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We offer two ways of searching our catalog: a law library only catalog and OCLC WorldCat. Other catalogs are also available. More
Expand your legal research options with online sources provided by the Gallagher Law Library. More
How do I search for laws on a particular subject? How can I compile a legislative history for a Washington (or federal) law? How can I locate court opinions about a topic? To answer these and other frequently asked questions, the reference librarians have prepared a series of legal research guides. Use these guides to get started on your research project when a reference librarian is not available to assist you or as a reminder as you conduct your research. More
Here, you will find a list of websites that provide legal information and materials (including laws, bills, court opinions, and related documents) and/or links to legal material. Most of these sites are freely available to all users with Internet access. Some sites are UW Restricted, that is, available to University of Washington faculty, students, and staff and visitors to UW Libraries.More
Updated February 9, 2011.
Prepared by Mary Whisner.
Law-related blogs (a/k/a "blawgs") can be good sources for news and quick analysis. A post could give you an idea for a paper topic or help you think about a topic you already have. Blog posts often cite or link to other useful material (e.g., law review articles, reports). Writing blog posts or commenting on others' posts can involve you in a community discussion.
The feeds you watch can be as diverse as you are. There are thousands of law-related blogs – and when you add in political blogs, news services, sports, and the rest of the world, the possibilities are tremendous.
ABA Journal's Blawg Directory.
Blawg is an extensive directory of legal blogs. It is searchable and can also be browsed by category. Blogs are ranked by popularity. A search feature ("Search the blawgosphere") enables you to search blog posts. Every blog listing has an RSS feed, which makes subscribing convenient.
BlawgSearch is another directory of legal blogs. As the name suggests, it makes searching blog posts easy.
Law X.0’s Taxonomy of Legal Blogs is a selective directory. You can choose by topic, by jurisdiction, by type of author, etc. (This site was developed by a law student as an independent study project.)
A Law Student Blogger Directory, a list of student blogs.
Click here for a list of law-related blogs in Washington State.
BlawgSearch enables you to search posts from all the blogs in its directory.
Cornell University Law Library's Legal Research Engine enables you to search academic blawgs.
The ABA Journal released its first ABA Journal Blawg 100 in its December 2007 issue. The editors invite you to vote for your favorites here.
Inter Alia - blog that features a Blawg of the Day. The author, Tom Mighell, also has an e-newsletter, the Internet Legal Research Weekly, which includes the Blawgs of the Day and more.
Blawg Republic "provides a digest view of the latest news and commentary from the legal blogging community." Searchable -- so you can find posts from many blawgs.
Robert Ambrogi's LawSites. Includes blogs as well as other sites of interest to lawyers.
Blawg Review. A "blog carnival" -- each week a different editor highlights blawgs and posts, generally on a theme. For example, in August 2006, Ernest Svenson, who blogs as Ernie the Attorney, offered his picks for "writing, learning & teaching law," among other things in Blawg Review #72; George Lenard of George's Employment Blog, wrote Blawg Review #124; Labor Day Special Historical Edition. The anonymous editor of Blawg Review announces awards in a variety of serious and not-so-serious categories each year (see 2005 and 2006).
Dennis Kennedy gives Blawggies to the blawgs he deems best in different categories.
A feed reader (a/k/a news aggregator, RSS reader) can help you follow blogs and other sources that a regularly updated.
A great video explaining the concept is RSS in Plain English, The Common Craft Show, April 23, 2007.
There are a bunch of readers, including Bloglines, Google Reader, News Gator, and MyYahoo. I haven't tried them all. OK, I haven't tried any but Bloglines and Google Reader. (Why try them others once you find one that works for you?) Bloglines works very well. One feature enables you to share your list of feeds; here's mine.
Feeds with Legal News
Jurist Paper Chase – news stories reported from wire services and other sources by University of Pittsburgh law students.
Law.com feeds – news stories from Legal Times, the Recorder, the New York Law Journal, and more.
Feeds with News
Check almost any newspaper’s website. You can often subscribe to stories from a given section (e.g., front page, sports) or columnist.
| For example, at the bottom of the Washington Post's main page, you'll find this: |
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| If you follow that link, you'll get a menu of different feeds you can subscribe to: |
|
| At the bottom of the Seattle Times's main page, you'll find this: |
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| And that leads to this menu: |
|
When you choose the feed you want, you can paste its URL into your feed reader.
Also, many government agencies have RSS feeds for press releases and other information. For instance, the Washington Attorney General’s Office has feeds for press releases and Attorney General Opinions. Legal Guide for Bloggers
FirstGov has a page listing federal government feeds.
For what it's worth, here are the blogs I contribute to:
Gallagher Blogs - research tips and information from the Gallagher Law Library
Trial Ad (and other) Notes – news and information related to trial practice, with a focus on Washington State.
Legal Scholarship Blog - information about law-related conferences, lectures, colloquia, and calls for papers.
To get started, you need some software (most is reasonably easy to learn if you're used to word processing) and a host. Free hosts include Blogger (blogs with URLs ending in blogspot.com) and WordPress. Another provider (not free, but affordable) is TypePad.
You can also use a consultant who will design the blog for you -- for instance, LexBlog (based in Seattle) specializes in designing blogs for lawyers. Whether or not you use LexBlog, the company's own blog (Real Lawyers Have Blogs) is packed with tips about blogging for lawyers.
What should you think about before you get started? Here are some good tips from a veteran (the author of Legal Andrew): Starting a New Blog? WAIT! See Andrew's other tips here. I wrote about my experience starting Trial Ad Notes in A Blog's Life (2006).
A blogger named Matt Huggins compiled links to 55 Essential Articles Every Serious Blogger Should Read in June 2007. Unfortunately the site was down when I checked (May 8 and 9, 2008). I'm leaving it in this guide in case the problem is temporary. The titles of the articles - but not the links - are listed in this post so they should be easy to find (just not as easy as if we had Matt's links in one place!).
Student blogs
Law professor blogs
I. Law Blogs As Legal Scholarship
II. The Role of the Law Professor Blogger
III. Law Blogs and the First Amendment
IV. The Many Faces of Law Professor Blogs
Electronic Frontier Foundation, Legal Guide for Bloggers
Berkman Center for Internet Law & Society, Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Guide
Knight Citizen News Network, Top
10 Rules for Limiting Legal Risk (includes video segments)
Twitter
Facebook
Blog