Law Related Sites of Interest
Statutory & Caselaw Research
Law Related Sites of Interest
Statutory & Caselaw Research
Cornell University Law School Research
The Cornell University Law School has
created a web page which is an excellent source for statutes and New York
State Court of Appeals decisions. It is a free and searchable site which
makes it an excellent tool for legal research.
New York Caselaw Searching from Lawsource.com
Lawsource.com is an excellent free legal
research source for short term case law decisions published by the New
York State Court of Appeals and Appellate Division (all 4 Judicial Departments).
The only caveat is that the cases are only for the past 7 months. There
are even search engines to research the status of Bills and Chapter Laws.
What is also interesting to note is that this site also has the local County
Ordinances for Suffolk, Rockland and Sullivan Counties. There are also
links to municipal laws, the New York City Local Laws, forms, the Unified
Court System, and many law reviews There is a link for each of the 50 states
laws, and a link to an excellent source of Federal statutory and caselaw.
Lawsource.com also contains laws for Mexico and Canada. This site has a
wealth of information which is all free.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/nycode s/index.html
Consolidated Laws of the State of New York (Searchable)
Findlaw.com is currently one of only a
few free sources on the Internet that allow users to search the Consolidated
Laws of New York. It allows searching via boolean search queries, and depending
on how broad or specific the search, the user should be able to retrieve
the required statute or statutes.
Free caselaw retrieval with Lexisone.com
Finally a free website from Lexis/Nexis!
The only caveat to searches on this site is that you must know citations
to get an exact match and if nothing is found, the service offers to refine
the search and provide results for a per search fee. Although not the first
tool to use when beginning research, it is a useful source to rely upon
when the exact citation is known.
Lawguru.com - Primary Authority Searching
Lawguru.com can be confusing to use. It
was posted by a law firm in California and allows the user to search various
state's statutes and caselaw. The site is limited in that it relies upon
the official sites to retrieve information. It seems to be a platform or
search engine that searches the official sites and pulls decisions or statutes.
The interesting service that this page provides is that you are able to
search the same issue, whether it be caselaw or statutory in nature, in
multiple state jurisdictions, Federal jurisdictions or any combination
of the two.
Jurisline.com
Jurisline.com was touted as the first
totally free and searchable legal research website comparable to the pays
sites of Lexis and Westlaw. This site has fallen far short of that expectation
and is even less impressive than sites that came before it in legal research.
There are always portions of the page that are down. It seems as though
there are major technical problems. This site is only mentioned because
it was a very popular link to many law and public library home pages, and
users should be wary of its reliability.
Government Sources
Official Homepage of the New York State Unified Court System
The Unified Court System is the Judicial
Branch of New York State Government, and this is its homepage. This page
contains many links to everything happening in the New York State Court
System from job postings to calendars for any judge's part in the state.
This is a great resource for the practicing attorney or a citizen who wants
to know about jury service.
Official Homepage of New York State
The State of New York has posted a homepage
that has many links for general information regarding New York State. Although
there is no legal research value to the page, there are interesting links
to the Court System and the Legislative branch that discuss how these systems
of government function.
Official Homepage of the New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly has created
a homepage that allows the user to conduct a Bill search, hear audio from
the Assembly floor and many other excellent features.
Official Homepage of New York City
This site is the official homepage for New York City. It is a source which allows the user to explore what each city agency's duties and responsibilities are, along with links to each agencies individual homepages, along with the Mayor and other officials homepages. The homepage also offers links for entertainment, business resources, and job postings.
New York City Council Homepage
This page is dedicated to the New York
City Council and it also has links to each individual Borough's council
members. This page also has various reports prepared by the City Council
along with schedules for meetings, land use rules and finance and budget
reports. What is most interesting is a link for the New York City Local
Laws which are searchable.
United States Government Printing Office
The United States Government Printing
Office has created this site to assist the user in researching which publications
and forms are available from the Federal Government. The user can also
purchase any needed publications online from this site.
Attorney Locator Directories
http://lawyers.martindale.com/marhub
Martindale Hubbell Attorney Directory
Martindale
Hubbell attorney directory has traditionally been "the source" when attempting
to locate an attorney. The directory has made the transition to the Internet
and the site allows the users It can be searched by individual attorney
name, area of specialty, name of firm, location of practice or whether
the individual works for the government. This is a very useful tool for
a patron to find an attorney.
http://www.washlaw.edu/lawfirms.html
Attorney Directory by Washlaw.edu
Washlaw has a comprehensive
site, but this section deals specifically with directories of law firms
organized geographically. The site also has links to other legal directory
sources. Washlaw also has a link for private law librarians to join their
listserv. This is another excellent resource for providing information
regarding counsel, especially if they are searching for an attorney out
of state or in another country.
