Legal Research

Below are notes taken from the lecture give on Monday, Sept. 14, 2009.
Presenter:  Dan Giancaterino, Educational Svcs Mgr at Jenkins Law Library

There is a LOT of free legal information out on the internet, but be careful:

1. We are not attorneys and we must be careful not to provide legal advice or interpretations; even assisting a patron with filling out a form is inappropriate.
   
2. We don't know the language - the legal jargon
3. If anyone could do it, we wouldn't need lawyers

Nevertheless, there are some useful tools out there that you might want to know about.

Dictionaries:

• Black's Law Dictionary (www.blackslawdictionary)
• Law.com Law Dictionary ( dictionary.law.com )
• FindLaw Law Dictionary  ( dictionary.lp.findlaw.com )
  

Scenarios:

Scenario 1: Patron has a child with disabilities and wants to see the Americans with Disabilities Act

• THOMAS (by the Library of Congress)  ( thomas.loc.gov ) You can search the full text of bills from 1989 to present.   Check "search multiple congresses" and look for "enrolled" bills
• U.S. Code  ( uscode.house.gov )  So here is where you can find the codified bill
• U.S. Code Collection by Cornell Univ. ( www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/ ) A really nice legal all-purpose site.  Their "Law About" link is very nice.

Google - yeah, you can just Google it too, but the results may not be quite as clean
Remember that laws get amended over time, so when you get a copy of the original bill signed by the President, you are getting the original law, not what may be current.

Scenario 2:  A patron has a family member in the state prison, and wants to appeal their conviction.  They are looking for court cases to help prepare for their defense.  (Note:  While it's okay for people to look, probably only a lawyer could confirm if the court case was helpful or not.  Some cases may have later been overturned on appeal, so may not be considered "good law".)

• State Court Sites - find the state court for your state using Google
• FindLaw Opinion Summaries Archive ( caselaw.lp.findlaw.com )
• lexisONE ( www.lexisone.com )  Search and display the full text of cases from the last ten years from all state and federal appeals courts.  (this site is free - not the full-blown Lexis)
• Google - you can use Google to search cases from most court sites.  Enter your terms, followed by "site:" and the URL of the court website.  EX:   assault site:courts.state.md.us

Scenario 3:  There is a rowdy bar in a patron's neighborhood and the patron wants to know what the local ordinances are regarding nuisance bars.

• American Legal Publishing ( www.amlegal.com/library ) Online codes for municipalities in more than 30 states
• Code Publishing Company ( www.codepublishing.com/elibrary.html )  MD not listed, however.
• Municipal Code Corporation ( www.municode.com )  Municipal code from cities in almost every state
  
• Google - try Googling the official website of the municipality, then look for a link to its codes and ordinances