Legal Research on the Internet

Legal Research Guides

Posted June 20, 2001.
Prepared by Penny Hazelton for Bridge the Gap.

1. Why use the internet for legal research?

   • Widely available.

   • Some current legal materials will be here before they are in print form.

   • Some current legal materials will be here before they are on Westlaw and LEXIS-NEXIS or will never be in these databases.

   • When you have a citation to current statutes, regulations, court rules, or cases and you want quick desktop access.

   • Low cost.

    

2. What legal information can be found on the Internet in free databases?

   • Primary legal information

     • Current state and federal caselaw - some states go back historically; for example, Oklahoma has all their court opinions in a free database on the Internet,  http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/index.asp?ftdb=STOKCS&level=1.

     • Current state and federal statutes. 

     • Current laws passed by legislatures (session laws) and bill information.

     • Current actions of government agencies, federal and state.

     • Current state and federal administrative codes and registers, http://search.leg.wa.gov/basic/textsearch/default.asp.

     • Current court rules.

     • Many city and county codes.

   • Secondary material

     • Government publications.

     • Law reviews have spotty coverage in full text.

     • Organizations and commercial enterprises are prolific Internet publishers.

3. Evaluate websites for reliability and ease of use.

   • Reliability

     • Accuracy

     • Objectivity

     • Authority, http://www.nativehawaiians.com/.

     • Currency, http://www.co.whatcom.wa.us/superior/Local_Rules/local_rules.htm.

     • Coverage

   • Ease of use

     • Layout, http://www.law.cornell.edu/.

     • Locating information on the site.

     • Retrieving information on the site.

     • Load time.

4. Know what you are looking for.

   • Start with a directory of legal information links.

   • Why?  Quick start; reliable sites; links reviewed regularly.

     • Your firm or organization’s Intranet.

     • Gallagher Law Library's Internet Legal Resources, http://lib.law.washington.edu/research/research.html.

     • Findlaw, http://www.findlaw.com/.

5. Need information about a particular subject?

   • Start with a legal research guide.

     • Seattle University Law Library, http://www.law.seattleu.edu/library/StartingPoints/startingpoints.html.

     • Gallagher Law Library, http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/guides.html.

     • LLRX, http://www.llrx.com/guide/index.htm

   • Use a search engine, http://www.infopeople.org/search/tools.html.

6. Weaknesses of the Internet for legal research.

   • Most databases do not go back very far in time. For example, see the Washington Courts site with only 90 days of opinions online.

   • Statutes are hard to search by subject in electronic form - are they current?

   • Official sites may be quirky; weak search engines; organized poorly.

   • Few traditional legal secondary materials are on the Internet (no legal encyclopedias, few treatises,  looseleafs, or law review articles).

   • Searching across jurisdictional lines is very difficult.

   • Each website uses a different search engine - construction of searches must be modified.

   • Cannot verify the authority of a case (no citators).

7. Conclusion

   • The Internet is just another, albeit, powerful research tool. It can be useful and responsive to your research project or you can just sink hours into surfing. Be aware of the most appropriate research situations in which to use it and take advantage of its depth and breadth. But remember that there are still many print resources and electronic tools for a fee that are cost-effective and useful. A good legal researcher today knows which tools to use and will often use many different tools for the legal research project at hand.  

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