When researching litigation, there are many different issues you might be concerned with. How to submit a brief? How to argue a particular matter? What your chances of success are? What do you know about a particular judge or other individual or firm involved in the litigation?
When researching the construction, submission, and use of material involved in litigation, here is a useful path:
1) Determine all the relevant rules and statutes. Often there are broad, uniform rules, local court rules, and specific judge rules that apply.
2) Locate guidance. Find a useful secondary source (often a practice title) that address what you are doing, the area of law you are concerned with, and the jurisdiction you are concerned with.
3) Locate samples. Often the secondary source(s) you find for 2) include sample forms or templates that you can use. Other places that provide forms include: form banks in commercial databases; court websites; CLE materials.
4) Locate examples. The best place to find examples is usually a docket. However, commercial databases such as Westlaw and Lexis have pulled especially popular items (e.g., briefs) and allow you to search just those.