| Internet
Legal Research
Legal Resources on the Web and Subscription Services Beyond Lexis
and Westlaw
Introduction: Search Engines and Scholar
Secondary Sources: Legal
Mega Sites ; Law Journals
Primary Sources: Case
Law; Statutes, Codes, Regulations
Other Commercial Alternatives
Introduction:
Search Engines and Scholar
Start by acknowledging that "everything is not on the Internet,"
and you will be pleasantly surprised by how much legal material actually
awaits you, particularly current primary source materials, and increasingly,
finding aids, resource guides, law related informational sites, and other
secondary resources. Ever evolving search engines make it possible
to retrieve resources with near Westlaw and Lexis-like specificity.
For an introduction to searching the web in general, see:
Web Searching : Created by C-M
Law Librarian Laura Ray, this guide highlights web searching strategies
and evaluation criteria, compares major search engines and meta search
engines, and keys to the invisible web.
See Evaluating the Quality
of Information on the Internet for more insight into
choosing reliable web sites and verifying electronic information resources.
This interactive guide shows how to determine objectivity, find and evaluate
site documentation, ascertain author or publisher credentials, and
find citation data as well as provides examples of questionable
web sites.
The Law Library's home page provides links to numerous
law related web sites. Under Web Research Resources,
you will find an index of relevant links, including the Federal
Legal Resources page, which will eventually lead you to publications
of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches and other agencies.
Many web based resources, including electronic versions of primary source
legal documents, are accessible through the library catalog.
For example, search SCHOLAR
for the title Code
of Federal Regulations or USA
Patriot Act to link to them online.
Secondary
Sources
Legal Mega Sites: The highly selective
list of websites below represents varied approaches to aggregating
links to primary and secondary legal materials. Some also provide original
content in the form of news and commentary.
Legal Information Institute
(Cornell University)
Cornell's Legal Information
Institute's "Wex", a public access legal dictionary
and encyclopedia, provides brief summaries of law topics with links to
key primary source material, other Internet resources, and useful offnet
references. Cornell's
Legal Research Encyclopedia - topical and jurisdictional
arrangement of all available formats of legal information resources, with
citations to research tools and direct links.
FindLaw
Free federal and state case law, legal web directory, forms, legal news,
as well as per transaction fee access to Westlaw
LexisONE
Free federal and state case law from the last five years (US Supreme Court,
1790 to date), forms, legal news, legal web site directory, state
resources center, and as well as daily, weekly, monthly and other subscription
plans
Internet Legal Research
Group : A categorized index of more than 4000 select
web sites, thousands of locally stored web pages, legal forms, and down
loadable files, this site was established in 1995 to serve as a comprehensive
resource of the information available on the Internet concerning law and
the legal profession, with an emphasis on the United States of America.
Virtual Chase
: Research strategies for finding the law on the internet
aimed at legal professionals. The Virtual Chase's Legal
Research Guide organizes links to web sites and resources by subject
American Law Sources
Online (ALSO) : Comprehensive compilation of links
to freely accessible on-line sources of US, Canadian, and Mexican
law. Includes links to Legal
Monographs
Zimmerman's
Research Guide : Online encyclopedia for legal researchers
provides brief explanations for diverse legal, factual and business topics,
reference to print resources and links to online materials
Hieros
Gamos : Comprehensive legal links and information center,
especially noted for foreign and international law coverage
ABA's
LawLink: The Legal Research Jumpstation : Links to
ABA and other resources as maintained by the American Bar Association
Legal technology Resource Center
Global
Legal Information Network : Maintained
by the US Library of Congress, the GLIN is a database of laws, regulations
and other complementary legal sources submitted by member countries and
organizations
USA.gov:
The U.S. Government's Official Web Portal :
Gateway to federal information sources, including federal legal sites
and links to state, local and tribal information pages
Law
Journals on the Web: Law review content on the Internet
ranges from contents pages to full text of the most recent issue, to significant
full text archives. Some journals are now published exclusively
on the web.
University Law Review Project
Law Library of
Congress Law Reviews Online
Washburn University WashLaw
Law Journals
Internet Legal Research Group:
Law Journals and Publications
Tarlton
Law Library Contents Pages from Law Reviews and Other Scholarly
Journals
American Law Sources
Online United States - Law Reviews and Periodicals
The
Salmon P. Chase College of Law of Northern Kentucky University Law Review
Electronic Submissions Web Site
Heinonline
(subscription database available to C-M students on campus):
Image based, full- text law review collection
Primary
Sources
Selected Internet case law sites:
United States Supreme Court Opinions :
Where
to obtain US Supreme Court Opinions - a document of all the
published print and electronic sources for the court's opinions.
Opinions from the 2000 term to date are published on the Supreme
Court's web site Other
sources include:
Federal
Cases:
U.S.
Courts: The Federal Judiciary The Administrative Office
of the U.S. Courts provides links to all federal courts web sites, PACER
service center, and other federal court information
PACER
(Federal Court dockets) Public Access
to Court Electronic
Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service that allows
users to obtain case and docket information from Federal Appellate, District
and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S.
