Internet Legal Research Links
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”]
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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