1. Getting Real Law
Where IS the Law?

2. Primary Case Law Primary Statutory Law Secondary Materials
Three Sources of Law
Primary Case Law
Primary Statutory Law
Secondary Materials

3. Primary Case Law

4. The Courts Practical problems of publishing cases
Courts were poorly funded, not provided with infrastructure to publish case law
Even if they were, so few cases per jurisdiction that publishing was slow
Commercial publishers weren’t constrained by jurisdictions
Reception Statutes

5. Commercial Publication
West did such a good job that many states eventually dropped official publication altogether and designated West versions as official
West did such a good job - standard format, scrupulous indexing, timeliness - that their versions of cases were adopted as standard citations by courts, law reviews and journals

6. The Digital Age
•The West monopoly was challenged when Lexis came on the scene. They challenged West in two ways: vilified West’s use of human indexing and digesting and timeliness.
•But research and experience has blown up these assumptions:
1. Full text searching is not all that was promised, not precise
2. Explosion of case law makes research difficult
3. Model of charging for usage has proved to be very costly

7. Bloomberg BNA FastCase CaseMaker CaseText LII Google Scholar
The Wild Internet
Each of these presents its own challenges, cost, reliability and authenticity
•Zipf’s Law, volume isn’t necessarily a good thing
•Nevelow Mart article
•Interface, ease of use
•Cost
Bloomberg BNA
FastCase
CaseMaker
CaseText
LII
Google Scholar

8. Taming the Internet: UELMA
Uniform Electronic Materials Act - Many states now possess the capability of publishing their own legal materials online. Authenticity is one of the key issues: how do you know that cases are reliable? Current, authentic, ease of use

9. nebraska.gov
Nebraska has become a leader in the case law realm by designating it online cases as official without the benefit of UELMA, but with all the safeguards.
BUT Statutes are still officially published in print

10. Statutes, Codes, Laws?
What’s the difference between these terms? Technically, all are “laws”, but there are actual technical differences between “statutes” and “codes.”

11. Who recognizes this guy
Who recognizes this guy? School House Rock is the best introduction to statutory laws.
Basically, Bills go through processes, hearings, reports, etc. When they’re passed the become “statutes”. But this is a useless format, so they’re “codified,” organized by subject.

12. Official Sources “state”.gov sites gpo.gov/FDSYS
Similar practical problems as caselaw, may even be more difficult to search than cases
•“lethal injection”

13. All the usual suspects: Legal Information Institute
Commercial Sources
All the usual suspects:
West
Lexis
Bloomberg
FastCase
CaseMaker
Legal Information Institute
HeinOnline
Each may have advantages and disadvantages
•Cost
•Ease of use
•Usefulness, contracts/licenses
•Tables of contents

14. Understanding laws
Problem is that the laws can’t be understood without reference to cases, policy statements and regulations.
Regulations are extremely difficult to research because so much is obscure and dependent on policy.
Examples: Panama Cases, National Park Regs, Opinions of the W & H Administrator, Trump’s Travel Ban….

15. Secondary sources
These provide critical understanding of what the law is: analysis, description of history reasoning, intent, trends, nuances. Typically they are written by respected scholars or practitioners in their respective fields. Reliable and useful for putting case, statutes and regs together in an understandable way

16. Miscellaneous Sources and Considerations:
Practical Sources
Handbooks:
NCLE (Nebraska State Bar)
NOLO Press (
LawHelpNE.LegalAidofNebraska.org (Legal Services Corporation)
Self Center (
Court Rules:
West’s Annotated Code
Local rules: supremecourt.nebraska.gov
Miscellaneous Sources and Considerations:
Explore subscriptions to HeinOnline, FastCase, Casemaker, Westlaw Public Access
AmJur (or West’s) Pleading & Practice Forms and/or Legal Forms
Subscribe to a legal encyclopedia