Research Guide: Legal and Paralegal Research

Legal Research | Paralegal Research

Legal Research

Associations

• American Bar Association
  Access to American Bar Association Journal, full-text and many other law links.
• National Federation of Paralegal Associations
  Includes a career center.

Directories

• Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Locator
  Directory of lawyers and law firms.
• West's Legal Directory
  

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

• Cyberlaw Encyclopedia
• Electric Law Library
  Includes the Lawcopedia, a legal encyclopedia.
• Encyclopedia of Law & Economics
• Law.com Dictionary
• Nolo Legal Encyclopedia
• Nolo's Plain-English Law Dictionary

Journals

• Academic Law Reviews and Journals

Legal Research

• Catalaw, the Internet's Grand Central Legal Station
  Legal research opportunities and links.
• Cornell University Legal Information Institute - Legal Material Organized by Topic
  Materials are organized by topic.
• Findlaw
  Offers access to full text of laws and decisions, federal, state and local.
• Hieros Gamos - The Comprehensive Legal Site
  Indexes 200 practice areas and offers material in French, German, Italian and Spanish as well as English.
• LLRX.com
  Internet research and latest news for legal professional.
• MegaLaw.com
  Select topics for information, in many cases on a state by state basic.

Self-help

• FindLaw for the Public
• Free Legal Advice
  Searchable by category.
• Nolo Press Self-Help Law Center
  Consumer type of legal information.

Specialty Sites

A subject search of the Web can help locate legal sites designed for special interest purposes. Many of the above research sites will also help identify and offer links to specialty sites for easy access. Examples:

• Find Law Immigration Site
  Many resources and links are offered.
• Tenant-Net
  Can search for local legal information.

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Paralegal Research

Search Aids

Search Terms

(Use for computer searches) You can use Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT

• Law and New York
• Law and Forms
• Forms and Criminal
• Paralegals and Careers

Subject Headings

(Use in catalogs and print indexes)

• Law
• Paralegal

Call Number

• 346 to 346.73 (Dewey Decimal)
• KF (Library of Congress)

Databases

• Westlaw
  Password needed
• EBSCO
• JSTOR
• Lexis/Nexis Academic

Library catalogs

• CUNY+
• World Cat/ World Wide Catalog

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This pathfinder will be useful in finding information about legal resources. This guide will help you locate electronic and print resources. Throughout your research, please feel free to ask a Librarian for help.

For an introduction to the topic, see: American Bar Association
http://www.abanet.org

Key Resources at a Glance

• Code of New York
  McKinney's Consolidated Laws of New York Annotated
  (NY statutes in effect)
• New York Legislature Session Laws
  McKinney's Session Law of New York (An unofficial record of laws passed by the New York legislature)
• New York State Bill Search (on the State Assembly website):
  http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg
• West's Encyclopedia of American Law
• Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory (directory of law firms)
• West's New York Digest, 4th ed. (This digest can be used to locate case law)
• New York Jurisprudence 2d (Legal encyclopedia covering New York civil and criminal law and procedure, statutes and administrative law.)
• United States Code (Federal Statutes)
  (First volume contains the U.S. Constitution)

Case Law:

• New York Reports 2d series (Official reporter of opinions of the New York Court of Appeals)
• Appellate Division Reports (A.D. or AD and Appellate Division Reports 2d. This is the official reporter of opinions from the Appellate Division.)
• Miscellaneous Reports (This is the official reporter of select opinions from the New York Supreme Court and other lower New York courts.)
• New York Supplement 2d series (Unofficial reporter containing reported decisions of the Court of Appeals, Appellate Division, Supreme Court and other lower courts.)

Case Finding

• West's New York Digest, 4th ed (locate case law using West's key number system.)

New York Case Law – Free Access:

• New York State Court Decisions
  http://www.nycourts.gov/decisions/index.shtml
• New York State Slip Opinions
  http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/Decisions.htm
• New York Court of Appeals Opinions (from 1990 forward)
  http://www.law.cornell.edu/ny/ctap

Citators:

• Shepard's New York Statute Citations: Citations for the New York state constitution, state statutes, administrative regulations and court rules.
• Shepard's New York Miscellaneous Citations: Citations for reported cases from the New York Supreme Court, attorney general opinions and selected New York administrative opinions.
• Shepard's New York Court of Appeals Citations: Citations for cases from New York's highest court

Online Citators:

• Westlaw: Keycite
• Lexis/Nexis: Shepard's

Periodicals

• Journal of Court Reporting
• Legal Assistant Today
• New York Law Journal (daily newspaper)
• New York Law Digest Annotator
• New York State Bar Association Journal

Web Sites

• Findlaw www.findlaw.org
• Hieros Gamos http://www.hg.org
• United States Government Printing Office http://www.gpo.gov
• Library of Congress Congressional Research Service http://thomas.loc.gov
• Reflaw http://washlaw.edu
• Legal Information Institute from the Cornell Law School http://www.law.cornell.edu

Legal Citation Guides

• The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation
  (Source for legal citations)

Dictionaries

• YourDictionary.Com http://www.yourdictionary.com
• Law.com Dictionary- http://dictionary.law.com
• Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations (Useful for deciphering legal acronyms and abbreviations)
• Black's Law Dictionary (standard legal dictionary)
  (Useful for deciphering legal acronyms and abbreviations)

**Compiled by Jane Devine - Revised 8/04
Revised by Alexandra Rojas - 8/08