THE ROLE OF ATTORNEY MENTAL MODELS OF LAW IN CASE RELEVANCE DETERMINATIONS - AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS

This article examines the information seeking and evaluative behavior of attorneys as they search the corpus of law for primary authority in order to solve context sensitive legal issues. First, the dynamic men tal models attorneys construct of the law as expressed in its publishe d artifacts is explored. The relevance judgment of cases is then expli cated in terms of these models. The conclusion reached is that relevan ce judgments shift along a knowledge continuum depending on the status of the attorney's mental model, and that the factors underlying these judgments are complex, multidimensional, and knowable. Current empiri cal research into the retrieval effectiveness of two full-text legal d atabases is evaluated in light of the behavioral theory and mental mod els developed. The implications of attorney information seeking behavi or for future information retrieval system design for this domain are also explored.