University of Kwazulu-Natal

Free Federal Free Low Cost Legal Research Libguides At Uc

Bonisiwe Shabane
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free federal free low cost legal research libguides at uc

Constitution Annotated (Congress.gov) contains legal analysis and interpretation of the U.S.Constitution, based primarily on U.S. Supreme Court case law. Cornell's Legal Information Institute (LII) contains an updated edition of the Congressional Research Service's U.S. Constitution Annotated with hypertext interpretation of the CRS text. It links to U.S. Supreme Court opinions, the U.S.

Code, and the Code of Federal Regulations, and allows for navigation through search, breadcrumbs, linked footnotes, and a tables of contents. The Founders' Constitution (an online equivalent to the print edition) organizes original source documents according to constitutional provision. The following are some of the top sources for federal statutes and legislative history. Note that federal statutes on free sites are typically unannotated, and you should check that they are the current version. A number of these resources have popular name tables, which are very helpful if you only know the popular name of the statute (e.g. The Americans with Disabilities Act).

Congress.gov contains a wide range of government documents, including legislation, committee reports, congressional records, and treaty documents. Federal case law and court documents is often available online for free, particularly if the case was decided recently. Generally, check the website of the deciding court to see if they provide digital copies of their cases. In addition, the following resources provide free case law. Many statutes and legislative materials are available for free online and this is only increasing over time. While you should always be careful to ensure that you confirm your findings with an authoritative version of the law, free resources can be a great starting place for statutory research.

PO Box 210033 Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0033 Alerts | Clery and HEOA Notice | Notice of Non-Discrimination | eAccessibility Concern | Privacy Statement | Copyright Information Examples & Explanations for Legal Research by Terrill Pollman, et al. Hone your ability to identify, understand, and locate cases, statutes, regulations, and secondary sources with the explanations in this book. Principles of Legal Research by Kent C. Olson

This is the successor to the venerable book How to Find the Law. It provides in-depth knowledge of legal resources and discussion of advanced legal research techniques. Legal Research in a Nutshell by Kent C. Olson This Guide contains a wide range of free legal resources. It includes both primary and secondary sources of law, government tools and resources, court information and resources, research guides, self-help information, and more.

When researching and using any resource, it is important to be aware of the source or publisher. Evaluating Online Resources, a guide provided by the American Association of Law Librarians, details the importance of evaluating content coverage, currency, and reliability when accessing legal information. The legal resources provided in this guide come from various sources, so please be aware of the publisher and cite to official sources whenever possible. Primary Law: includes official, authoritative information and law provided by government agencies and designated official publishers (e.g. .gov websites and Official Reporters for cases). Secondary Law: legal resources and information provided by unofficial publishers (often for profit legal publishers, non-profit organizations or law schools) that are are not maintained or verified by the government or official designated publisher.

These are often used in conjunction with primary law and include explanations and summaries of primary law. The following three websites provide free access to the United States Code (U.S.C.). All three of these versions of the code are unannotated (i.e., they do not include references to cases and other related primary and secondary sources). On all three of these sites, one can locate code sections by citation or key word as well as browse the lists of titles, chapters, sections, etc. to drill down to the relevant section(s). When looking for a U.S.

law, oftentimes you only know the popular name (e.g. Family and Medical Leave Act). Finding the citation is made easier by use of a popular name table. Below you will find web sites that list the popular names of laws in alphabetical order and provide the citations to those laws (both the Public Law and United States Code (U.S.C.) citations). Federal statutes are first published as slip laws (individual pamphlets designated by public law number and containing the text of newly passed legislation). At the end of each Congress, the slip laws are compiled and published in chronological sequence as session laws in the official session law publication for federal statutes, United States Statutes at Large.

West Publishing publishes an unofficial session law set, United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN.) Below are several websites that provide free access to U.S. Congressional bills. For more information about bills, consult the UCLA Law LibGuide on Federal Legislative History. Below are several websites that provide free access to U.S. Congressional committee reports.

For more information about committee reports, consult the UCLA Law LibGuide on Federal Legislative History. myAU | AU Library | myWCL | Library Home | myLEAGLE Library Account Library Home | Research Guides | LEAGLE Catalog | E-Journals & Articles | Library Databases | Frequently Used Resources | Ask a Librarian Welcome to the research guide for free and low-cost legal research. Our goal is to help you find accurate and useful legal information when you don't have access to the expensive "big three" legal databases: Westlaw, Lexis, or Bloomberg Law. We've divided the guide by type of legal document (legislative, judicial, administrative) with additional sections on secondary sources and materials for our local jurisdictions (the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia).

This guide was last updated 28 January 2025. This guide discusses both free and low-cost options for legal research. The free resources are listed first, with the low-cost resources following. If a resource charges a fee, it will be noted in the description. These low-cost options are usually available through a subscription and are not pay-as-you-go or pay-per-use. Here are the major free resources we cover in this guide:

This guide contains selected free online legal research resources. These resources can be a great way to get started with your research when you don't have access to paid databases or if you want to get an overview of a topic before getting... The guide can be used by students, faculty members, lawyers, and the general public. Here's a few misconceptions about "Free" online legal research: As research cost continue to climb, there are many "free" resources that can help you from breaking the bank. PO Box 210033 Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0033

Alerts | Clery and HEOA Notice | Notice of Non-Discrimination | eAccessibility Concern | Privacy Statement | Copyright Information Major legal research databases can be prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, many free and low-cost resources for conducting legal research are available. This guide will help you locate them. We will mainly focus on resources for researching federal law and Washington State law. Some resources for researching the law in other states and countries are mentioned as well.

Remember to evaluate every source that you consult to determine whether it is current, accurate, and authoritative. This is particularly important when relying on free and low-cost resources. Fastcase is a low-cost legal research database. It was recently acquired by vLex. If you are a member of the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA), then you can access the vLex Fastcase database for free through your WSBA membership. For more information, see WSBA: vLex Fastcase.

If you are an SU Law student, staff, or faculty member, you can access Fastcase and vLex for free using the links below. You can access additional legal research databases, including Westlaw and CoCounsel, for free through the King County Law Library (see link below). The law librarians and library staff at Robert Crown Law Library are here to help you! You can find the latest information about our hours and services on the library homepage. There are several ways to contact us: Zoom: Drop in to our virtual reference room during our Reference Desk hours to ask any questions.

Make an appointment: Online and in-person appointments with the reference staff can be made from the library homepage. This guide provides links and suggestions for searching in resources that are freely available (or available for a low cost) when conducting legal research. It is organized into secondary sources and primary sources. Secondary Sources will cover general research platforms with significant legal materials as well as selected research guides. Primary Sources will specifically address low cost legal research options, as well as free legal research options across all government branches. Sources include:

For foreign and international resources consider: There are countless free (or low-cost) legal research resources available online. The trick is narrowing down the available information to find reliable and up-to-date information. This guide provides links and suggestions for free and low-cost legal research resources, including: free federal, California, and secondary resources; low-cost legal databases; and other resources and guides. While you are a student at Berkeley Law, you have access to a wealth of commercial legal research databases including Lexis and Westlaw. These are terrific resources, but there are reasons why you should understand how to also use free and low-cost legal research options, including:

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Code, and the Code of Federal Regulations, and allows for navigation through search, breadcrumbs, linked footnotes, and a tables of contents. The Founders' Constitution (an online equivalent to the print edition) organizes original source documents according to constitutional provision. The following are some of the top sources for federal statutes and legislative history. Note that federal statut...

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