Legal Abbreviations
- Cardiff Index to Legal AbbreviationsSearchable by title and abbreviation.
Free Online Law Reviews
- Law Review CommonsThe Law Review Commons contains over 75,000 articles from open-access law reviews with issues dating from 1904. Current issues and archives are freely available online through law schools’ bepress Digital Commons repositories.
- Free Full-Text Online Law Review/Law Journal Search EngineFrom the ABA, this free search engine searches the free full-text of over 350 online law reviews and law journals, as well as document repositories hosting academic papers and related publications such as Congressional Research Service reports. Several of the law reviews and legal journals (such as the Stanford Technology Law Review), working papers, and reports are available online only.
Guides to Legal Research
- How to Research a Legal Problem: A Guide for Non-LawyersThis free, informative seven-page online guide from the American Association of Law Libraries is intended to help non-lawyers find legal rules that can resolve or prevent conflict
Google Scholar Legal Opinions & Journals
Google Scholar includes an option that allows you to search legal opinions and journals. It includes opinions for U.S. state appellate and supreme court cases since 1950, U.S. federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy courts since 1923, and U.S. Supreme Court cases since 1791. In addition, it includes citations for cases cited by indexed opinions or journal articles which allows you to find influential cases (usually older or international) which are not yet online or publicly available.
The advanced search option lets you limit your search to a particular jurisdiction. To find cases by name, limit your search to the title.
When searching for law reviews, the title is usually linked to a paid resource like HeinOnline or JSTOR. To find free versions, click the link on the right, or the "View all versions" link under the citation and summary.
Save to "My Library" by clicking the "save" link under an article or opinion.
- Google Scholar Legal Opinions & Law ReviewsAdvanced search option allows you to limit by author, title, jurisdiction, and court. How cited tab pulls up articles and opinions that have cited your opinion or law review article. Use "all versions" link to find free versions of articles.
Portals & General Legal Research Websites
- Guide to Law OnlineLaw Library of Congress annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online. It includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for legal information.
- FDsys (Federal Digital System)Access to official versions of primary law from all three branches of government.
- JustiaLinks to federal and state primary law.
- Legal Information InstituteCornell's LII has federal and state case law, statutes, and regulations, along with law by topic.
- Public Library of the LawAccess to federal and state cases, statutes, and regulations.
- Library of Congress: Government Documents on Politics and LawResources on laws and regulations, constitutional questions, the Supreme Court, Congressional caucuses, and criminal justice topics such as copyright and human rights
- Public.Resource.orgIncludes bulk access to court decisions, statutes and administrative codes, and Pacer documents.
- New York State Government Information Locator ServiceNYS GILS provides a single point of access to information services provided by New York State Government agencies, the State Legislature and the Judiciary. The GILS site is hosted by the New York State Library.
- HG.orgInternational focus, includes legal directories, law firms, practice areas, job postings.
- ContractStandardsResearch standard clauses and get inside analysis. Customize model contracts with Document Assembly tool. Create private libraries from your own collection (the private libraries service is fee-based).
Low Cost Resources
- Legal Resources for the PublicResources suggested by the American Bar Association.
- FastcaseLow cost access to federal and state primary sources of law. Available for free through the New York State Bar Association website if you are a member. NYSBA benefit includes free access to NY cases, statutes, and regulations, and an 80% discount off the full Fastcase library.
- LoislawOffers low cost access to primary sources of law, public records, treatises, and forms.
- CasemakerCasemaker partners with state bars to provide members with access to primary legal research and knowledge discovery. These state bars currently include CT, MA, RI, ME, and VT, but not New York or New Jersey.
- Practical LawIncludes thousands of up-to-date, practical resources. Free access for law school students, staff, and faculty.
