-It may be the only method of accessing certain aspects of the judicial process.
- It allows valid data to be gained about a private profession, lawyers can be unwilling to be researched overtly.
- There is no Hawthorne effect.
- Still would not be able to access all the places in court, such as Judge's chambers.
- Unable to ask follow up questions or for clarification.
- Very time-consuming, trials can be hugely lengthy.
-Use of legal jargon which may not be understood by the researcher.
- Training would be nessesary to discover inner workings of judicial system.
- Some procedures are private for a reason, especially cases involving children, this could cause ethical issues including breach of privacy and deception.
Improvement of Method
- May be able to follow up on cases being studied via use of official statistics and document analysis(newspaper articles).
-Use of triangulation may improve validity.