Internet Legal Research: Prof. Mika`s Legal Drafting Class, Dec 2
Download
Report
Transcript Internet Legal Research: Prof. Mika`s Legal Drafting Class, Dec 2
Internet Legal Research for
Professor Mika’s Legal Writing
Class
Feb. 24, 2010
Outline
Internet v. Lexis, Westlaw
Legal Portals and Search Engines
Free Case Law/Primary Sources
Forms
Evaluating Web Sites
Current Awareness
Low Cost Lexis/WL Alternatives
Internet v. Lexis/Westlaw
Internet is Free. No charges to clients
Some info exclusive to Internet
Municipal Ordinances
Some Court Filings
New case/regulation (within one day)
New topics/issues
Internet v. Lexis/WL
Benefits of Lexis, WL:
Coverage. Internet, Ohio cases back to
1950
Better Search Mechanisms
Editorial features – headnotes, annotations
Secondary sources – treatises, practice
books
Aggregate Info
Trustworthiness
What’s on the Free Web
All US Supreme Court Cases
Reported Federal Appellate 1882-, Fed
District 1932 Some Unreported Fed
State cases: Reported cases from 1950-,
unreported varies (1990s on)
Statutes & Regulations- federal and
states
LOTS more!
Internet Portals
Library Home Page – Legal Research on
the Web
Public Records & People Finders
Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII)
FindLaw
Other Portals
Use LEGAL Search Engines
• Cornell University Legal
Research Engine
• LexisWeb
• FindLaw LawCrawler
• Justia
• List of Search Legal Engines
Search Engines
Clustering search engines: Clusty
, Ask.com
Metasearch engines: Dogpile,
Clusty
Internet Wayback Machine
Learn search syntax See Web
Searching Guide - Search Engines
Case law
Legal Research Workstation - Case Law
Google Scholar – state reported 1950-, fed
circuit/ district 1923 Ohio Supreme Court
LexisOne – Last 10 yrs, Lexis searching
Public Library of Law - boolean
Open Jurist – fed reported appellate 1882
• Demo Ohio Supreme Court case search
Finding Dockets, Pleadings, Motions
LLRX or Resources for Online Court
Dockets to find dockets
Some dockets have full text documents
ex. Ohio – Montgomery & Summit
Counties, federal courts
PACER – Federal Court dockets
On Westlaw/Lexis – more search
capability
Forms
Forms and Practice Materials
Resource Guide
Evaluating Web Sites
Credibility: author; possible bias,
accuracy.
Currency / Updating, Coverage
Writing Quality
Ease of use – Design, navigation,
searchability, help
Stability
Forms and Sample Contracts
Who publishes the site? A legal
publisher? bar association?
Does the site sell forms?
Who wrote the form?
Use with caution, tailor to your facts
The Invisible Web
Search Engines not index entire web
Search engines cannot type or think.
“Invisible Web” includes information stored
in databases and password restricted
information
The Invisible or Deep Web by U.C.
Berkeley
Accessing Invisible Web
Find databases via directories or search
engines (search for a subject term and the
word “database”), or ask a librarian.
The Librarian’s Internet Index and Complete
Planet .
Bookmark databases you find
See Web Searching Guide
Example – Traffic tickets. Try a search on
Google and pipl.com
Current Awareness Tools
Blog Search Engines and Directories
RSS Readers - What are they? Ex.
Bloglines
Ohio Supreme Court cases – new
opinions, case activity notification
Current Awareness Resources for Ohio
Law
Web Sites to Know
Thomas.gov – Federal Legislative
History
GPO Access – Fed’l Govt. will be FDSys
Martindale Hubbell Law Digest
Ohio Supreme Court
Municipal Ordinances
Stripped down versions of Lexis/WL
Casemaker –Free w/ free
student OSBA membership
Fastcase – Free w/ Cleve bar
membership
LoisLaw– C-M has Instructions to get password
Versus Law – Free to Law
students
Low Cost Alternatives to
Lexis/Westlaw
Advantages over the free Internet:
One stop shopping
Better coverage of cases, other sources
Sometimes more current
Often better search mechanisms
Shepard’s-like features – but now Google
Scholar has
Comparison of the Low Cost
Databases
See Comparison Chart of Low Cost
Databases.
Fastcase, Versus Law have natural
language, Casemaker, Loislaw do not.
Casemaker and Loislaw have more field
searching capability
Comparison, cont’d
Casemaker, Loislaw have better
coverage of Ohio cases than VersusLaw,
Fastcase
Fastcase just links to Internet sites for
statutes for 11 states
Versuslaw is the cheapest
Conclusion
Use Free Web, but be aware limitations
in coverage, currency, searching ability,
reliability
Go beyond Google: Use free legal
databases, legal search engines and
portals
Be aware of low cost alternatives to
Lexis and WL