Local – Ordinances/Codes

State – Bills, Laws, Cases

Federal – Bills, Laws, Cases

Maine State Law & LegislativeReference Library

Phone:(207)287-1600

Ask for theReference Desk

http://www.state.me.us/legis/lawlib http://maine.gov/legis/lawlib/collect.htm43 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333

Local Information & LibrariesCounty Levelhttp://www.mainecounties.org/

Local Governmenthttp://maine.gov/local/

Northern Maine Community College Library

http://www.nmcc.edu/pages/library.php

University of Maine Presque Isle Library

http://www.umpi.edu/library/

Mark & Emily Turner Library

http://www.presqueisle.lib.me.us/

Presque Isle District Court 27 Riverside DrivePresque Isle, ME764-2055Online library only. Open to the

public.M-F 9-4:00 Library is not staffed.Lexis www.lexis.com/research

District & Superior Court Caribou

Law Library144 Sweden Street, Caribou, ME 498-2557, Open to the public M-F 8-4:30The library is not staffed.Lexiswww.lexis.com/research

Local Ordinances and Codes

Search for a specific town to locate city ordinances and municipal codes

http://www.memun.org/public/local_govt/home_rule.htm

Usually will find online on city Web page

Presque Isle, Maine, for example:

http://www.presqueisle.govoffice2.com/

City Ordinances online here:http://www.presqueisle.govoffice2.com/index.asp?

Type=B_BASIC&SEC={5848757E-3072-493C-8842-4D79393FCE56}

City of Presque Isle, Maine

Link for City Ordinances on left-hand side

Ordinances on City Web site

http://www.presqueisle.govoffice2.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={5848757E-3072-493C-8842-4D79393FCE56}

State of Maine Web site

http://www.maine.gov/portal/government/

How a bill becomes a law in MaineMaine’s Path of LegislationExcellent description about the process of law making:http://maine.gov/legis/lawlib/billpath.htm

Glossary of termshttp://www.maine.gov/legis/opla/glossary.htm

Example: Engrossed: Literally, printed. An engrossed bill is a document that physically incorporates the bill and all adopted amendments to the bill. The engrossed bill may be passed to be enacted and subsequently approved by the Governor.

How to Research a BillLegislative Documents (“LDs”) are

introduced and considered by the Maine Legislature (e.g., LD2012)To search the bill text or to check the status of an LD for current and past sessions:

http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/billtexts/http://janus.state.me.us/legis/session/

Example: Search for LD 2012 or search by keywords

“secondhand smoke”Bill Status / State of Maine Legislature http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/search.asp

Laws of MaineSession laws are enacted as either Public

Laws or Private and Special Laws

Public Laws of the State of Maine 1997-2007http://janus.state.me.us/legis/ros/lom/lomdirectory.htm

Text search for Public Laws of Mainehttp://janus.state.me.us/legis/ros/lom/lawsrch.htm

Private and Special Laws Private and Special Laws are enacted to address particular

persons or groups of persons, such as a municipal or business corporation. Because they are limited in scope, they are not codified in the Maine Revised Statutes. They are published in the Laws of Maine. Private and Special laws are numbered separately from other types of legislation. They are assigned a consecutive chapter number, and the numbering begins again with the start of each new Legislature. The Legislature may amend a Private and Special Law at any time, so it is necessary to search all the Private and Special Laws to find not only the original act but also any amendments to it.

Private and Special Laws are published in the Laws of Maine.Must consult print indexes and paper supplements for Private and Special Laws earlier than 1997

http://maine.gov/legis/lawlib/p&s.htm

Since 1997, can find online here:http://janus.state.me.us/legis/ros/lom/lomdirectory.htm

Maine Revised StatutesAll laws which are currently in effect are listed

here.These statutes will be listed under Title and Section numbers.For Title and Section List

http://janus.state.me.us/legis/statutes/For Search Function for Maine Statuteshttp://janus.state.me.us/legis/statutes/search.asp

MRSA = Maine Revised Statutes AnnotatedOnly the print version is annotated. The online version is not annotated.

Maine State Legislature Publications Maine State Legislature / Legislative Publicationshttp://janus.state.me.us/legis/pubns.htm

Maine Legislative Drafting Manualhttp://janus.state.me.us/legis/ros/manual/TableofContents.htm

From: http://janus.state.me.us/legis/ros/manual/Draftman2004Web-05.htm#P350_29619

There are two types of bills, which are also known as "acts." Both types of bills create or affect laws of potentially unlimited duration.

