INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH LINKS

Manyof the links and resources beloware from Professor Mark Steiner’s Internet Legal Research class websiteby permission. Visit:

I.Overview and Strategy

Know the strengths and weaknesses of free online legal research sites and methods.

Take advantage of these strengths, and be careful about these weaknesses in your online legal research.

II.Advantages of FreeInternet Legal Research

Maybe less expensive for clients

An ever-increasing amount of legal information

A lot of reliable information(official websites)

A lot of current information

III.Disadvantages of Free Internet Legal Research

Less efficient search engines than Westlaw or Lexis

Many irrelevant materials to sortout

Fewer practice aids and secondary sources

Uncertain reliability (if not official sites)

Uncertain updating

IV.SampleWebsites

General Legal News and Commentary

Search engines:

Google Scholar

Google Scholar (Legal):

[Narrow by “Legal opinions and journals”]

Google

Advanced search:

Improving your Google search:

Other samplesearch engines

Meta-engines

(searches the “big dogs” Google, Yahoo, and Bing)

Specialized search engines

(U.S. government information portal)

Legal Information Resources:

1.Legal research guides (law libraries)

(legal research guides)

(research guides and search engine)

(general and subject-specific research guides)

(law subject guides)

(research links for individual state materials)

2.Researching facts and reference materials

(people search)

(select primary sources and law-related information)

(sample legal documents)

3.Researching primary legal sources

Basic legal information sites (portals and directories)

Legal Information Institute

(for lawyers)

Federal legal materials

General

Federal Digital System (formerly GPO Access)

Judicial

U.S. Federal Courts

Case law online (ABA guide)

Justia (recent federal cases)

Legislative

U.S. Code

Library of Congress – legislative history documents

New (Beta) Site – Congress.gov

Administrative

Federal agency documents

Code of Federal Regulations

Federal Register

Wisconsin legal materials

General

Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin - legalmaterials

Wisconsin State Law Library

Judicial

Wisconsin Court System

Legislative

Legislative Reference Bureau (statutes, etc.)

Administrative

Administrative Code and Register

D.Other states’ legal materials

National Center for State Courts – court websites

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