How To Find Legal Information on the Internet: Part 1

There are many excellent starting places on the Internet for legal research -- far too many to list here. Take a look at the Catalogs, Directories, Indexes, and Broad Sites section of Lexnotes if you need more information in this area.

Statutes & Regulations

United States Code (GPO) / Full-text State Statutes and Legislation on the Internet / The United States Code on the Web: How to Search and Update It (U. of Arkansas) / Code of Federal Regulations (Cornell) / THOMAS (Congressional Record and full text of legislation from 1989 to the present; summaries of legislation back to 1975)

Case Law

LexisOne (Last 5 years of federal and state appellate court opinions free of charge; has Supreme Court cases from 1790) / Supreme Court Opinions (FindLaw) / Federal Case Law Materials (Arizona State U.) / Case Law and Judicial Information (Virtual Chase)

Specialty Subjects

Immigration: LII: Law About Immigration (Cornell) / Immigration Law on the Web (LLRX)

Trademark: Trademarks (LLRX) / Researching Trademarks (Info-Law.com)

Public Records: Pac-Info (Over 4,000 free searchable public records databases; covers US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and elsewhere) / Craig Ball's Sampler of Informal Discovery Links (nice list of public records resources)

Need information on a specific legal subject not listed here? Try FindLaw's Legal Subjects, the Pathfinders Index at Lexnotes, the Legal Topic Areas (you have to scroll down a bit to get to this section) at The 'Lectric Law Library, and Law Topics at the Librarians' Index to the Internet.

Please let me know if you found this article to be helpful.

Tune in next week when international legal resources, lawyer information, associations, and legal reference resources will be covered in How to Find Legal Information on the Internet: Part 2.

Go To Page: 1 2