Brief Guide to Low/No Cost Online American Legal Research
Note: Information about and access to these resources is subject to change.
Primary Authority
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Actual Text of "The Law" |
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Generally available and reliable online if from government sources or well-known organizations such as academic institutions, or if in identical form at multiple sources. |
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Secondary Authority
Explanations of "The Law"
Generally less available online because proprietary, with reliability dependent on the reputation of the content author/provider; however, various valuable secondary sources do exist online (often in the form of blogs, guides, portals, wikis, etc. several of which appear as links below).
Judicial (cases, dockets, rules of court)
| Name | Notes/Links/Descriptions | No Cost | Low cost |
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| AltLaw | U.S. Supreme Court and Circuit Courts of Appeal searchable by date, keyword, phrase, name. [N.B. Per a November 19, 2009 notice, AltLaw was to shut down in early 2010.] |
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| Casemaker | Exclusive partner with state bar associations for providing association members with access to primary legal research authorities, including case law, among other things. |
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| Fastcase | Monthly charged, 50-state and federal cases. |
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| FindACase | State and federal case law, grouped by state. |
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| FindLaw | U.S. Supreme Court, Circuit Courts of Appeal, and District Courts, among others, and state courts - searchable and browsable. |
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| Google Scholar | Google Scholar - Advanced Scholar Search - U.S. Supreme Court, Circuit Courts of Appeal, and District Courts, state courts - searchable. |
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| Justia | U.S. Supreme Court, Circuit Courts of Appeal, and District Courts, state courts - searchable and browsable. |
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| Loislaw | 50-state case; U.S. Supreme Court reports; Circuit Courts of Appeal; U.S. District Courts; U.S. Tax Court; others. |
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| OpenJurist | U.S. Supreme Court and Circuit Courts of Appeal - searchable and browsable. |
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| PLOL | Public Library of Law: Access to federal and state cases. |
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| VersusLaw | Offering 3 different online legal research monthly plans covering: U.S. Supreme Court; Circuit Courts of Appeal; U.S. District Courts; other federal courts; United States Code (U.S.C.); state appellate courts; "other court content;" Native American tribal courts; and foreign courts. |
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Court & related websites
| Name | Notes/Links/Descriptions | No Cost | Low cost |
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| U.S. Supreme Court | Browsable "bound volumes" of the United States Reports from 1991 to the present, along with the latest slip opinions and other materials. |
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| U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal | Map of circuit courts, leading to links to their individual websites. |
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| PACER | Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER): an electronic public access service allowing users to obtain case and docket information from federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts, and the "U.S. Party/Case Index" online, subject to a capped, per-page charge. |
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| SCOTUSblog | Blog starting October 1, 2002, with briefs and other materials for all U.S. supreme court cases argued from 2007 to date. |
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| State courts | A directory of official state, county, and city government websites, leading to links to individual state judicial websites. |
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| Justia Dockets & Filings | Searchable U.S. federal and state court dockets and filings from January 1, 2004 onward. |
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| Judgepedia | Interactive online encyclopedia of courts and judges. |
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Legislative (constitutions, statutes, ordinances, legislative history)
| Name | Notes/Links/Descriptions | No cost | Low cost |
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| American Memory | Library of Congress' linked set of published 18th and 19th century U.S. congressional records. Bills and Resolutions |
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| Casemaker | Exclusive partner with state bar associations for providing association members with access to primary legal research authorities, including statutory law, among other things. |
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| Fastcase | Monthly charged, 50-state and federal statutes. |
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| Federal Digital System (FDsys) | Official U.S. Government information migrated from GPO Access (see below), occurring on a collection-by-collection basis. |
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| Founder's Constitution | Anthology 18th and early 19th century documents arranged, among other things, by article, section, and clause of the U.S. Constitution, from the Preamble through Article Seven and continuing through the first 12 Amendments. |
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| GPO Access |
Official versions of the U.S. Constitution and statutes, along with other legislative materials. [N.B. GPO Access will be "Archive ONLY" as of March 2011 -- use FDsys instead.] |
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| Justia | Federal and state statutes - searchable and browsable. |
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| Legal Information Institute |
U.S. Constitution, U.S.C. collections on Cornell University Law School's respected research and electronic publishing site. |
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| Loislaw | 50-state statutes; U.S. Constitution; U.S.C.; Public Laws of the United States. |
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| (U.S. House of Reps.) Office of the Law Revision Counsel |
