Free & Low Free & Low--Cost Legal Cost Legal Research ˆ(or, Life after Rewards P ints int n s ) Research Refresher / Molly Molly Brownfield nfield/

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1 Free & Low-Cost Legal Research ˆ(or, Life after Rewards Points ) onts Research Refresher / Molly Brownfield/ March 24, 2010 Lexis and Westlaw, post-j.d. After graduation (and over the summers), Lexis and Westlaw cut off free student access. May request summer extensions in special cases (RA work, moot court, journal, non-profit) Will receive from representatives soon Research charges will begin to add up quickly. Sample charges Retrieving a document with citation: $6.00 Searching for a case in all federal cases database (incl. by party name): ~$75-$175$175 Shepardizing or KeyCiting a single citation: $4.25-$6.00$6.00 Your firm may have a flat rate, but an overall increase in use will affect the rate when it s time to renegotiate! 1

2 Today s Agenda Getting Started - Strategies for Cost-Effective Research Low-cost research services Loislaw Versuslaw Casemaker FastCase Free research sources Cases & Briefs Statutes, Regulations, Legislative History Forms & Other Practice Material Consult a Research Guide 2

3 Duke s Legal Research on the Web Georgetown s Guide to Free & Low Cost Legal Research 3

4 Cost-Effective Research Strategies Avoid searching on Lexis/Westlaw! (It is always cheaper to retrieve known citations than to search.) Begin with a print resource (such as AmJur/CJS) J to locate leading cases, statutes and key numbers for further research. If you must begin online, test your search terms on a free case law website or low-cost legal research service. Low-Cost Research Services In recent years, a number of smaller competitors to Lexis/Westlaw have emerged. These sources vary widely in their contents and costs. Take advantage of the online tutorials and any student access you may receive during your time at Duke Law. Loislaw Contains: federal and state case law, codes and session laws, selected treatises and bar publications. Students t can register for a free account which h lasts until 6 months after graduation (see librarian for access code). Username generated by Loislaw will be ed, along with a password that you choose during registration. 4

5 Primary law includes opinions from all circuits and all 50 states. Some unpublished opinions are available. New cases are posted within hours of publication. Secondary law includes many full-text subject treatises as well as CLE publications from selected states. Student accounts have only a limited preview of the treatises and bar publications. In Loislaw, you may search across several different jurisdictions. Some other free & lowcost services do not allow you to search both federal and state cases at once. 5

6 GlobalCite works similarly to Shepard s and KeyCite, retrieving cases and secondary sources which cite the document. It s not as comprehensive as Shepard s or KeyCite, though. Loislaw includes Acts (session laws) as well as Statutes (codes). Within a single database, you can search across multiple jurisdictions by using the check boxes and clicking Continue. Folders indicate that you can browse as well as search. 6

7 For search commands and other tips, view Online Help, linked from the bottom of every page. Casemaker Contains: : Federal case law from U.S. Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals; U.S. Code; C.F.R. State Libraries provide case law and statutes/regs for consortium members. State bar associations must purchase access; service is then free and unlimited to current members of the bar. Currently, 28 state bar associations have subscribed to Casemaker. 7

8 Casemaker Casemaker Consortium members include: North Carolina Georgia Texas Notable exclusions: California Florida New York Casemaker through NC Bar Membership is free to currently-enrolled enrolled law students; includes access to Casemaker. 2-3 business days to process membership; member # and password will be sent by e- mail. Questions?? Contact Whitney von Haam (whitney@ncbar.org). 8

9 CasemakerX Casemaker meets social networking Full access to the Casemaker research resources Can create a MySpace-like profile for networking (professional and personal) May register with your Duke address. 9

10 Versuslaw Students can register for free access to the case law databases ( Standard Plan ); trial accounts must be reactivated each year (possibly with some difficulty). Password generated by Versuslaw will be e- mailed, along with the username you select during the registration process. 10

11 More search commands are available on the Search tips link. The commands are very similar on all of these services, but not quite the same always check before you search! Premium subscribers have access to a citation service called V.Cite. Trial subscribers must check their citations with a fulltext search across all Federal Circuits for the official U.S. Reports citation. Remember that District Courts are not included in that search. (Separate database.) Versuslaw Student trials can access CASE databases only. Versuslaw also contains statutes, regulations and court rules for most jurisdictions as part of the Premi Premium m and Professional plans. Forms are also available as separate database. Help page includes a Research Manual, with tips and tricks for database searching. The various commands for field searching are published there. 11

12 FastCase 24-hour trial available through site; interactive online demo. Includes cases from federal district t and U.S. Bankruptcy courts; as well as state appellate and supreme courts. Free front end (Public Library of Law: 12