A. Public law. Public law bills propose laws that affect all of the people of the State or all persons or things of a particular class. Since these bills affect the general law, the sections of a public law bill that are of general or long-lasting application are almost always allocated to the Maine Revised Statutes; that is, they are placed somewhere in the existing statutory framework. Temporary provisions of a public law bill or housekeeping provisions are usually not allocated to the statutes but are drafted as unallocated law and placed at the end of the bill (e.g., transition provisions, retroactivity clauses, appropriation and allocation clauses, effective date clauses and emergency clauses; these are dealt with in more detail later in this Part). An unallocated provision is law that is published in Laws of the State of Maine but is not included in the Maine Revised Statutes.

B. Private and special law. A private and special law bill is distinguished from a public law bill in that it has a much narrower scope. A private and special law bill proposes a law that relates to particular persons or things or to a class of particular persons or things, or operates on or over a portion of a class instead of the entire class. For example, water and sewer districts are routinely created by means of a private and special law bill. A private and special law is not allocated to the Maine Revised Statutes, but appears in Laws of the State of Maine.

StateMaine.gov Laws & Legal Resources

http://www.maine.gov/portal/government/law.html

Maine.gov State Legislature

http://www.maine.gov/portal/government/legislature.html

Maine Court Cases / Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Libraryhttp://www.maine.gov/legis/lawlib/cases.htm

MaineMaine Legislative Publications

http://janus.state.me.us/legis/pubns.htmHistorical Documents at Avalon Project/

Yale Law Schoolhttp://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htmGrant of the Province of Maine (1622, 1639, 1664, 1674)

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/statech.htm#meLaws of the State of Maine

http://janus.state.me.us/legis/ros/lom/lomdirectory.htm

Maine CourtsState of Maine Courts

http://www.courts.state.me.usLatest opinions, rules, and orders.Links to Supreme Court, Superior Courts, District Courts.Search option for opinions and orders.Also Supreme Court Oral Argument Schedule.

Citizen’s Guide to the Courts of Mainehttp://www.courts.state.me.us/citizen_info/citizen_guide/index.html

How to Research Maine CasesMaine Supreme Courthttp://www.courts.state.me.us/court_info/opinions/

supreme/index.shtml

Maine Superior Courthttp://www.courts.state.me.us/court_info/opinions/superior/index.shtml

Maine LegislatureMaine State Legislature

http://www.maine.gov/legis/homepage.htmMaine Senate

http://www.maine.gov/legis/senate/Maine House of Representatives

http://janus.state.me.us/house/Legislators’ Handbookhttp://www.maine.gov/legis/opla/handbook.htm

Thomas & GPO Access / FederalThomas (named after Thomas Jefferson) was launched

by Library of Congress in 1995 in order to make legislative information available to the public. Includes: bills, resolutions, congressional activity, congressional record, schedules, calendars, committee information, presidential nominations, treaty information, other government resources.

http://thomas.loc.govAbout Thomas

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/abt_thom.html

GPO Accesshttp://www.gpoaccess.gov/

Access resources by branch of government: legislative, executive, and judicial.

Thomas / Library of CongressSearch page for federal bills and resolutionshttp://thomas.loc.gov/home/bills_res.html

•Search by Bill Text (enter word or phrase)•Search by Bill Number•Search a Single Congress•Search Multiple Congresses

Law Library of CongressLaw Library of Congress

http://loc.gov/law/index.html

State of Maine Resourceshttp://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/states/us-me.html

A good place to begin search. Online listing with links for Maine executive, judicial, legislative sites. Also includes links to legal guides, directories, and portals.

