LibGuides: Free and Low Cost Online Legal Research: Beyond Westlaw, Lexis & Bloomberg: California Law

California Ballot Measures

UC Hastings Law Library's California Ballot Measures Databases
Includes the California Ballot Propositions Database and the California Ballot Initiatives Database from 1911 to present.

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The databases contain the full text of propositions and initiatives, accompanying material contained in the ballot propositions or relating to their filing and qualification, related legal and legislative history, and digital images of pertinent documents.
California Attorney General
Includes Active Measures, Inactive Measures (back to 2007), and "Qualified for Ballot" measures.
California Secretary of State
For current information and full text of propositions (1996 to current). For previous ballot propositions, see the "Voter Information Guides" link.

Local Government Research

The California Municipal Law Handbook
Now published by CEB (online access via OnLaw). A good place to start if new to municipal law. Provides references to other sources which may cover a particular topic in detail.
California State Association of Counties
Represents county governments before the California legislature, administrative agencies and the federal government. Provides links to California counties, county map, the cities within each county and demographic data.
League of California Cities
An advocacy group of California city officials. Has a "bill search" feature (see the Member Toolbox, or under the "Policy & Advocacy" link at the top.) See also the "Resources" link on the top of the page for more city information ("Learn About Cities").
Los Angeles City Clerk Connect
From this page one may access the Council File Management System and do an Ordinance Search.
City of Los Angeles Organizational Chart
PDF chart showing the organizational structure of City of Los Angeles government.
California State Controller's Government Compensation in California database
The State Controller's Government Compensation in California website provides information on employee pay and benefits for approximately 2 million positions at more than 5,000 public employers. Public employers annually report employee compensation to the State Controller's Office. View and search employee job titles, build charts and graphics, and download custom reports and raw data.

California Public Records

Los Angeles Times Database
Pocket Guide to the California Public Records Act
From the Los Angeles Times.

CALI's Free Law Reporter

The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI)'s Free Law Reporter (FLR) is an electronic case reporter that freely publishes nearly every recent appellate and supreme court opinion, from state to federal U.S. courts.

This project builds upon Carl Malamud's Report of Current Opinions (RECOP) and, hence, contains whatever is included in the slip opinion archives of the RECOP. This includes primarily appellate level courts in the 50 states and D.C., the federal courts and SCOTUS. For the most part, coverage begins with 1/1/2011 and continues forward.

The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction

California Bills & Legislation

Official California Legislative Information
The official site for California legislative information. Covers the 1993-1994 legislative session to current. Includes bill information, the California codes, and various legislative publications (including the Daily File, the Senate & Assembly Daily Journals, and a database of Agency Reports). Includes a link to the new Web site for accessing CA legislative information; the new site has different search and display capabilities, but only goes back to the 1999-2000 legislative session. Use this site if you are doing a legislative history of a California law that passed no earlier than the 1993-1994 legislative session. Searching by bill number is the easiest and fastest way to do this.
California State Assembly, Office of the Chief Clerk
Provides quick links to the Assembly Daily File, Assembly Journals and Histories, as well as the Legislative Calendar and Rules.
California State Assembly Office of the Chief Clerk Archived Publications
Includes the Historical Archives of Assembly Journals, Histories and Indexes, and Statutes. A useful online source if doing California legislative history.
California Legislature Portal
Access bill information, lists of standing committees and committee hearings, as well as the California Code, Statutes, Constitution, and other official publications.
FindLaw's California Codes
Links to official Web sites, but also allows users to search the California Constitution's Table of Contents, the California Codes, and California Statutes.

California Courts & Case Law

Judicial Council's California Courts
This link should take you directly to the "Opinions" page. Slip opinions from the last 120 days are posted in PDF and Word format.