Legal News
Legal Newsfrom Law.com
This site is one
of the most comprehensive sites regarding the law. If used correctly, this
site can be a source for legal research as much as it is a source for legal
news and updates from the United States Supreme Court. The homepage has
links at the left side of the window for legal professionals, law students,
business and public. This site is also useful for New York because it is
affiliated with the New York Law Journal, a daily paper published during
the week which contains required information for New York Attorneys, including
court calendars and announcements of decisions by various courts. There
are many links to various pages within law.com that are useful including
a legal dictionary. It is a good tool for the legal professional and the
layperson for information.
General Legal Information
General Legal Research from alllaw.com
Alllaw.com is a
legal search engine designed for both the legal professional and the layperson.
The directory is comprehensive, and it also provides general legal information.
This site has access to full text of the New York State Statutes and caselaw,
as well as statutes and caselaw of all fifty states. Unfortunately, the
statutes are full text, but not annotated. The search for caselaw is limited
to recent Court of Appeals case, which is only 1/3 of all the case law
in New York State. There is also access to New York City Housing Court
Decisions, Attorney General Decisions, State Government, State Courts,
Bar Associations, legal resources, forms, law schools, and news.
http://lawcrawler.lp.findlaw.com
A
Legal Search Engine
from Lawcrawler and Findlaw.com Findlaw.com is a
site that provides many functions. This particular function is a search
engine that searches only sources that pertain to the law. This tool can
be a helpful resource to research articles on a legal topic that is "off
the beaten path". This site tends to be geared to the legal professional,
but a layperson would also understand how to use and take advantage of
this service. Lawcrawler uses Findlaw.com to link many publications together,
including the New York Law Journal. You can search for caselaw in the Federal
and State Courts (lower courts not covered as completely as higher courts),
and Federal and State statutes. You can also get information on legislative
action in both the Federal legislative branch and the State Legislatures
of all 50 States. The tools on this site are invaluable in that they are
all free!!
http://www.findlaw.com Research
with Findlaw.com Findlaw.com is a
very useful source for finding many types of law related web based materials
on the Internet. It functions similarly to Google or Yahoo in that you
can search the Internet with their search engine or browse their directories
for relevant information. The best part is that it is entirely free.
Hieros
Gamos- An International Law Web Page Hieros Gamos is
an international web page for law. The links at the left side of the window
are helpful in finding information quickly. This site also functions much
like a regular search engine, but it is geared towards International law.
It also has a broad range of directories which are also very helpful.
http://www.law.indiana.edu/v-lib
WWW
Virtual Library: Law a part of The World Wide Web Virtual
Library This page was put
together by Indiana State University in conjunction with the World Wide
Web Virtual Library. This page allows the user to search the "Virtual Library",
by "Topic" or "Information Type". This is a good site for students who
need to write a paper on the law without highly technical
information.
http://dir.yahoo.com/government/law<
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Yahoo's
Law Directory This page is within
a sub-directory of Yahoo's directories. It provides interesting links to
numerous law related sites.
The
Edward Bennett Williams Library at Georgetown University Law
Center The Georgetown.edu
site was put together by the people at The Edward Bennett Williams Library
at Georgetown University Law Center. It gives access via 5 main locations
entitled "Electronic Collections", "Periodicals Research", "Law Related
Websites", "Tools for Legal Scholars" and "Beyond the Law Library". Each
section is nicely divided in a way that is easy to understand. Many of
the links for the Library's tools are for students and faculty only. There
is access to the library's catalog of holdings, and links to other law
related web pages not affiliated with the University.
http://www.virtualchase.com The
Virtual Chase Among other things,
this site is a finding tool for other legal sites on the web. It is helpful,
but the amount of information on the site can be overwhelming. The Virtual
Chase links to various web based legal researchers. It also provides current
information regarding technology and the law. It even seems as though this
site was created for law librarians and the public. The page has tips on
teaching legal research via the Internet and skills needed for legal research.
This site is an excellent tool for learning and conducting research of
a legal nature.
http://www.washlaw.edu/reflaw/reflaw.htm
l
The
Virtual Law Library Reference Desk The Virtual Law
Library Reference Desk is to provide access to legal reference information
available on the Internet. The Virtual Law Library Reference Desk serves
the Students, Professors, Staff and Internet Visitors of Washburn University
School of Law Library World Wide Web Services in Topeka,
Kansas.
Page last updated July 25, 2001
Christopher S. DeCristofaro, Webmaster
and Author of this page
Mineola & Bohemia, New York