Management and Use of Metadata as a Legal Information Retrieval Tool

Abstract

The practice of information retrieval (IR) is not new to the legal profession. IR tools have been present in legal research and practices since electronic information resources have gained inroads into the profession. The surge in the use of electronic means to transfer documents owing to the current reality of the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the concerns as to legal metadata. Metadata is important information that describes information or data. It gives more details about a document. Despite the relevance of metadata as a tool in IR, there is little or no clear understanding as to its management and usage amongst Nigerian lawyers in the course of their legal research and academic writings. Moreover, there is silence on the ethical guidelines as to its usage. Therefore, this chapter addresses the concerns of Nigerian lawyers as to how to manage and use metadata as an IR tool and the ethical issues as it concerns the use of metadata among lawyers.