Party/Case Index. Note: PACER requires registration and results
are not free (currently $.07 page) A PACER login and password allows access
to Federal case and docket information in all approved Federal Judiciary
electronic public access programs including PACER
, RACER , CM/ECF
, and the U.S. Party/Case Index
LexisONE
provides access to federal case law since 1998; FindLaw
provides links to searchable databases of federal appellate
court opinions by circuit ( Sixth
Circuit, 1995 to date ) and web sites of the district courts.
Ohio is in the Sixth Circuit Federal
Court of Appeals ; the federal trial court serving Northeast
Ohio is the United States
District Court, Northern District, for the State of Ohio , : its web
site contains forms and some notable
cases . Bankruptcy case information, forms and publications
of the United States Bankruptcy
Court, Northern District of Ohio appear on its web site.
Altlaw
is a full-text searchable source for federal appellate and Supreme
Court cases. Supreme Court cases go back to 1991 and appellate cases go
back 8-15 years, depending on the jurisdiction. Altlaw has a more sophisticated
search mechanism than LII or Findlaw, and Altlaw is adding the West Reporter
citations (F.3d, etc). District court cases may be added in the future.
Findlaw
- Searchable database of the Supreme Court decisions since 1893. Court
of Appeals decision coverage varies by circuit, with nothing older than
1992. Each circuit must be searched individually - there is no way to
search multiple circuits at once.
LII
- Cornell University's Legal Information Institute provides a searchable
database of Federal appellate court opinions over all jurisdictions. Coverage
varies by circuit, but nothing is older than 1992. This site also contains
recent US Supreme Court opinions and landmark Supreme Court opinions.
Opinions
and regulatory actions of federal administrative agencies, such
as
National Labor Relations Board (v. 255 to date) Securities
and Exchange Commission (1996? to date) , and Federal
Trade Commission (1995-date) appear increasingly on agency
websites.
Ohio
Cases:
Ohio Supreme
Court : Opinions issued since 1992 appear at the Court's web site
and are full text searchable . Public
Information Office : Opinions and Case summaries; Oral
Argument summaries.
Ohio Rules of Court
(html and pdf versions) Provided at the Ohio Supreme Court's site: can
search across the rules by keyword
Decisions
of the Ohio District Court of Appeals serving Cuyahoga County
can also be searched at the Supreme Court's web site from 2000 to date,
or through the Eighth
District Court of Appeals web site. The decisions of
Ohio's other Courts of Appeal as well as the Court of Claims are
also searchable from the Supreme Court's Reporter
of Decisions page.
The
Cuyahoga County
Court of Common Pleas provides access to its Civil
Case Docket and its Criminal
Case Docket . The
Cuyahoga County Probate Court provides online access to its
docket.
Other
Ohio judicial and executive agency opinions, such as Ohio
Attorney General Opinions (1994 to date), Board
of Tax Appeals (1997 to date) and Ohio
Elections Commission Advisory Opinions are published on the agency's
individual web sites.
Selected Internet statutes, codes, regulations
sites :
Federal:
The United
States Code , provided in an unannotated form by the US Government
Printing Office, is also accessible from Cornell's
Legal Information Institute US Code arranged by section with
links to updated legislation, Findlaw
, and the U.S.
House of Representatives U.S. Code web page.
Thomas
, the web site of the United States Congress, provides legislative
information from the 93d Congress to date, the Congressional
Record starting with the 101st Congress, and Committee
Reports from the 104th Congress to date., as well as links
to other resources and historical documents.
The Code of Federal
Regulations and the Federal
Register also searchable on the web on US Government sites,
as well as Findlaw
.
Ohio :
The
Ohio Revised Code appears
online in an unannotated version, as well as the Ohio
Administrative Code of regulations for Ohio agencies.
Search also the Ohio
Constitution online, as well as Bills
and Legislation passed by the Ohio General Assembly.
Proposed regulations appear in the online Register
of Ohio
Municipal Codes
Major Ohio cities:
Akron Municipal Code
Cincinnati
Municipal Code
Cleveland Charter
and Codified Ordinances
Columbus
City Codes
Toledo Municipal Code
Other Northeast Ohio Cities: Bay
Village , Bedford
Heights , Chagrin
Falls, Euclid,
Highland
Heights , Lakewood
, Lorain ,
Mayfield Heights
, Mayfield Village
, Medina ,
North Olmsted , Orange
, Pepper
Pike , Rocky River
, Shaker
Heights , Solon
, Valley View
, Westlake
, Wickliffe
, Wooster
Other Commercial Alternatives
Casemaker Web Library
offers Ohio primary legal resources and forms and practice aids to members
of the Ohio State Bar Association (including student members)
Fastcase:
Federal and state case law, most 1950 to date, statutes and regulations
for the fifty states . Free to members of the Cleveland
Bar Association
Loislaw : Federal and state
case law, statutory law, constitutions, administrative law, court rules
and other authority
Versuslaw : State
and federal case and statutory law offered in a variety of low cost plans
JRN
4/2004 Rev 3/07
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