Legal Research for Non Lawyers
Sheri Lewis, Associate Law Librarian for Public Services
D'Angelo Law Library, The University of Chicago
shl@uchicago.edu
OVERVIEW OF Law Resources
Core Law Databases
- LexisNexis Academic - Contains U.S. primary law for federal and the fifty states (court opinions, statutes), federal agency regulations, law reviews.
- GPO Access - is the U.S. Government Printing Office's site for primary law, such as the United States Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, the Federal Register and many congressional documents. The GPO Access site is migrating to fdsys.gpo.gov.
- HeinOnline - includes PDFs of most law journals, as well as PDFs for other major law resources such as United States Reports, United States Statutes at Large, the Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations and treaty compilations.
Judicial/Court Resources
- Understanding the Federal Courts - This publication provides an introduction to the federal judicial system, its organization and administration, and its relationship to the legislative and executive branches of the government.
- Federal Court Finder - An interactive map which links to the official web sites of each of the Federal courts.
- State court web sites - The National Conference of State Court (NCSC) provides judicial branch links for each state, focusing on the administrative office of the courts, the court of last resort, any intermediate appellate courts, and each trial court level.
- Illinois courts web site - Contain current opinions and archived opinions of the Illinois Supreme and Appellate courts.
- LexisNexis Academic - Contains judicial opinions from all federal and state courts.
- Federal Rulemaking - This web site from the federal judiciary include the major federal court rules including the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Legislative/Statutory Law Resources
- United States Code on GPO Access - The United States Code (U.S.C.) contains those laws of Congress currently in effect. It is arranged by subject.
- THOMAS - This site tracks congressional legislation and provides full-text access to legislative documents.
- Illinois Compiled Statutes - The Illinois General Assembly's Legislative Reference Bureau provides the compiled Illinois legislative code at the web site.
- Cornell Law Schools Listing by State - provides a state by state listing of government web pages with sources of state law.
- LexisNexis Academic - Contains the United States Code and the legislative codes of all 50 states.
Administrative Law Resources
SECONDARY SOURCE COMMENTARY
- Lens - Use the library's search tool for books and other resources on a legal topic, e.g. criminal law.
- Law school study aids - Study aids provide a general overview for an area of law and are written for law school students or others new to legal materials. Hornbooks are a particular, and very popular, type of study aid. The D'Angelo Law Library maintains a list of study aids available in its collections. Most study aids are shelved in the D'Angelo reserves collection.
- Treatises - Treatises provide in depth discussion of an area of law with references to primary sources. The D'Angelo Law Library maintains a list of core treatises for each legal subject.
- LexisNexis Academic - Select the Legal tab and then Law Reviews to search articles published in law reviews and journals.
- LegalTrac - This database indexes over 1000 legal journals, with coverage beginning in 1980 or later depending on the journal; includes abstracts and very occasional full-text coverage.
- Wex - Cornell Law School's collaborative legal dictionary and law encyclopedia.
- BNA Topical Law Databases - BNA is a major publisher of U.S. legal materials, including topical newsletters that summarize recent case law and other developments in areas such as corporate and securities, health care, and employment and labor.
OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES
- Black's Law Dictionary. 8th ed. 2004. The standard work for American law abbreviations and terminology. Call Number XXKFl56.B5322 2004, D'Angelo Law Reserve, D'Angelo Law Reference.
- Duhaime's Law Dictionary - A freely-available legal dictionary.
- Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory - Nationwide directory of lawyers and law forms, searchable by name, geographic location, etc. Includes information on areas of practice for attorneys and firms.
- Research guides - The D'Angelo Law Library's research guides address various legal topics and jurisdictions. The Cornell Law Library maintains a Legal Research Guide Search Engine which is helpful for locating guides to legal research on the Internet.
- Ask a Law Librarian email reference service is available during and after library hours.
