LEGAL RESEARCH ON THE WORLD WIDE WEBCONVENIENT, FAST & FREE And did I mention “free”? Maybe even better than that are these aspects: (1) you can do it from your office or home, and (2) if you find what you need, no more driving to the law library, and this is a great free resource to get your further legal research pointed in the right direction. We’ll be pointing out some of the more popular links for the various jurisdictions, starting with federal resources, then moving to including California, Florida then New York and New Jersey, along with some use tips and pointers for you. Finally, we’ll finish up with general online legal resources including various legal sites offering chat areas, forums, legal forms and links to most all US State Bar Associations. User’s NOTES: (1) All the links following (shown in blue and underlined) were working as of the publication date of this activity but on the Web, who knows what’s coming (witness the “dot com debacle”) (2) If your computer is connected to the internet, you can click on the links to visit the sites.(3) The pictures following illustrate the various websites discussed, but the links shown in the pictures are not live links. Where possible, pictures of the sites discussed are included. FEDERAL ONLINE LEGAL
RESOURCES: There are a number of sites where you can find, browse and search Federal Statutes: http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/uscode/
You can also search all titles of the US Codes here: http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/uscode/search/index.html
The Federal Government Printing Office also offers resources and searchable links to the US Codes. You can SEARCH the federal codes online here: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html
Or go directly to the US Code titles and sections here: http://www.access.gpo.gov/uscode/uscmain.html
US Supreme Court opinions can be accessed here: http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/decisions.html
The US Supreme Court official Website also has relatively recent opinions, which can be accessed here: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/opinions.html
The following link will let you access the complete US Code of Federal Regulations here: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html
Findlaw offers US Courts of Appeals opinions and official websites at this link: http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/
Here’s a picture of their page:
And a picture of Findlaw’s main page, at:
NEW YORK ONLINE LEGAL
RESOURCES: One online New York Internet Law Library is offered by lawguru.com:
http://www.lawguru.com/ilawlib/42.htm The following picture shows the main page you’ll arrive at when following the link just above:
New York Statute searches, by key word, are available here (illustrated just below the link): http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi?COMMONQUERY=LAWS
Notice the green search box at the top of the page. You can enter your key word or search terms then press the grey “search” to find them in the various statutes. Various New York State Agencies also have a presence on the Web, and you can locate many with this link: http://www.state.ny.us/state_acc.html
While the above page is titled “Citizen’s Access to State Government”, attorneys will also find the site of value to locate, contact and peruse the websites of the various state agencies. Main page for State of New York Court of Appeals: http://www.courts.state.ny.us/ctapps/ Here’s what greets you on your arrival. Notice the court’s
link to the latest decisions shown at the lower right in the following
picture:
This is the page for the NY Court of Appeals recent opinions, as shown by the graphic following the link: http://www.courts.state.ny.us/ctapps/latdec.htm
You can also search the NY Court of Appeals site by key word and phrases; here’s what you’ll find at this link: http://www.nycourts.gov/search/appeals.asp
For older opinions, visit The New York State Law Reporting Bureau’s Web site, where you can find most all of the decisions of the Court of Appeals and the Appellate Division as well as selected decisions of the trial-level courts. The decisions are contained in the Official Reports, which include the New York Reports, the Appellate Division Reports, and the Miscellaneous Reports. You can find the New York State Law Reporting bureau here: http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/ Here’s what greets you when you arrive on their page:
You can search the NY State Law Reporting Bureau at the following location: http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/Decisions.htm And you can search by the options that follow (links in
the following are working links):
NEW JERSEY ONLINE LEGAL
RESOURCES: New Jersey law sources are also available from Rutgers Law School’s New Jersey Court opinions: http://lawlibrary.rutgers.edu/search.shtml Here’s where you’ll land from the above link:
You can find New Jersey Statutes at the New Jersey Law Network, here: http://www.njlawnet.com/njstatutes.html NOTE: search by key words at bottom of page This is what greets you on your arrival at The New Jersey Law Network:
Note the top of the blue column on the left margin; at the top you can search the New Jersey law sources, including Court Opinions, Court Rules, Ethics and Evidence Rules and NJ Statutes, plus NJ Law by Topic. Should you click on the “court opinions” link, here’s where you’ll go to:
Once on the above page, you can search their searchable databases providing the full text of New Jersey Supreme Court, and Superior Court Appellate Division opinions. Authorized versions of opinions provided by the New Jersey Supreme Court, and the Administrative Office of Courts. CALIFORNIA ONLINE LEGAL
RESOURCES: You can find California links to case opinions, statutes and additional resources as follows: California court opinions: This site offers California Supreme Court, District Court of Appeal and Appellate Division cases within the last 120 days: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/
For California cases from 1850 to the present (courtesy of LexisNexis ®), you can go here: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/continue.htm
Here’s the page that greets you on arrival; note the comments, then click on the grey “continue” button to arrive here: http://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/CACourts/?