Also available is a searchable opinions database (1850 to present), which is updated monthly and are current to within 90 days of filing. Searching is free, but limited to personal use. Powered by LexisNexis.
Judicial Council Forms
Access the Judicial Council and Administrative Office of the Courts forms on the Forms section of the California Courts Web site. One may select a form group or browse a complete list of forms by form number, form name or by recent changes.
California Appellate Courts Case Information
This system provides case information for California Supreme Court and Court of Appeals cases. Case information is updated once an hour throughout the business day. Select a jurisdiction, then search by case number, by party, by attorney or by case caption. Once you find your case, you may sign up for email notification of specific case activity (e.g. date of oral arguments).
LA Law Library's CA Appellate Briefs
The LA Law Library (with help from LLMC) is digitizing the briefs of California appellate and Supreme Court cases. When the project is complete, it will include briefs from the beginning of the California Court of Appeal (1905) and the California Supreme Court (1850). Because one needs the docket number to search for briefs, please go first to the California Appellate Courts Case Information page where one can search by party name, attorney name, and/or case caption (after selecting the court).

Below are sites that also provide access to California case law:

Supreme Court of California (SCOCAL)
SCOCAL is a joint project between the Robert Crown Law Library at Stanford Law School and Justia, Inc. Provides free access to the full text California Supreme Court opinions from 1934 to present, along with detailed annotations of selected cases written and edited in Stanford's ALR class. Some briefs and other docs available for selected cases.
FindLaw's California Cases
FindLaw offers free comprehensive California case law from 1934 to present. Access is free, but registration required to view full text.
Public Library of Law
Powered by FastCase. Access to cases since 1997 from all 50 states. Use "Advanced Search" box to limit by jurisdiction. Access is free, but registration required to view full text.
Google Scholar
Click the "Case Law" button, then the "Select courts..." link to specify California jurisdictions.
LexisNexis Academic
Full-text legal, news, reference, and business sources. Legal Research section contains United States federal and state case law and codes, as well as law reviews and legal news.

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Restricted to UC campuses. Click on the "Search by Content Type" button at the top of the screen, then select "Federal & State Cases" from the Legal menu. Click on the "Advanced Options" drop-down menu and select "California" under the listing of states.

California Regulations

Building Standards Commission
The California Building Standards Code (Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations) is available online in PDF form on the Building Standards Commission Web site.

The California Building Standards Code is published every 3 years and is updated by supplements in intervening years. It is available for purchase or available to the public at no cost through depository libraries (search "depository libraries" to find a list of libraries which hold the current version of the code).
California Office of Administrative Law
This agency is responsible for reviewing administrative regulations proposed by over 200 state agencies. Access the California Code of Regulations (CCR) from this page (link on left or tab at top) and the Regulatory Notice Register (tab at top or "Quick Links" link on right).
California State Agencies Directory
Includes State agencies, departments, boards, and commissions.
California State Agency Databases
Annotated list of databases produced by the State of California (GODART wiki).

Links to related Guides

Directories

California County Law Libraries
From Your Public Law Library.
California Law School Libraries
From HG.org.
California State Courts
From the California Courts Web site.
Federal Court Locator
From the U.S. Courts' Court Locator feature.
California State Telephone Directory
From the California Office of Technical Services. Provides access to government information and services for state employees, local government and the general public.
California Law Schools
From the State Bar of California; Provides 3 lists of California law schools (approved by the ABA, approved by the Committee of Bar Examiners (CALS), and unaccredited).

State Court Materials

The availability of state court documents online varies widely by court. Please see the article by Rachel Samberg linked below for further information on this topic.

You may have to register and pay for online access; for example, the Los Angeles Superior Court has an online system but requires registration and payment for searches and downloaded documents. See link below.

The Existential Exercise of Finding State Court Materials Online
Rachel Samberg, Legal Research Plus (blog), May 12, 2011.
Los Angeles Superior Court of California's Online Services
Services include the Criminal Defendant Index, Civil Party Name Search, and Civil Case Document Images. Registration required; fee-based service.
Open States
A project of the Sunlight Foundation, Open States is a collection of tools that make it possible for citizens to track what is happening in their state's capitol by aggregating information from all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.