The aim of the Applications of Advanced Computing Techniques Series is to publish accounts of particular computer application areas which provide good examples of advanced practice in the fields concerned. In some volumes, the techniques described will be advanced because of the particular computer technologies used. In other volumes the techniques will be advanced because they illustrate new ways of using computing in particular fields, or because they raise new social and ethical issues. All the volumes are designed to be readable both for practitioners working in the application area concerned (in this case lawyers) and for computer professionals interested in leading edge applications. Philip Leith meets all these objectives in this volume. The first four chapters provide a valuable introduction to computer concepts and methods of holding information, from the specific point of view of the practising lawyer or student. Whilst some of these issues may be familiar to computer practitioners it is only through a proper appreciation of the technology that the real benefits to the working lawyer become clear.