Online Legal Research: Beyond LexisNexis & Westlaw  

Be sure to read the Database Access Guide carefully before beginning your research.

1. U.S. Constitution
2. Federal Legislative Branch Resources
   1. Bills & Resolutions
   2. U.S. Code
   3. Legislative History Sources
   4. Legislative History Research Guides
3. Federal Courts & Case Law
   1. U.S. Supreme Court
   2. Other Federal Court Opinions
   3. History & Statistics
   4. Judicial Nominations
4. Federal Administrative Law Resources
   1. Regulations
   2. Presidential Materials
   3. Presidential Materials: Subscription Databases
5. California
   1. Bills & Legislation
   2. Ballot Measures
   3. Courts & Case Law
   4. Regulations
   5. Local Government Research
6. Local Government Law
   1. Municipal Codes Online
   2. California Resources
   3. Other Resources
7. Free Legal Forms
8. Research Guides
   1. Law Library Research Guides
   2. Legislative History Research Guides
   3. Other Research Guides
9. Dictionaries, Acronyms, Directories
   1. Legal Dictionaries & Glossaries
   2. Acronyms
   3. Directories
   4. LexisNexis Academic Universe's Legal Reference Sources
10. Attorney Directories
11. Legal News & Blogs
12. Law Reviews & Journals
13. Self-Help
14. UCLA Law Students: Summer Alternatives to Westlaw & Lexis

Ard, Constance. "Legal Research in the Age of Open Law," Online (Oct. 2010), 34(5): 29-32.

Chandler, Yvonne J. "Accessing Legal and Regulatory Information in Internet Resources and Documents," Journal of Library Administration (2006), 44 (1/2): 263-324.

Ebbinghouse, Carol. "The New Surge of Open Legal Information on the Internet," Searcher (June 2008), 16(6): 8-16.

________. "The People's Law: Free Legal Help and Legal Research on the Web," Searcher (April 2006), 14(4): 38-44.

Markoff, John. "A Quest to Get More Court Rulings Online, and Free," New York Times, Aug. 20, 2007: 6.

Moore, Wendy E. "Fantastic Facts about the 50 States: Websites for State Legal Research," University of Georgia School of Law, Continuing Legal Education Presentations (Mar. 28, 2011). [26-page PDF]

Pike, George H. "Evaluating Free Online Legal Information," Online (Sept/Oct. 2008), 32(5): 20-23.

As the title indicates, the primary focus of this guide is to spotlight free (or low cost) online legal resources. Sources available through Westlaw or Lexis are not included. However, please note that I have included subscription databases available to the UCLA and UCLAW community. Lastly, except for the short selected bibliography on this page, print resources are not covered.

As the length of this guide suggests, there is no shortage of law-related materials available on the Internet. The challenge is to locate accurate and authoritative sources of legal information. Please keep in mind that you won't find everything you need for free on the Internet. For example, West's annotated codes and most legal treatises/practice guides (e.g. Rutter Group and Matthew Bender publications) are not freely available on the Web.

Also keep in mind that it may be easier to start your research using print sources. This is especially true if you are having difficulty identifying search terms. Using a print source allows you to flip through pages and scan the index and table of contents. Hence, when applicable, there will be links to other libguides that describe the use of print resources.

The new edition of Locating the Law: A Handbook for Non-Law Librarians is freely available for download in its entirety or one may view individual chapters and appendices. Below is the table of contents.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: How to Read a Legal Citation

Chapter 3: Basic Legal Research Techniques

Chapter 4: Legal Reference vs. Legal Advice

Chapter 5: California Law

Chapter 6: Bibliography of California Resources

Chapter 7: Federal Law

Chapter 8: Bibliography of Federal Law Resources

Chapter 9: Assisting Self-Represented Litigants

Chapter 10: Bibliography of Self-Help Resources

Chapter 11: Availability, Accessibility and Maintenance of Legal Collections

Chapter 12: Major Law Publishers

Appendix A: Glossary of Legal Terms

Appendix B: Common Abbreviations in the Law

Appendix C: California County Law Libraries

Appendix D: California Law Schools

These "one stop shopping" sites provide users with a myraid of links to law-related materials on the Internet. They provide users with a catalog of Web sites, a search engine or both.

• Hieros Gamos
• WashLaw
• vLex
• Megalaw.com
• Internet Legal Research Group
• American Law Sources Online
• CataLaw

None of these sites are featured extensively in this guide but are worth a mention. Their aim is to expand public access to legal information.

• Public.Resource.org
• Google Scholar (select Legal Opinions & Journals)
• OpenJurist

The following Web sites are referenced throughout this guide.

Initiated by Jim A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs, Shinjoung Yeo, three librarians at UC San Diego, along with Daniel Cornwall, librarian at the Alaska State Library, and James Staub, librarian at the Tennessee State Library, in order to raise public awareness of the importance of gov't information and create a community with various stakeholders to facilitate an open and critical dialogue.