INFORMATION RESOURCES AVAILABILITY AND USE BY LEGAL PRACTIONERS IN THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY OF NIGERIA

Abstract

In the last two decades, the legal profession and professionals have witnessed proliferation of legal information resources as both primary and secondary sources, aimed at bringing about efficient and effective provisicn of legal services. It is one thing for information resources to be produced or published; it is another for such resources to be available for use by those whom the resources are meant for. It is against this backdrop that the researcher attempted to verify the various legal information resources available for use by Legal Practitioners in the Federal Capital Territory and the extent to which the resources are being put to use by them. The survey research method was used for the study as well as the stratified simple random sampling procedure. Responses were obtained through the use of questionnaire,oral interview and observations from 346 respondents out of the sampled 415 Legal Practitioners.

Major finding of the study among others is that "Law Reports" "Laws""Statutes" and "Newspapers/Magazines" were the most available and frequently used information resources by Legal Practitioners in the Federal Capital Territory. The paper concludes by recommending that Legal Practitioners need to harness resources together for a common website where they could all share information resources,among others.