Research Guides: Legal Resources: Web Sites

GENERAL LAW

Process of Legal Research (Flow Chart)
A flow chart that simplifies the process of legal research
Cornell Legal Information Institute
Not for profit group at Cornell Law School that has many laws published online with free access(some limits). Includes access to U.S. Code, list of current federal laws, a collections of all recent opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court and State Court of Appeals decisions, and California Court decisions. The site provides easy to understand topical overviews of such areas as banking law, employment discrimination law, family law, commerce law, criminal law, & more within WEX legal encyclopedia.
Google Scholar - Legal Opinions and Journals
Google has made a database of Federal and State case law and legal journal articles available via its Google Scholar search. Access full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts. Opinions of US state appellate and supreme court cases go to 1950. US federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy courts go to 1923, and US Sup. Court cases go to 1791. Can limit search to CA cases. Google's "How Cited" tool is free citator tool, but not exhaustive.
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For more info about Case Law in Google Scholar, try Internet for Lawyers and
Case Western Reserve's Case Law in Google Scholar.
Findlaw.com
Free, but parts require registration. This site offers information on cases, U.S. and State code, statutes, lawyer directories, legal news, legal aid and directories, online career center, and community message boards. The site has case law, which includes U.S. Sup. Court decisions back to 1893, Cal. Sup. Court-Appellate Court decisions to 1934 (with citations and internal page numbers), recent U.S. Circuit Court, and other state court decisions. Federal and state codes are available. A thorough search may be conducted in the "Search Findlaw" search box in the top right. As an example, try putting the words postal mail delivery and see all the results you get!

CALIFORNIA LAW

California Courts
Site includes info on the California Supreme Court, Appellate and Superior courts, and Judicial Council, as well as resources to help you navigate the California legal system. Calif. Supreme Ct and Ct of Appeals opinions from 1850 to present, oral argument calendars, CA Rules of Ct, links to Sup. Court web sites, judicial council (court) forms, and loads of Self Help in both English and Spanish. All standardized forms produced by the state are here.
California County Public Law Library
This site allows you to find your local public law library, chat with a Law Librarian (Ask Now) if you have a question, presents a list of SELF HELP CENTERS for those who choose to represent themselves in court, a thorough Legal Links page, and a Mini Research Class page that has links to teach you how to do legal research.
California Legislative Information: Codes, State Constitution, Legislation and Bill Information
Site enables keyword searching of California Code statutes, however they are not annotated (PCC Library has West's Annotated CA Codes at REF 345.22 C1-10)
California Code of Regulations
This site from Thomson Reuters Westlaw provides free access to an unannotated version of the California Code of Regulations. Pasadena Central Library has the full printed version called Barclays Official California Code of Regulations. PCC Library has v. 6-7. Title 5, Education AND v. 22. Title 17, Public Health located at REF 345.22 C 1-18, 1990 The California Code of Regulations (CCR), is the official compilation and publication of the regulations adopted, amended or repealed by CA state agencies.
California Building Code (California Code of Regulations Title 24)
The California Building Code incorporates by adoption the Uniform Building Code of the International Conference of Building Officials with necessary California amendments.
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Note: The International Building Code covers a lot of the California Building Code.

FEDERAL LAW

USA.gov
United States government web site to provide the public with easy, one-stop access to all online U.S. Federal Government resources.
GPO Access (Government Printing Office Federal Digital System)
Provides free electronic access to govt publications published by the Federal Government. Resources include Legislative, Executive, and Judicial publishings such as U.S. Budgets, Code of Federal Regs, Congressional Bills, U.S. Code., Federal Register, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, U.S. Constitution, Presidential Docs, and more. One or more of titles in the collection may be keyword searched with the Advanced Search option.
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The information provided on this site is the official published version with many of the electronic documents appearing on the day of publication exactly as they do in print.
United States Code Congressional and Administrative News
USCCAN contains the text of federal Public Laws (PL) as they are passed and published. Texts of Public Laws from the 104th Congress (1995-1996) forward can be found here.
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Public Laws are published by the number of the Congressional Session, followed by the number of the Public Law. Each Congressional session's Public Laws begin with the number. For example, a typical Public Law citation will read: PL 105-112. In this instance, the law was passed as the 112th Public Law of the 105th Congress. USCCAN also provides legislative history for each Public Law (Legislative History is the progress of a bill through the legislative process and refer to the documents that are created during that process), proclamations, executive messages and orders, administrative regulations, lists of committees, indexes & tables, for each session of Congress.
U.S. Supreme Court
Provides Court information to the bar, the public, and the news media. Includes info about the court, docket info, arguments, briefs, bar admissions info, court rules, handling guides, opinions, orders, public information, and more. Briefs and Oral Arguments are most popular here.
PACER
PACER= Public Access to Court Electronic Records. You must register with billing info first to use. Cost is $.10 per page view. Provides access to U.S. Appellate, District, and Bankruptcy court records and documents nationwide.
The Indiana University Center on Representative Government
Educational materials about the United States Congress, including its function and history; also includes historical documents and political commentaries.

Google Scholar

You may use Google Scholar to search for Federal and State case law as well as legal journal articles.