Website of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, which prepares and publishes the U.S.C. |
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| PLOL | Public Library of Law: Access to federal and state constitutions, statutes. |
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| State statutes | A directory of official state, county, and city government websites, leading to links to individual state legislative websites. |
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| THOMAS | Library of Congress' contemporary federal legislative portal, searchable back to the 101st Congress (1989-1991). |
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Administrative (agency rules / regulations / decisions) materials
| Name | Notes/Links/Descriptions | No cost | Low cost |
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| e-CFR | Beta, unofficial version of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.). |
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| Casemaker | Exclusive partner with state bar associations for providing association members with access to primary legal research authorities, including and regulatory / administrative law, among other things. |
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| Fastcase | Monthly charged, 50-state and federal regulations. |
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| Federal Digital System (FDsys) | Official U.S. Government information migrated from GPO Access, occurring on a collection-by-collection basis. |
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| GPO Access |
Official versions of the C.F.R. and Federal Register (FR), along with other regulatory/administrative materials. [N.B. GPO Access will be "Archive ONLY" in March 2011 -- use FDsys instead.] |
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| Justia | Federal and state regulations - searchable and browsable. |
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| Legal Information Institute |
C.F.R. collections on Cornell University Law School's respected research and electronic publishing site. |
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| Loislaw | 50-state rules and regulations; C.F.R.; FR. |
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| PLOL | Public Library of Law: Access to federal and state regulations. |
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| Regulations.gov | Source for all regulations (or rulemakings) issued by U.S. Government agencies, including all proposed and final federal rules, as well as notices - as published in the FR - and additional supporting materials, public comments, and federal agency guidance and adjudications. |
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| State regulations | A directory of official state, county, and city government websites, leading to links to individual state regulatory / administrative websites. |
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| University of Virginia Library | A portal to federal administrative decisions grouped by agency. |
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Secondary Authority
Explanations of "The Law"
Generally less available online because proprietary, with reliability dependent on the reputation of the content author / provider; however, various valuable secondary sources do exist online (often in the form of blogs, guides, portals, wikis, etc. - several of which appear as links below).
| Name | Notes/Links/Descriptions | No Cost | Low cost |
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| How to Research a Legal Problem | American Association of Law Libraries' (AALL's) 7-page guide for non-lawyers, providing concise and valuable pointers on how to get started, where to go, what to look at, figuring out when to stop, and possibilities for more information. |
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| Georgetown Law Library Research Guides | Georgetown University Law Center's law library research guides by jurisdiction, conveniently covering, among other things, the 50 U.S. states. |
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| Google Scholar & Advanced Google & Google Proximity Search | Google's foray into legal search, covering legal "journals" -- along with Google's "advanced" search features and proximity search capability. |
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The Law Library of Congress' valuable annotated guide to online sources of information on government and law, including selected links to reliable legal information sites. |
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| LLRX | Law Library Resource Xchange (LLRX) provides a collection of research guides submitted by law librarians from a variety of institutions. |
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| Legal Information Institute | Cornell University Law School's respected research and electronic publishing site, including federal and state case law, statutes, and regulations, along with law organized by topic. |
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| Legal Research Engine | A specialized search engine from Cornell University Law Library for locating research guides on a wide variety of topics; searches guides from over one dozen law schools and LLRX. | ||
| LoisLaw | Treatises and forms by practice area: bankruptcy law; business law; construction law; DUI law; elder law; employment law; estate law; evidence law; family law; general litigation; Internet & E-commerce law; limited liability company Law; personal injury law; product liability law; real estate law. |
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| Public.Resource.org | Bulk access to court decisions, statutes and administrative codes, PACER documents, and other materials. |
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| Locating the Law: A Handbook for Non-Law Librarians | Southern California Association of Law Libraries' (SCALL's) revised, 273-page comprehensive resource on law reference and legal research, with particular emphasis on the California and U.S. federal systems. | ✔ |
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| Wikipedia & Wikipedia's "Law Portal" | This "multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia" and its specific "law portal" provide all sorts of valuable information (which, of course, before relying upon it, should generally be verified by reference to other resources). |
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Initially compiled by George D. Wilson in June 2009. Last modified April 2013.
