or, Life after Rewards Points

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(or, Life after Rewards Points)
Free Low-Cost Legal Research
Research Refresher / Jennifer L. Behrens / March
30, 2009
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Lexis and Westlaw, post-J.D.

• After graduation (and over the summers), Lexis
  and Westlaw cut off free student access.
• May request summer extensions in special cases
  (RA work, moot court, journal, non-profit)
• Will receive email from representatives soon
• Research charges will begin to add up quickly.

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Sample charges

• Retrieving a document with citation 6.00
• Searching for a case in all federal cases
  database (incl. by party name) 75-175
• Shepardizing or KeyCiting a single citation
  4.25-6.00
• Your firm may have a flat rate, but an overall
  increase in use will affect the rate when its
  time to renegotiate!

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Todays Agenda

• Strategies for Cost-Effective Research
• Low-cost research services
• Loislaw
• Versuslaw
• Casemaker
• FastCase
• Free research sources
• Cases Briefs
• Statutes, Regulations, Legislative History
• Forms Other Practice Material

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Cost-Effective Research Strategies

• Avoid searching on Lexis/Westlaw! (It is always
  cheaper to retrieve known citations than to
  search.)
• Begin with a print resource (such as AmJur/CJS)
  to locate leading cases, statutes and key numbers
  for further research.
• If you must begin online, test your search terms
  on a free case law website or low-cost legal
  research service.

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Low-Cost Research Services

• In recent years, a number of smaller competitors
  to Lexis/Westlaw have emerged.
• These sources vary widely in their contents and
  costs.
• Take advantage of the online tutorials and any
  student access you may receive during your time
  at Duke Law.

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Loislaw

• http//www.loislawschool.com
• Contains federal and state case law, codes and
  session laws, selected treatises and bar
  publications.
• Students can register for a free account which
  lasts until 6 months after graduation (see
  librarian for access code).
• Username generated by Loislaw will be e-mailed,
  along with a password that you choose during
  registration.

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Primary law includes opinions from all circuits
and all 50 states. Some unpublished opinions are
available. New cases are posted within 24-48
hours of publication.
Secondary law includes many full-text subject
treatises as well as CLE publications from
selected states. Student accounts have only a
limited preview of the treatises and bar
publications.
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In Loislaw, you may search across several
different jurisdictions. Some other free
low-cost services do not allow you to search both
federal and state cases at once.
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GlobalCite works similarly to Shepards and
KeyCite, retrieving cases and secondary sources
which cite the document. Its not as
comprehensive as Shepards or KeyCite, though.
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Within a single database, you can search across
multiple jurisdictions by using the check boxes
and clicking Continue.
Loislaw includes Acts (session laws) as well as
Statutes (codes).
Folders indicate that you can browse as well as
search.
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For search commands and other tips, view Online
Help, linked from the bottom of every page.
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Casemaker

• http//www.casemaker.us
• Contains Federal case law from U.S. Supreme
  Court and Courts of Appeals U.S. Code C.F.R.
  State Libraries provide case law and
  statutes/regs for consortium members.
• State bar associations must purchase access
  service is then free and unlimited to current
  members of the bar.
• Currently, 28 state bar associations have
  subscribed to Casemaker.

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Casemaker

• Casemaker Consortium members include
• North Carolina
• Georgia
• Texas
• Notable exclusions
• California
• Florida
• New York

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Casemaker through NC Bar

• http//www.ncbar.org/join
• Membership is free to currently-enrolled law
  students includes access to Casemaker.
• 2-3 business days to process membership member
  and password will be sent by e-mail.
• Questions? Contact Whitney von Haam
  (whitney_at_ncbar.org).

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CasemakerX

• http//www.casemakerx.com
• Casemaker meets social networking
• Full access to the Casemaker research resources
• Can create a MySpace-like profile for networking
  (professional and personal)
• May register with your Duke e-mail address.

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Versuslaw

• http//www.versuslaw.com
• Students can register for free access to the case
  law databases (Standard Plan) trial accounts
  must be reactivated each year (possibly with some
  difficulty).
• Password generated by Versuslaw will be e-mailed,
  along with the username you select during the
  registration process.

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More search commands are available on the Search
tips link. The commands are very similar on all
of these services, but not quite the same always
check before you search!
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Premium subscribers have access to a citation
service called V.Cite. Trial subscribers must
check their citations with a full-text search
across all Federal Circuits for the official U.S.
Reports citation. Remember that District Courts
are not included in that search. (Separate
database.)
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Versuslaw

• Student trials can access CASE databases only.
• Versuslaw also contains statutes, regulations and
  court rules for most jurisdictions as part of the
  Premium and Professional plans.
• Forms are also available as separate database.
• Help page includes a Research Manual, with tips
  and tricks for database searching. The various
  commands for field searching are published there.

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FastCase

• http//www.fastcase.com
• 24-hour trial available through site interactive
  online demo.
• Includes cases from federal district and U.S.
  Bankruptcy courts as well as state appellate and
  supreme courts.
• Free front end (Public Library of Law
  http//www.plol.org).

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These non-case law resources link to free,
publicly available web sites like government
publishers and Findlaw.com.
Newspaper search goes to a version of the Duke
database Americas Newspapers.
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Fastcases main advantages are natural language
searching and Authority Check, which searches for
cases that cite to your case (but is NOT intended
as a full replacement for Shepards/KeyCite).
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Freebies!
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Considerations

• What kind of document am I looking for?
• Who would normally be responsible for maintaining
  those documents in print?
• Where does the document live online (i.e.,
  official government vs. free site)?
• When was the document posted and/or the site last
  updated?

