. 
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Types of Legal Research 
https://legodesk.com>legopedia>types-of-legal-research
> assessed on 10 08 2021. 

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7.3  Qualitative Legal Research 
Qualitative Legal Research is a subjective form of research that relies on the 
analysis of controlled observations of the legal researcher. In qualitative research, 
data is obtained from a relatively small group of subjects. Data is not analyzed with 
statistical techniques. Usually, narrative data is collected in qualitative research. 
Qualitative research can be adopted as a method to study people or systems by 
interacting with and observing the subjects regularly. The various methods used for 
collecting data in qualitative research are grounded theory practice, narratology, 
story-telling, and ethnography.