internet and subscription-based legal research margaret clark, reference librarian fsu college of...

Internet and Subscription-based Legal

Research

Margaret Clark, Reference LibrarianFSU College of Law Library

December 2005

Objectives

• Identify Web sources of value for conducting legal research

• Identify subscription databases other than L/W for conducting legal research

Legal Research on the Web

GOOD FOR:• Current and recent documents• Significant or recent cases; SC

cases• Federal & state codes, statutes

and regulations• Government publications• Foreign and international materials

Legal Research on the Web

NOT GOOD FOR:• Older cases; historical materials• Annotated codes• Full-text journal articles• Treatises• Complete overview of the law• In-depth, thorough legal research

Subscription-based databases

GREAT FOR:• Locating full-text articles, law

reviews, some treatises• Locating retrospective and current

articles and cases• Florida case law not in W/L

Secondary Sources

• Treatises• Law reviews and articles• Encyclopedias and dictionaries

Locating treatises

• Aleph, online catalog• NetLibrary• WorldCat• Index Master

All are subscription databases.

http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/

http://www.lib.fsu.edu/__databases.html

http://www.lib.fsu.edu/__databases.html


Locating law reviews• LexisNexis Academic• Index to Legal Periodicals (ILP), 1980-

• ILP Retrospective, -1980

• LegalTrac• Hein Online

• JSTOR; Project Muse• E-journals page

All of these are subscription databases

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00006KGI6.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006KGI6%3Fvi%3Dpictures&h=500&w=323&sz=33&tbnid=gxYj9LZF-oMJ:&tbnh=127&tbnw=82&hl=en&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522law%2Breview%2522%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D


Locating law reviews

• Emory’s list of legal journals• Findlaw’s list• Google Scholar• Law Library of Congress• University Law Review Project

All of these are free Internet sites

http://www.law.emory.edu/erd/journals.html

http://stu.findlaw.com/journals/index.html

http://scholar.google.com/

http://scholar.google.com/

http://www.loc.gov/law/guide/lawreviews.html

http://www.lawreview.org/

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

• Pathfinders/Research Guides– LLRX (Law Library Resource Exchange)– LexNotes.com Pathfinders

• Online encyclopedias– Zimmerman’s Online Encyclopedia– Cornell LII’s Wex

• Online dictionaries– Law.com dictionary – ‘Lectric Law Lexicon

http://www.llrx.com/

http://www.lexnotes.com/paths.shtml

http://www.lexnotes.com/paths.shtml

http://www.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmerman/

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Main_Page

http://dictionary.law.com/

http://www.lectlaw.com/def.htm

http://www.lectlaw.com/def.htm

Case Law

• Court Web sites– Florida Supreme Court

• Portal Web sites– Florida State Courts– Findlaw.com– National Law Journal

• Subscription databases– Lexis-Nexis Academic– Hein Online

Case law – Portal sites

• Findlaw: Cases and Codes• LexisOne.com• Cornell LII• American Law Sources Online (ALSO)• National Law Journal• Federal Court Locator• Florida State Courts

Text of Opinions

http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/

http://www.lexisone.com/

http://www.law.cornell.edu/federal/opinions.html

http://www.lawsource.com/also/

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/utility/courtopinions.jsp

http://www.law.emory.edu/caselaw/

http://www.flcourts.org/

Case law – US Supreme Court

OpinionsFREE

•Supreme Court 1991 to present

•Findlaw 1893 to present

•Lexisone.com 1790 to present

SUBSCRIPTION DATABASES•Hein Online 1754 to present

•BNA U.S. Law Week, 1997 to present

•LexisNexis Academic

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/


Case law – US Supreme Court

• Oral Arguments– Supreme Court site (transcript)– Oyez Project (audio)

• Records and Briefs– Findlaw 1999 to present

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/oral_arguments.html

http://www.oyez.org/oyez/frontpage

Case law – Federal courts• PACER (Public Access to Court

Electronic Records) www.pacer.psc.uscourts.gov

• Electronic public access to service that allows users to obtain:– Case information– Docket information– Documents

