Legal Research on the Web

I. General Legal Research Sites

There are many free legal research sites on the Internet. The sites described below are generally considered to be some of the best for legal research. Nearly all of these sources are free, but a few require an individual subscription or affiliation with Duke University.

For general tips and strategies in using the Internet for legal research, consult Carole A. Levitt and Mark E. Rosch, The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet: Conducting Effective Investigative & Legal Research on the Web (9th ed., KF242.A1 L485 2008).

Goodson Law Library provides access to many online legal information sources from the Legal Databases & Links page. In addition to primary law from U.S. jurisdictions, you can access Comparative and International Law material and Research Guides for various legal topics as well as many other sources of legal information.
Findlaw: Provides links to online legal resources arranged topically and by user. Includes state and federal primary legal material, as well as legal material from other countries. Also provides forms available for purchase.
Hieros Gamos is a legal information portal for a wide variety of legal and government information, organized in a directory format.
Justia: Provides free access to a variety of legal information.
Legal Information Institute: Cornell Law's extensive collection of legal material including Supreme Court decisions, U.S. Code, U.S. Constitution, Federal Rules of Evidence and Civil Procedure. The "Law About" pages group links to primary legal resources based upon topic.
LexisONE: A free selection of material from LexisNexis (requires registration). Its Legal Web Site Directory provides links to more than 20,000 law‑related Web sites that were selected for their relevancy by legal practitioners. Access to about 6,000 free legal forms. Limited to the last ten years for many state case law databases.
Public Library of Law provides free access to primary sources in U.S. law, including federal and state cases, statutes, regulations, and constitutions. Legal forms are also available. The Public Library of Law was created by the makers of Fastcase (see section IV, Low-Cost Alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw), and also includes ads for fee-based content through the Fastcase service.
WashLaw Web: Large and diverse collection of web links to legal material, maintained by the Washburn School of Law. The information is arranged by jurisdiction and topic.

II. Government Information

The Internet remains an important source for legal information from federal, state and local governments. Below are some of the important sites for Federal Government information as well as a few starting points for locating state law information.

A. Federal Courts

Court Links: The Administrative Office of the US Courts provides links to all available federal court web sites. Many courts provide at least a selection of their opinions online for free.
Findlaw provides a searchable database of U.S. Supreme Court opinions, as well as a Case Summary search for lower court opinions since 2000.
Google Scholar offers free searching for, and full text of, published court opinions from the federal system.
Cornell's Legal Information Institute provides a searchable archive of federal court opinions, including Supreme Court opinions back to 1990 (with selected "landmark" earlier decisions also included), as well as lower federal court opinions generally back to the mid-1990s.
Public.Resource.Org maintains an archive of federal court opinions, organized by reporter (Federal Reporter series and U.S. Reports) and then volume/page number.
The Supreme Court official website includes Court calendars and schedules, background information about the Court and justices, Court Rules, bar admissions information, case handling guides and general public information. Also includes slip opinions for the current term, PDF copies of the bound United States Reports back to 1991, and "sliplist" advance sheets (with links to opinions) for previous terms not yet published in a bound volume. For more information on researching the Supreme Court, see the Goodson Law Library's Research Guide.

B. State Courts

National Center for State Courts: Several courts provide their own opinions online in PDF form. The directory of State Court Web Sites is an excellent starting place.
Google Scholar offers free searching for, and full text of, published court opinions in all 50 states.
LLMC Digital Availability varies by court. Some volumes are available for all jurisdictions. This resource is most useful for historical information. NOTE: Remote access is limited to Duke University faculty, students and staff with a NetID and password.

C. Legislation and Regulations

Federal

THOMAS Primary online source for federal legislative material. Contains new public laws, pending bills, status of bills, committee reports and hearings. Full text of legislation available from 1989 (101st Congress) to present. Depth of other material varies -- some items, including public laws, are earlier in scope. Very current.
Official U.S. Code Search Titles are equivalent to the 2006 edition and annual supplements. Users can select prior versions of the Code (back to 1988) if desired.
FDsys Full‑text access to the CFR (back to 1996), Federal Register (back to 1994), Congressional Record (back to 1994) and other government documents from the Government Printing Office.
Federal Administrative Agency Decisions & Other Actions Can be searched by agency or by subject. Availability of material varies by agency.
ProQuest Congressional contains a great deal of federal legislative material, including: the U.S. Code, full text of public laws, Statutes at Large, CFR, Federal Register, CIS Legislative Histories for public laws, committee reports, Bills, Congressional Record, and congressional hearing testimony with various coverage dates. NOTE: Remote access is limited to Duke University faculty, students and staff.
USA.gov provides one‑stop access to all online U.S. government resources (local, state and federal). Includes topical arrangements, a useful A-Z list of government agencies and departments and Spanish translation of several web pages.

State

National Conference of State Legislatures: Many states provide their legislative enactments on free websites. To easily locate those states, begin with this site, which provides links to state legislature websites.
WashLaw Web: Washburn School of Law links to state government websites, where legislative administrative materials can often be found.

III. Legal Periodicals

An increasing amount of legal scholarship is available on the Internet. The sites below provide access to many full-text online legal journals.

The American Bar Association's Legal Technology Resource Center Journal Search searches the full text of articles from more than 400 open access law journals.
American Law Sources Online: Provides numerous links to online legal journals.
HeinOnline provides full-text access to hundreds of law reviews and journals. Hein is unique in that it provides access to older articles with coverage for most journals going back to the first volume. NOTE: Remote access is limited to Duke University faculty, students and staff with a NetID and password.
Social Science Research Network provides abstracts and PDFs for thousands of scholarly papers, including working papers and pre-publication versions of legal journal articles.

IV. Low-Cost Alternatives to Westlaw and Lexis

Under the terms of its contract with the makers of LexisNexis and Westlaw, the Goodson Law Library may only provide individual password access to current Law School students, faculty and staff members. Users who do not meet these criteria may use a campus-wide version of Lexis, called LexisNexis Academic, on-site at Duke or off-campus with a Duke NetID and password. Users may also be interested in these low-cost legal research services which have emerged in recent years:

Casemaker is a legal research system which is available free to current members of 28 state bar associations, including North Carolina. CasemakerX is a version for law students, which includes full access to the Casemaker research resources. Duke Law students may register for free access to CasemakerX with a school e-mail address.
Fastcase Fastcase includes 50-state and federal case law databases like Federal District, Bankruptcy, and Tax Courts and Federal and state statutes and regulations. There are several subscription plans and Authority Check for updating case law. 24-hour free trials provided. Much of the fee-based material can be accessed via links from the free site Public Library of Law, which is maintained by the same company (see Section I).
Loislaw Loislaw provides access to the full‑text of cases, statutes, constitutions, administrative law, court rules, and other authority for all jurisdictions. The material is current, accurate, and includes a citator. Current Duke Law faculty, staff and students can register for free access that continues through the summer. Ask at the Reference Desk for the registration code.
VersusLaw Versuslaw is another low cost alternative for legal research mainly for primary law such as state and federal cases, statutes and administrative regulations. Current law students may register under the "Special Groups" section at the bottom of the home page.
Westlaw/Lexis a la carte Any of these services can be supplemented by access to Shepard's through LexisNexis Academic or pay-as-you-go KeyCite.