What makes older judgments hard to find?

In a recent conversation, I asked a lawyer what makes it difficult to find a relevant Nepal Supreme Court judgment. He described finding older cases as tedious. In his experience, the Nepal Kanoon Patrika site can be unreliable, and keyword searches do not always surface the judgment he is looking for.

Search terms are only part of the problem

He also suggested organizing cases into categories and subcategories by their nature. Someone researching writs, for example, might want to narrow the results by subject. He gave ses pachi ko bakas patra as a topic where seeing related cases together would make research easier.

This points to two different tasks in case research: locating a judgment, then finding other decisions that address a similar issue. A useful search tool has to support both.

An early observation, not a survey

This is one lawyer’s experience, not a broad study of legal research in Nepal. I’m interested in hearing from others who search NKP: Where does the process slow down? Do you struggle more with access, search terms, or finding related decisions?

If you work with Nepal case law, I’d value your perspective. You can reply here or message me on LinkedIn.