© Debra Austin, PhD, JD

Advanced Legal Research

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
- Carl Sagan -

Academic Sites

Legal Information Institute at Cornell

Arguably the premier site for legal information on the web, this site combines archives of full-text legal material with a well-organized directory of links to legal resources elsewhere on the Internet. This site is well known for its collection of U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1990, recent decisions of the N.Y. Court of Appeals, the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Code, the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and many uniform laws and treaties.

WashLaw WEB at Washburn University

Washburn University is a major player in the delivery of online legal resources. This site is well known for the broad range of categories or legal topics that link to an assortment of online legal information.

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Associations' and Organizations' Sites

Casemaker - Colorado Bar Association
A comprehensive online legal research library and search engine that is available only to Colorado Bar Association members. This powerful research tool provides CBA members with free and unlimited access to a wealth of legal research materials, including both state and federal case law, statutes, regulations and much more.

National Conference of State Legislatures
This site contains information gleaned from the home pages and websites of the fifty state legislatures, the District of Columbia and the Territories. You can select to view specific website content materials (such as, bills, press rooms, statutes) from all states, one state or a selected list of states.

NCSL Mission Statement:

As NCSL enters its next quarter century of service to legislatures, we are committed to helping you advance your ideas.

To improve the quality and effectiveness of state legislatures;
To promote policy innovation and communication among state legislatures;
To ensure state legislatures a strong, cohesive voice in the federal system

American Bar Association

This site has information about the ABA's divisions, ABA publications, and events and programs sponsored by the ABA.

MegaLaw

MegaLaw.com was founded as a collaboration between two attorneys and a software engineering/website design specialist.

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Companies' and Publishers' Sites

FindLaw

Findlaw combines a vast directory of sites, a law-oriented web search engine (LawCrawler), a full text library of caselaw, and a variety of communication forums, such as message boards, free individual web sites, and free e-mail. LawCrawler allows users to do simple Boolean searches in law related resources. FindLaw provides the most complete free database of U.S. Supreme Court opinions on the web, going back to 1906. Researchers can use FindLaw to do full-text searches of law reviews and journals that are available on the Internet.

LexisNexis Communities Portal

This new site bills itself as a site that brings together affordable tools, references, and resources to manage life as a lawyer including: research, client development, practice management, professional development, and lifestyle resources. You have to register by agreeing to their terms and then filling out a form. Registration is free at this point.

LoislawConnect

Law Students - Library Database

Materials include State Professional Library and the National Collection which are organized by Case Law, Statutes and Acts, Administrative Code/Regulations, Court Rules, Other Libraries (Attorney General Opinions, Ethics Opinions, Jury Instructions) and Bar/CLE Publications.

Google Scholar

This site is a work in progress. Use with caution.