Free Legal Research Sites & Free Case Law Lee Ryan, J.D., M.L.I.S Research Librarian, USF School of Law, Dorraine Zief Law Library Prepared for the National Business Institute Seminar “Find it Fast and Free on the Net: Strategies for Legal Research on the Web,” Oakland, California, June 5, [Slides and outline available at: Last updated on May 30, 2012]

Portals & Meta Sites

Image courtesy of Tulane Univ. Public Relations, Are Portals Passé?

Useful Portals — Cornell Legal Information Institute ( WashLaw ( FindLaw — Legal Professionals ( Justia (

Cornell Legal Information Institute State Materials (links to cases, codes, regs, etc.) Topical Materials (“Wex” legal encyclopedia)

Cornell LII — Typical State Listing (Nevada)

Cornell LII — “Wex” Topic: Immigration Overview + links to resources

Search Engines or Portals ?

Searching for primary law — an alternative to portals nevada statutes nevada case law nevada "legal research" illinois "legal research" site:.edu health law research site:.edu [The last 2 searches target university sites to find the helpful guides typically produced by law school research librarians.]

Free Case Law

Best Free Case Law Options Google Scholar - Legal Documents ( — Select “Legal Documents” before searchinghttp://scholar.google.com/ California Official Reports — Public Access Web Site ( Public Library of Law ( California Supreme & Appellate Court Cases — Findlaw ( fastcase iPad / iPhone App — iPad — iPhonehttp://

Coverage Caveats

Free Case Law Sites — Comparisons

Best of the Best Google Scholar & California Official Reports

Google Scholar — Legal Documents Select “Legal Documents” before searching.

Google Scholar – limiting results by court(s) Can limit to: - federal - your state - courts you pick Results limited to all Calif. courts. Get even more precise with the “Select courts” button. Selecting the exact courts you want. (You can mix & match.)

Google Scholar – Results

Calif. Official Reports — Public Access Site Default search — natural language Other search options

Calif. Official Reports — Results (Nat. Lang.) Up to 100 results (for natural language search)

Calif. Official Reports — Advanced Search Form Full LexisNexis “terms & connectors” options

Calif. Official Reports — Results (Advanced) Limit is 25 cases.… Unless you use a hack to get around it.

Searching Dos and Don’ts

Cite Checking The Poor Lawyer’s “Shepard’s” (?)

Verification v. Research

Google Scholar – “Cited by” and “How cited” Cited by & How cited

Google Scholar – Jensen “Cited by” List ranked by extent of discussion of Jensen case. —— Can “Search within” the citing documents.

Google Scholar – Jensen “How cited” Quotations from Jensen in documents citing to Jensen. —— Access to “Cited by” list. —— Related documents: may not cite to Jensen, but Google thinks they may be similar.

Google Scholar – No warning signals!! Has Royal Globe Ins.Co. been overruled? How would you know?

Royal Globe Ins. Co. — Real Shepard’s

Calif. Official Reports Shepard’s signals … in a vacuum! No access to cases explaining why Shepard’s thinks Colmenares was questioned. Also, quarterly updating means signals may be out of date.

When you need real Shepard’s …Or KeyCite …Or other non-free resources

California’s Public Law Libraries Find the public law library closest to you

San Francisco Law Library Databases for researchers in the library (including Shepard’s, KeyCite)

Image courtesy of Véronique Debord-Lazaro,

The “Pocket Part” Supplemental Slides

Other Free Case Law Options Public Library of Law, California Cases on FindLaw, fastcase app

Public Library of Law Can limit by jurisdiction/court or date

Public Library of Law — Results

California Cases on FindLaw Advanced Search Form

California Cases on FindLaw — Results

Fastcase iPad / iPhone App

Calif. Official Reports Working around the 25-case limit in Advanced search.

Start with a laughably broad search (e.g. for “law”).

At error message, ask to edit your search.

Replace first search with your real search.

Presto! Complete results! (More than 25 cases.)