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Free Mega-Sites

• FindLaw (http//www.findlaw.com)
• Justia (http//www.justia.com)
• Legal Information Institute (http//www.law.cornel
  l.edu/)
• PreCYdent (http//www.precydent.com)
• Public Library of Law (http//www.plol.org/)
• Public.Resource.Org (http//public.resource.org/in
  dex.html)
• AltLaw (beta) (http//www.altlaw.org/) (federal
  appellate cases only)

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Free Cases Briefs

• Opinions and court filings are frequently posted
  on the website of the court which issued the
  opinion. Research mega-sites also have extensive
  archives of case law, at least at the federal
  level.
• Briefs and opinions (at least at the federal
  appellate level) are also often posted on these
  sites.

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Presentation of available resources is clean and
easy to read.
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Low-Cost Court docs

• Court documents at the lower federal court level
  (e.g., complaints and replies in district court)
  are usually available through PACER (Public
  Access to Court Electronic Records).
• PACER charges a per-page fee for document
  retrieval (currently 0.08).

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Low-Cost Court docs

• Court documents at the state court level may be
  posted on the courts web site.
• You may also have to contact the court clerk or
  court library directly, and pay a fee for copying
  services.
• Check out the librarys research guide at
  http//www.law.duke.edu/lib/researchguides/record
  s_briefs

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Free Statutes

• Session laws and codes are usually available on
  the web site of the jurisdictions legislature.
  Amount of years available will vary.
• Federal Available via FDsys, http//fdsys.gpo.go
  v .
• State Consult links on National Conference of
  State Legislature site http//www.ncsl.org/public
  /leglinks.cfm.

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FDSys will replace GPOAccess this summer. Not all
content has migrated, although bills and public
laws are here. Use Search on GPO Access link at
left to get to U.S. Code and Statutes at Large.
Statutes at Large is available (1789-2004) in
PDF through HeinOnline, a low-cost database.
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Free Statutes

• Local (municipal) codes are sometimes posted on
  the county or citys web site.
• Private publishers also make them available
  online
• http//www.municode.com/Resources/OnlineLibrary.as
  p
• http//municipalcodes.lexisnexis.com/
• http//www.generalcode.com/webcode2.html
• http//www.codepublishing.com/elibrary.html

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Free Legislative History

• Federal legislative history material is widely
  available online through the Government Printing
  Office (GPO) and the Library of Congress.
• The Law Library maintains a research guide to
  these and other federal legislative history
  resources on our web site
• http//www.law.duke.edu/lib/researchguides/fedleg
  .html

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THOMAS

• http//thomas.loc.gov
• Full-text bills and bill summaries (1973- )
• Includes links to available committee reports and
  Congressional Record debates (usually 1994- ).

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Links lead to the full text of the bill(s),
report(s), debate(s), etc., which are available
via GPO Access.
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GPO Access (soon to be FDsys)

• http//www.gpoaccess.gov
• Full-text congressional committee reports,
  committee prints, selected hearings,
  Congressional Record, and much more through the
  Legislative Resources. Many sources available in
  PDF.
• This summer, should be replaced by FDsys
  (http//fdsys.gpo.gov).

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Free Legislative History

• State materials will vary widely in terms of
  online availability.
• Generally, online resources will be somewhere on
  the state legislatures web site.
• Look for a library research guide from an
  in-state law school, or consult a state-specific
  research guide for more info.

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Free Regulations

• Federal regulations are available
• Federal Register (1994- ) through FDsys,
  http//fdsys.gpo.gov
• Code of Federal Regulations (1996- ), through GPO
  Access, http//www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/index.html
• Regulations.gov, http//www.regulations.gov
• Individual agency sites (coverage varies)

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Free Regulations

• State regulations are usually available through
  individual agency web sites some administrative
  codes are also published online by the secretary
  of states office.
• University of Michigan maintains a good directory
  of links to State Legal Sources on the Web,
  http//www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/statelaw.html

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Free Forms

• Forms required in a specific court are often
  available through the courts own web site.
• Findlaw (http//forms.lp.findlaw.com/) provides
  forms for specific jurisdictions, as well as
  sample contracts and forms dealing with specific
  issues (i.e., fill-in-the-blank forms).
• Public Library of Law (http//www.plol.org) also
  maintains a forms collection.

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Free Forms

• LexisONE (http//www.lexisone.com) is a
  mini-LexisNexis, designed for small firms.
• Portions of the site are free, but require
  registration.
• Selected forms from Lexis library of Matthew
  Bender publications are available for free
  download.

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Pay forms are automated (can be filled in
online) free forms must be downloaded and
printed. Only selected forms are available on the
free list.
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Free Public Records

• Public records about people (births, deaths,
  marriages, incarcerations, real estate
  transactions, property taxes) are usually
  maintained at the county government level.
• Dont know the county? Check the map at
  http//quickfacts.census.gov/cgi-bin/qfd/lookup.

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Free Public Records

• Public records about corporations are usually
  maintained at the state level (with the exception
  of publicly-traded companies securities filings,
  available through the SEC).
• Information about registered corporations can be
  found through the secretary of state where the
  business is incorporated.

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Putting It All Together

• How do you know when its better (or safe) to use
  a free source instead of Lexis/Westlaw?
• Consider these factors
• Currency of the source
• Authority of the sources creator
• Ease of retrieving free vs. paid source
• Proximity of project deadline

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Upcoming Research Refreshers
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Thanks!

• Jennifer L. Behrens
• Reference Librarian
• behrens_at_law.duke.edu
• Photo credit Flickr user Alexandre Buisse
• Used under Creative Commons license