Federal LawsLocating Federal Statutes

http://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes.html

How our laws are madehttp://thomas.loc.gov/home/lawsmade.toc.html

Enactment of a lawhttp://thomas.loc.gov/home/enactment/enactlawtoc.html

Federal – Supreme CourtUnited States Supreme Court

www.supremecourtus.govCornell Law School Supreme Court

Collectionhttp://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct

Find Law Supreme Court Decisionswww.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html

Historic Supreme Court Decisionshttp://www4.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm

US Courts

US Judiciary Guide to Federal Court Decisions

http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/federal/usjudic.html

Provides links to US Supreme court, US Court of Appeals, US District Courts, US Bankruptcy Courts

www.uscourts.gov

Law School SitesUniversity of Maine School of Law

http://mainelaw.maine.edu/library/mestate.htmCornell University Law School

http://www.law.cornell.eduHarvard Law School

http://www.law.harvard.edu/Georgetown Law Library

http://www.II.georgetown.edu/guides/CALSAsylumLawResearchGuide.cfm

Additional SitesPublic Library of Law

http://www.plol.org/Pages/Search.aspxAmerican Bar Association Law Link

http://www.abanet.org/tech/ltrc/lawlink/home.html

Find Lawwww.findlaw.com

Nolo – Legal Research Pagehttp://www.nolo.com/statute/index.cfm

GPO Access http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legislative.html

Lexis OneFree online version. Read description here:http://www.lexisone.com/aboutlexisone/index.html

You must register for this free service.http://www.lexisone.com/caselaw/freecaselaw?action=FCLDisplayCaseSearchForm

State Resource Center page for Maine on Lexis One

http://www.lexisone.com/legalresearch/legalguide/states/maine.htm

Shepard’s and Shepardizing a CaseShepard's Citations for Case Law (from University of Delaware Library)

Case law is based upon precedent or authority. In order to find out if a case can be used as authority, check to see whether the case has been followed, distinguished, limited or questioned in subsequent court cases. This is done by "Shepardizing", using Shepard's Citations to see how and when another court has cited the first decision. A legal citation for a case identifies the name of the court reporter in which the opinion is published and identifies the volume and page. In the Shepard's citator sources, the term "citation" is used more specifically to indicate a reference in a later authority to an earlier authority. The earlier authority is known as the "cited" case, statute, etc. and the later authorities are referred to as the "citing" case. Shepardizing a case helps determine the precedential value of a legal authority. Most commonly associated with case law, Shepard's citators are also published for the constitution and statutory law.

http://www2.lib.udel.edu/subj/godc/resguide/shep.htm

How to Shepardize a casehttp://www.law.suffolk.edu/library/research/a-z/resguides/shepcase.cfm

How to Shepardize a statutehttp://www.law.suffolk.edu/library/research/a-z/resguides/shepstat.cfm

LexisNexis Shepard's Citations Tutorialhttp://web.lexis.com/help/multimedia/detect.asp?sPage=shepards

LexisNexis Tutorialshttp://web.lexis.com/help/multimedia/detect.asp?sPage=shepards

Common Terms & AbbreviationsLegislative Documents = LD : A legislative measure in its official printed

form, that is given a number by the Clerk of the House or the Secretary of the Senate and is referred to as “L.D. XXX.” Some measures, such as orders, do not become legislative documents in this sense. Types of L.D.s include those that would create public laws (see "LAWS, PUBLIC"), private and special laws (see "LAWS, PRIVATE AND SPECIAL") and resolves (see "LAWS, RESOLVE"). A CONSTITUTIONAL RESOLUTION is a form of L.D. that does not become effective upon enactment but which is subject to REFERENDUM. There are other types of legislative papers that are not legislative documents. (See “BILL”, "AMENDMENT" and "ORDER.") (See also “FORM OF A BILL” and “HOW TO READ A BILL” in Part I, D, 1, d and e)

House Papers = HPSenate Papers = SPLegislative Request = LR : A request for drafting and introduction of a

legislative instrument that is assigned a number by the Revisor of Statutes. This number is used to track instruments through the legislative process from initial drafting to final enactment. Until an instrument is assigned an L.D. number, the L.R. number is used to identify it.

Glossary online at: http://www.maine.gov/legis/opla/glossary.htm

Print ResourcesMost legal print resources will be available through either large academic libraries or law libraries.

