Information disruptions and disruptive information sources in the practice of law: Obstacles in gathering information, through an Israeli lens

Abstract

Lawyers must provide their clients with competent legal services and professional representation. However, in many cases, lawyers find it difficult to attain the necessary information to resolve legal concerns under their inquiry. Disruptive sources of information and faulty information are understudied features of professional information behavior, especially in the information-rich legal profession. The current research aims to explore these complexities and promote a fuller and more realistic understanding of the information-gathering practices of legal practitioners. Israel was chosen as a case since it upholds a thriving and active legal sector. Data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a purposive nationwide sampling of 25 practising lawyers in Israel, covering together over thirty different fields of legal practice with a fair diversity of other personal and professional attributes. The findings portray accessibility, content, and usability disruptions in lawyers’ information practices, as well as accentuate seven troublesome information sources in their use during legal work and their distinctive aspects of disruption. This study provides important insights regarding legal professionals’ erroneous information engagement and experience and reveals some of its inherent drawbacks; hence, supporting a more rounded understanding of the role of information in professional work behavior. Hopefully, the presented concepts and insights could also benefit other service-oriented information workers.