Internet Legal Research for Professor Mika’s Legal Writing

Class

Feb. 24, 2010

Outline

Internet v. Lexis, WestlawLegal Portals and Search EnginesFree Case Law/Primary Sources FormsEvaluating Web SitesCurrent AwarenessLow Cost Lexis/WL Alternatives

Internet v. Lexis/Westlaw

Internet is Free. No charges to clientsSome info exclusive to Internet

Municipal Ordinances Some Court FilingsNew case/regulation (within one day)New topics/issues

Internet v. Lexis/WL

Benefits of Lexis, WL:Coverage. Internet, Ohio cases back to

1950Better Search MechanismsEditorial features – headnotes, annotationsSecondary sources – treatises, practice

booksAggregate Info Trustworthiness

What’s on the Free Web

All US Supreme Court CasesReported Federal Appellate 1882-, Fed

District 1932-Some Unreported FedState 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 CourtLexisOne – Last 10 yrs, Lexis searchingPublic Library of Law - booleanOpen 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, CoverageWriting 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 webSearch 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 notificationCurrent Awareness Resources for Ohio L

aw

Web Sites to Know

Thomas.gov – Federal Legislative History

GPO Access – Fed’l Govt. will be FDSysMartindale Hubbell Law Digest Ohio Supreme CourtMunicipal 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 shoppingBetter coverage of cases, other sourcesSometimes more currentOften better search mechanismsShepard’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