Low cost internet US Legal Research in the United States

The following guide describes selected online resources useful for researching U.S. federal and some State (such California) law. For resources that are freely available via the Internet, see here.

Judicial (cases, dockets, rules of court)

• Casemaker. Exclusive partner with state bar associations for providing association members with access to primary legal research authorities, including case law, among other things.
• Loislaw: Loislaw is a subscription service, but users may sign up directly with Loislaw for a free temporary trial subscription. Federal and state court cases, including District Court cases, statutes, regulations and rules are available in Loislaw as part of the trial subscription. Loislaw is useful because it provides more flexible search options than some of the other resources identified in this research guide, such as full-text word searches. Loislaw includes some additional materials, such as public records and certain secondary publications. However, these materials are not included in the free trial subscription. This resources includes Full-Text Primary Source Materials and Additional Secondary Information. Loislaw content includes: 50-state case; U.S. Supreme Court reports; Circuit Courts of Appeal; U.S. District Courts; U.S. Tax Court; others.
• VersusLaw: Offering 3 different online legal research monthly plans covering: U.S. Supreme Court; Circuit Courts of Appeal; U.S. District Courts; other federal courts; United States Code (U.S.C.); state appellate courts; “other court content;” Native American tribal courts; and foreign courts.
• Fastcase: Includes Monthly charged, 50-state and federal cases.
• Nolo (at nolo.com). Nolo publishes legal guides for non-attorneys, providing information useful to answer common legal questions and for those representing themselves in legal proceedings. Nolo’s web site contains articles on a myriad of legal subjects. The articles are geared for non-practitioners, and are organized by topic. Most articles include links to related subjects and other online tools, including a database of primary source materials. This resources includes Full-Text Primary Source Materials and Additional Secondary Information.

Court & related websites

• PACER: Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER): an electronic public access service allowing users to obtain case and docket information from federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts, and the “U.S. Party/Case Index” online, subject to a capped, per-page charge.

Legislative (constitutions, statutes, ordinances, legislative history) and Administrative (agency rules / regulations / decisions) materials

• Casemaker: Exclusive partner with state bar associations for providing association members with access to primary legal research authorities, including statutory law, among other things.
• Fastcase: Monthly charged, 50-state and federal statutes.
• Loislaw: Includes 50-state statutes; U.S. Constitution; U.S.C.; Public Laws of the United States. See above.

Secondary Authority

• LoisLaw: Treatises and forms by practice area: bankruptcy law; business law; construction law; DUI law; elder law; employment law; estate law; evidence law; family law; general litigation; Internet & E-commerce law; limited liability company Law; personal injury law; product liability law; real estate law.

PERIODICAL INDEXES

• HeinOnline: HeinOnline contains full-text PDF files of law reviews as well as selected primary source materials. HeinOnline is a good resource for obtaining copies of specific journal articles and to search journals not indexed in other databases. However, HeinOnline provides fewer searching options than LexisNexis Academic Universe and the other databases listed below, and HeinOnline’s search engine takes a long time to retrieve search results. Accordingly, LexisNexis Academic Universe and the below databases may be more useful for topical searching.
• Index to Legal Periodicals. The Index to Legal Periodicals (ILP) is a database of legal literature including law reviews, legal news periodicals and selected books. ILP has a variety of search options including keyword searching and browsing topic headings. Although ILP does not include the fulltext of most articles, HeinOnline, LexisNexis Academic Universe or UCLA’s e-journals can often be used to obtain online copies of the referenced articles.
• Legaltrac. Legaltrac is an index to law journal articles. Legaltrac has similar search options as ILP, and like ILP, Legaltrac does not include the full-text of most articles. Once an article is located, HeinOnline, LexisNexis Academic Universe or UCLA’s e-journals can often be used to obtain an online copy.