Start with what you have* and actually read it.
The type of resource that you start with -- case, law review article, regulation, statute -- will influence your research plan. Generally, you can formulate a research plan by reading what you already have and using it to:
- Gather concepts and vocabulary.
- Analyze it for its relationship to other resources.
- Find its sources.
- Find sources that cite to it.
- Understand its history.
- Determine what its possible future might be.
- Find commentary on your resource.
* if you have nothing, go to a secondary source (law review article, book, treatise, nutshell, ALR) on a subject you are interested in and read it.