• From Federal Courts– Courts of Appeal– District & Bankruptcy courts

http://www.pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/

http://www.pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/

Case law – Federal courts

• Searching PACER– U.S. Party/Case Index– PACER District Look-Up

• Subscription database: – agencies or individuals must register

• Very inexpensive– $.08/page (applies to number of

pages that results in any search), OR– $.60/minute charge– $2.40 maximum per document

http://pacer.uspci.uscourts.gov/

http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/lookup.html

Case law – Federal courts

• Other sites for federal cases:– www.uscourts.gov free Internet

– LexisNexis Academic subscription

http://www.uscourts.gov/

http://www.uscourts.gov/

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe

Case law – Florida • Free, Internet

– Florida Law Online portal site– ALSO: Florida (portal site)– Florida Supreme Court 1999+

– Fla. SC Records and Briefs Apr 1998+

– FSU Briefs and opinions Nov 1989+

– WFSU Oral Arguments Online 1997+

– Opinions from other Florida courts• Subscription

– Florida Law Weekly 1995+

– LexisNexis Academic – State search

http://www.floridalawonline.net/

http://www.lawsource.com/also/usa.cgi?fl

http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/

http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/pub_info/summaries/archives.shtml

http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/flsupct/

http://wfsu.org/gavel2gavel/

http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/index.shtml

http://www.floridalawweekly.com/


Court Rules

• LLRX’s Court Rules• U.S. Supreme Court, Cornell LII• Federal Judiciary

http://www.llrx.com/courtrules/

http://www.llrx.com/courtrules/

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ctrules/ctrules.html

http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/supct/index.html

http://www.uscourts.gov/rules/newrules8.html

Constitutions

• U.S. Constitution (GPO Access)• U.S. Constitution (Library of Congress)• Florida Constitution

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/browse.html

http://www.loc.gov/law/guide/usconst.html

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/

Statutes - Federal

• Portal sites– Law Library of Congress

• Federal– GPOAccess, Cornell LII,

US House of Representatives site, Thomas

http://www.loc.gov/law/guide/uscode.html

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/

http://uscode.house.gov/

http://thomas.loc.gov/

Statutes - States

• Florida– Online Sunshine constitution, statutes

– Department of State public laws

– Digest of General Laws only electronic

– Law Library of Congress portal site

• Other States– Findlaw, Cornell LII,

Law Library of Congress

• Municipal Codes -- municode.com


http://www.loc.gov/law/guide/us-fl.html

http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/index.html#statelaw

http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/state_statutes.html

http://www.loc.gov/law/guide/usstates.html

http://www.municode.com/

http://www.municode.com/

Legislative History

• Federal– Thomas, GPO Access free

– LexisNexis Academic subscription

• Florida– Online Sunshine official online site

http://thomas.loc.gov/

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/



Administrative Law• Federal

– Federal Register• GPO Access, Regulations.gov (Internet)• Hein Online (subscription)

– Code of Federal Regulations• GPO Access (official text)• E-CFR (most up-to-date)• Cornell LII

• Florida– FAC: http://fac.dos.state.fl.us– FAW: http://faw.dos.state.fl.us

http://fac.dos.state.fl.us/

http://faw.dos.state.fl.us/

Administrative Decisions

• Federal– Individual agency web sites (directory)– List of federal agency decisions

• Florida– Division of Administrative Hearings (free)– Florida Administrative Law Reports (sub)

http://www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/fedgov.html

http://www.lib.virginia.edu/govdocs/fed_decisions_agency.html

http://faw.dos.state.fl.us/index.html

http://www.falr.com/

Current Awareness

• Cornell’s InSite highlights selected law-related

Web sites

• LLRX Buzz Web journal on Internet legal research

• The Virtual Chase legal research articles

• Abstract Appeal weblog for Florida law

• Findlaw’s Breaking Legal Documents email newsletter

http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/Finding_the_Law/default.htm

http://www.llrx.com/index.htm

http://www.virtualchase.com/

http://www.virtualchase.com/

http://abstractappeal.com/

http://newsletters.findlaw.com/

Citation Guides

• Cornell’s Basic Legal Citation– http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/

http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/

The End

internet and subscription-based legal research margaret clark, reference librarian fsu college of...

Documents

law indepth

law week

subscription databases

present slide

cases florida case law

wl slide

case law portal sites

thorough legal research