13 These non-case law resources link to free,,publicly available web sites like government publishers and Findlaw.com. Newspaper search goes to a version of the Duke database America s Newspapers. Fastcase s main advantages are natural language searching and Authority Check, which searches for cases that cite to your case (but is NOT intended as a full replacement for Shepard s/keycite). Freebies! 13

14 Considerations What kind of document am I looking for? Who would normally be responsible for maintaining those documents in print? Where does the document live online (i.e., official government vs. free site)? When was the document posted and/or the site last updated? Free Mega-Sites FindLaw ( Justia ( Legal Information Institute ( PreCYdent ( precydent com) Public Library of Law ( Public.Resource.Org ( AltLaw (beta) ( (federal appellate cases only) Google Scholar ( Free: Cases & Briefs Opinions and court filings are frequently posted on the website of the court which issued the opinion. Research mega-sites also have extensive archives of case law, at least at the federal level. Briefs and opinions (at least at the federal appellate level) are also often posted on these sites. 14

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16 Google Scholar Legal Content 16

17 makes-free-caselaw-search-available-scholar 17

18 Low-Cost: Court docs Court documents at the lower federal court level (e.g., complaints and replies in district court) are usually available through PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records). PACER charges a per-page page fee for document retrieval (currently $0.08). Low-Cost: Court docs Court documents at the state court level may be posted on the court s web site. You may also have to contact the court clerk or court library directly, and pay a fee for copying services. Check out the library s research guide at records_briefs Free: Statutes Session laws and codes are usually available on the web site of the jurisdiction s legislature. Amount of years available will vary. Federal : Available via FDsys, y, State: : Consult links on National Conference of State Legislature site: 18

19 FDSys will replace GPOAccess this summer. Not all content has migrated, although bills and public laws are here. Use Search on GPO Access link at left to get to U.S. Code and Statutes at Large. Statutes at Large is available ( ) in PDF through HeinOnline, a low-cost database. 19

20 Free: Statutes Local (municipal) codes are sometimes posted on the county or city s web site. Private publishers also make them available online:

21 Free: Legislative History Federal legislative history material is widely available online through the Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Library of Congress. The Law Library maintains a research guide to these and other federal legislative history resources on our web site: dleg.html 21

22 THOMAS Full-text bills and bill summaries (1973- ) Includes links to available committee reports and Congressional Record debates (usually ). 22

23 Links lead to the full text of the bill(s), report(s), debate(s), etc., which are available via GPO Access. GPO Access (soon to be FDsys) Full-text congressional committee reports, committee prints, selected hearings, Congressional Record,, and much more through the Legislative Resources. Many sources available in PDF. This summer, should be replaced by FDsys ( 23

24 Free: Legislative History State materials will vary widely in terms of online availability. Generally, online resources will be somewhere on the state legislature s web site. Look for a library research guide from an in- state law school, or consult a state-specific specific research guide for more info. Free: Regulations Federal regulations are available: Federal Register (1994- ) through FDsys, Code of Federal Regulations (1996- ), through GPO Access, Regulations.gov, Individual agency sites (coverage varies) 24

25 Free: Regulations State regulations are usually available through individual agency web sites; ; some administrative codes are also published online by the secretary of state s office. University of Michigan maintains a good directory of links to State Legal Sources on the Web, personal.umich.edu/~graceyor/doctemp/statelaw.html Free: Forms Forms required in a specific court are often available through the court s own web site. Findlaw ( provides forms for specific jurisdictions, as well as sample contracts and forms dealing with specific issues (i.e., fill-in-the-blank forms). Public Library of Law ( also maintains a forms collection. 25

26 Free: Forms LexisONE ( is a mini-lexisnexis, designed for small firms. Portions of the site are free, but require registration. Selected forms from Lexis library of Matthew Bender publications are available for free download. 26

27 Pay forms are automated (can be filled in online); free forms must be downloaded and printed. Only selected forms are available on the free list. Free: Public Records Public records about people (births, deaths, marriages, incarcerations, real estate transactions, property taxes) are usually maintained at the county government level. Don t know the county? Check the map at bin/qfd/lookup. 27

28 Free: Public Records Public records about corporations are usually maintained at the state level (with the exception of publicly-traded companies securities filings, available through the SEC). Information about registered corporations can be found through the secretary of state where the business is incorporated. Putting It All Together How do you know when it s better (or safe) to use a free source instead of Lexis/Westlaw? Consider these factors: Currency of the source Authority of the source s creator Ease of retrieving free vs. paid source Proximity of project deadline 28

29 Upcoming Research Sessions Thanks! Molly Brownfield Head of Reference Services 29