Legal Beagles

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Self-Administered Legal Research

If you want a fool for a client...

True: There are lots of places on-line where you can conduct your own legal research.

The two best places to start "free" research into United States law (both federal and state) are the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School, at

http://www.law.cornell.edu

and FindLaw, at

http://www.findlaw.com

Both sites have extensive databases of their own material, as well as links to many other sources of information. With the two, you have access to a complete archive of decisions by the United States Supreme Court, and a way to reach materials (legislative, administrative, judicial) for all fifty states. FindLaw also provides access to many secondary materials, public information, and international (i.e., non-U.S.) legal sources.

Becca-bob says, "Bookmark 'em."

Other useful sites are:

(1) the United States Federal Judiciary Home Page:

http://www.uscourts.gov/

(2) the Library of Congress THOMAS service, providing extensive information (current and historical) on proceedings in the U.S. Congress:

http://thomas.loc.gov/

(3) the United States Patent and Trademark Office:

http://www.uspto.gov/

(4) the U.S. Copyright Office:

http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/

And don't miss

http://wwwsecure.law.cornell.edu/topics/copyright.html

(5) The Federal Web Locator (hosted through the the Information Center at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology), which purportedly provides access to all known federal Web sites:

http://www.infoctr.edu/fwl/

(6) LawCrawler (good for non-U.S. law):

http://web.lawcrawler.com/

True: If you have money to burn on your legal research, you can also use pay services. If you have that much money to burn, however, just hire a lawyer; at least you can sue them for malpractice if they screw up.

Both Lexis, owned by Reed Elsevier, and WestLaw, by West Publishing, Co., are available via Web access. Previously available only through subscription services with direct access (and affordable only by over-paid attorneys), both services can now be used by anyone with a Web browser and a credit card.

On the other hand, they do provide massive amounts of information, accessible through sophisticated search engines. Lexis and WestLaw both cover United States law (federal and state; legislative, administrative, and judicial), and foreign (non-U.S.) law. Both have extensive records of secondary materials, news, public records, blah blah blah.

If only the best will do, use Lexis or WestLaw. Warning: They're still not cheap.

http://www.lexis.com/

http://www.westlaw.com/

If you have a citation (to a statute, court opinion, treatise), you can obtain a copy through WestLaw's WestDoc service for a not-quite-nominal, but bearable, fee:

http://www.westdoc.com/

References:

• The Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School
• FindLaw
• THOMAS, from the Library of Congress
• The Federal Web Locator
• LawCrawler
• Lexis
• WestLaw
• WestLaw's WestDoc service