After you agree to the terms and conditions and click the red “VIEW OPINIONS ->” link, you’ll be taken here:
California Statutes & Codes can be searched online with this link: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html
NOTE: You can search by key words in one or a number of codes; to simply go to a particular code, check the box for that code. See more information at the bottom of the page CALIFORNIA CORPORATIONS, LP, LLC and other business-related SEARCHES: http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/list.html
CALIFORNIA CITY MUNICIPAL CODES: http://www.appellate-counsellor.com/resource/municode.htm
Other California resources are available from the Internet Law Library, provided by www.lawguru.com: http://www.lawguru.com/ilawlib/22.htm
California Judicial Council Forms can be accessed at the following link. NOTE: Use “drop down” menu to select forms from alphabetical list: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/forms/
FLORIDA ONLINE LEGAL RESOURCES: You can reach the Florida Supreme Court with this link; the illustration shows what will greet you there: http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/
Florida Supreme Court Opinions: (also court rules, documents and some forms) are available via this link: http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/index.shtml
Florida District Courts of Appeal can be reached by this link: http://www.flcourts.org/courts/dca/dca.shtml
To search Florida Statutes, click on the following link: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?Mode=View%20Statutes&Submenu=1&Tab=statutes
If you want to perform a key word search of the Florida Statutes, use this: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?Mode=Search%20Statutes&Submenu=2&Tab=statutes
Want to access the Florida General/Local/Special Session laws? Then click the following link: http://election.dos.state.fl.us/laws/laws_proced.shtml
GENERAL LEGAL SITES ON THE WEB: There are many general legal sites available. The following list is not exhaustive, but does include some of our favorites. Lawguru.com offers some great legal resources…some for work and some for play, including legal employment, forums, online legal research and even a “Weird & Dumb Laws” link. Following the link just below is a picture of their main page :
And here’s some of lawguru.com’s additional interesting additional links and resources (NOTE: the links below are working if you’re connected to the internet)
Lawworm.com offers a great general resource to get you started, including statutes (various state and federal, case opinions, chat rooms, information on legal employment and lots more, at: http://www.lawworm.com/mcle/mcle_index.html The picture below shows you what waits for you at the lawworm.com site:
The online resource Lawyertool.com touts themselves as offering you the
ability to “Search over 550 free
legal related databases from one easy interface. You will be able to find
federal and state court opinions, statutes, Constitutions, Forms and much
more.” Here’s the link to
their main page: Here’s an
illustration of what greets you on arrival at the Lawyertool.com site,
followed by a chart of some working links from their site:
Additional lawyertool.com links with working links:
Lawyertool.com also offers both a mostly federal resource database, and a large collection of diverse forms. Following the link below, the illustration below the link shows you their database, followed by a picture of their various legal forms. http://www.lawyertool.com/search/sitemap1.html
Clicking on the lawyertool.com “form” link (http://www.findlegalforms.com/xcart/customer/home.php?XCARTSESSID=75c7677d9614ca699ed54c7a46c72cba) will take you to the page illustrated next. NOTE: Their forms are for sale, but if they can save you hours getting started, they’re no doubt worth the price. Most of their forms appear to be transaction related:
BAR ASSOCIATIONS ONLINE: You can quickly access most State Bar Association’s online sites through the Palidan Legal Exchange website at: http://www.palidan.com/statebar.htm The following picture shows you their comprehensive listing of the US Bar Associations:
In addition to access to most US Bar Associations, the Palidan site also lets you network, find and post legal assignments, read or post in their forums, and post or find pro bono projects and more. This illustration is of the options available to you from their main page:
Here’s a picture of what you can find in the Palidan forums section, located at: http://www.palidan.com/forums/messages/board-topics.html
And for the American Bar
Association, you can use this link: http://www.abanet.org/index.cfm ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- USE THE “BACK’ BUTTON ON YOUR BROWSER TO RETURN TO
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