For example:United States ReportsSupreme Court ReporterDigests (Supreme Court Digest)Index to Legal PeriodicalsCurrent Legal Index

Databases (access via a law library)

LexisWestlaw

Academic Libraries may offer access to databases such as

LexisNexis AcademicAcademic Universe

State Law & Legislative Library

Resources pagehttp://www.state.me.us/legis/lawlib/collect.htm

Library of Congress Classification for Law = Class K United States Law = KF

Newspapers via Marvel! Marvel

http://libraries.maine.edu/mainedatabases/info.asp#pq

Maine NewsstandIndex to and full text coverage of five Maine newspapers. Database includes coverage of the Bangor Daily News (12/3/92-present), the Kennebec Journal (Augusta) (6/11/93-present), the Portland Press Herald (10/30/95-present), and the Central Maine Morning Sentinel (Waterville) (8/12/93-present). Selected business coverage of the Maine Times (2/4/94-4/25/02) is also included. Updated daily.

ProQuest NewspapersProvides the full text of more than 500 U.S. and international news sources. Includes The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and the Times of London, plus hundreds of other news sources and news wires. Years of coverage vary by title. Maine papers included: Bangor Daily News (1992+), Portland Press Herald (1995+), and selected business coverage from Maine Times (1994-2002) and Central Maine Morning Sentinel (1993-1997).

Marvel! DatabasesMarvel! Maine’s Virtual Library

Use these databases to locate either abstracts or full-text articles

http://libraries.maine.edu/mainedatabases/

Academic Search PremierProvides full text for nearly 4,000 scholarly publications of which 3,100 are peer reviewed. Academic areas of study include: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.

Other Marvel! DatabasesBusiness and Company Resource Center

Fully integrated resource bringing together company profiles, brand information, rankings, investment reports, company histories, chronologies and periodicals.

Business Source Premier

Provides full text for more than 2,800 scholarly business journals of which 912 are peer reviewed. Coverage includes: management, economics, finance, accounting, international business and much more. Also includes company profiles, industry reports, market research and investment reports.

EconLit

Economic literature including accounting, capital markets, econometrics, economic forecasting, government regulations, labor economics, monetary theory, and urban economics.

Regional Business News

A collection of news information from all over the world. Information provided by these sources covers business, political, economic and other diverse, international news events. This resource contains the most recent 30 days of information from each of these wire sources. Several hundred articles are added to Regional Business News database each day.

Databases/Online Resources-UMPI Academic Universe Access UN ADAMS (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System) Admiralty and Maritime Law Guide Archive of European Integration Avalon Project at Yale Law School Collection of Laws for Electronic Access Collection of National Copyright Laws Congressional Bills Directory of Bills (Maine State Legislature) Legislative Reports (Maine State Legislature) LexisNexis Academic Maine Revised Statutes Maine Superior Court Decisions National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database New York Times Historical Official documents of the United Nations United States State Materials

Databases at UMPIAcademic Universe

Searchable index providing full-text access to current news, business information, company directories, federal and state laws, regulations, legal cases, general medical and health topics.

LexisNexis Academic

Provides full-text documents from over 5,900 sources, including: · National and regional newspapers, wire services, broadcast transcripts, international news, and non-English language sources · U.S. Federal and state case law, codes, regulations, legal news, law reviews, and international legal information. Shepard's Citations for all U.S. Supreme Court cases back to 1789. Business news and journals, company directories and financial information, SEC filings and reports, international economic and market data and analysis, and industry and market news.

http://libraries.maine.edu/mariner/marindexesdb/alphalist.asp?Loc=pi

Maine Policy Review

Published by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, University of Maine.

Online at www.umain.edu/mcsc/mpr.htm

Also available in print by subscription.

If you need assistanceContact the Northern Maine Community College Library

Kim Ferguson768-2734, 768-2735, 768-2718http://www.nmcc.edu/pages/library.php

Contact the reference desk at the Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library, 764-2571Gail Roy groylibrarian@gmail.comgailroy@presqueisle.lib.me.ushttp://www.presqueisle.lib.me.us/

Finding this Presentation OnlineThis presentation has been posted online and

may be viewed, downloaded, and printed.

http://www.slideshare.net/PresqueIsleLibrary/slideshows

HandoutsHow to Read a Citationhttp://www.library.southernct.edu/lawcasecite.html

Shepard’s Citations for Case Lawhttp://www2.lib.udel.edu/subj/godc/resguide/shep.htm

How to Read a Legal Opinion and Common Reports forFederal and State Caseshttp://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/resources/

lawpubs/HowtoReadaLegalCitation.html

How to Read A Legal Opinionhttp://volokh.com/files/howtoreadv2.pdf