This guide is intended to help legal researchers use library print and electronic sources efficiently and effectively. Law students will find the tips in this guide useful when conducting research during a clerkship or when they start their first associate position. It will be important to work efficiently, quickly and with the costs of your employer in mind. This guide will give you tips to facilitate your research in a timely, low-cost manner. It will also give you links to free or low cost resources. There is a list of law libraries that will provide free resources and reference services.
Arizona State Legislature The Arizona Legislature's website offers access to the unnanotated version of the Arizona Revised Statutes. The statutes are searchable and browsable by title and section. The Arizona Constitution The online Arizona Constitution is provided by the Arizona Legislature. The Constitution is searchable by entering phrases in the search box provided. It is also browsable by article and section. Arizona Court Rules The Arizona Court Rules Forum of the Arizona Supreme Court links users to a list of current Arizona court rules. Also included are lists of pending rule changes. Arizona Judicial Branch The website of the Arizona Judicial Branch provides links to opinions, rules, and orders of a variety of Arizona courts and agencies. LexisNexis Academic LexisNexis Congressional is available in the library on the computers provided. It is also available remotely for law students and staff. The Arizona Revised Statutes are avaialble back to 1991. Westlaw Patron Access Westlaw Patron Access is available for use only from within the library at the computers provided. Users can access the annotated and unannotated versions of the Arizona Revised Statutes. Statutes from 1988 to the current version are accessible.
Arizona Supreme Court Opinions The Arizona Supreme Court website provides access to its opinions from 1998 to the present. Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One Opinions This webpage provides access to opinions by the AZ Court of Appeals, Division One. All links are to PDF files. Arizona Court of Appeals, Division Two Opinions Division two of the AZCAP, located in Tucson, Arizona provides access to the court's opinions, upcoming opinions and memorandum decisions. LexisOne LexisOne is a service provided by LexisNexis. Users can access the last 10 years of state and federal case law. Supreme Court decisions from 1781 to the present. Searchable by keywords or by citation. Limiting fields include date, party, judge and attorney. MegaLaw MegaLaw provides free access to Arizona case law including Arizona Supreme Court and Appellate Court opinions. LexisNexis Academic LexisNexis Congressional is available in the library on the computers provided. It is also available remotely for law students and staff. Users can access cases from the Arizona Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and the Federal District Court for the Dustrict of Arizona. Westlaw Patron Access Westlaw Patron Access is available for use only from within the library at the computers provided. Users can access Arizona Supreme Court cases from 1912 to the present and from the Aourt of Appeals from 1965 to the present.
Arizona Administrative Code Access to the Arizona Administrative Code from the Secretary of State's website. Includes the Title Index and the Arizona Administrative Procedure Act. Listed by link to title and Article. Arizona Agency Directory The Arizona At Your Service site provides an alphabetical list of Arizona agencies and links to their websites. Arizona Administrative Register Access to the Arizona Administrative Register is provided from the Arizona Secretary of State's website. The Arizona Administrative Register tracks rulemaking activity. LexisNexis Academic LexisNexis Congressional is available in the library on the computers provided. It is also available remotely for law students and staff. Users can access the current Arizona Administrative Code and archives beginning in 2004. Westlaw Patron Access Westlaw Patron Access is available for use only from within the library at the computers provided. Users can access the Arizona Administrative Code from 2002 to the current version.
Arizona Court Rules Westlaw provides a list of Arizona Court Rules with links to sections. The sections contain some historical notes but no case annotations. Arizona Court Rules Forum There is information about amendments to rules as well as pending rule changes.
The Arizona law libraries listed below provide access to free legal research in print and electronic source. For more information click on their respective links.
Government Printing Office: United States Code This the main page of the GPO's online access to the US Code. Cornell University Law School: LII: US Code Collection homepage This webpage is the main page to access the LII US code collection. The code is searchable by title and section as well as by browsing the table of contents. Office of the Law Revision Counsel: US House of Representatives The Office of the Law Revision Counsel is part of the US House of Representatives. From this webpage users can search the US Code and also download chapters and titles of the Code. There is access to a popular name tool that allows users a way to search the code by the popular name of the act that is being researched. Findlaw: US Code Findlaw provides users a way to search the code by title and section or by keyword. Thomas: Library of Congress Thomas provides this page for users to search bills by word or bill number, or by bill sponsor. Numerous links are provided to other relevant information regarding the federal statutes and the legislative process. LexisNexis Congressional LexisNexis Congressional is available in the library on the computers provided. It is also available remotely for law students and staff. Users can search congressional documents oncluding legislative histories, bills and laws. LexisNexis Academic LexisNexis Congressional is available in the library on the computers provided. It is also available remotely for law students and staff. Users can access the United States Code Service. US Session Laws The US code classification tables show where recently enacted laws will appear in the United States Code and which sections of the Code have been amended by those laws. Includes tables that go back to 1996. Westlaw Patron Access Westlaw Patron Access is available for use only from within the library at the computers provided. Users can search the United States Code Annotated and the unannotated version of the current code. Historical versions of the code are available starting from 1990.
Supreme Court of the United States The U.S. Supreme Court's webpage provides opinions from 2005-2009. The page also includes a link to the latest slip opinions. Numerous links to other information regarding the Supreme Court. Findlaw: Supreme Court Opinions This page allows users to search for Supreme Court opinions from 1893 to the present. Users can browse by year, and search by citation, title, and text. Supreme Court Collection: Cornell University Law School Cornell University Law School Legal Information Institute has a Supreme Court Collection. Includes decisions by month and term and the ability to search for opinions. The site includes an archive back to 1990. Links to other resources and websites. Oyez This website includes court media devoted to the US Supreme Court. Includes recordings of oral arguments before the court. Also contains information about the individual justices and other supreme court information. LexisOne Lexisone provides free case law to for the last 10 years. It includes both state and federal cases. Supreme court decisions included are from 1781 to the present. Users can search by key word or citation. Findlaw Findlaw's Cases and Codes allows users to access resources for both federal and state law. In addition to cases, users can access statutes and constitutions. Links to the the individual circuit appellate courts and to the states are provided. AltLaw AltLaw provides free user access to case law. Presently access is limited to U.S. Supreme Court case back to 1805 and to circuit appeals courts back to 1950. Also included are unpublished circuit appellate cases back to 1996. PreCydent The opinions database includes US Supreme Court cases back to 1759, federal district courts from 2004, cases in the Federal Reporter 2nd edition since 1950 and Federal Reporter 3rd edition up to August, 2003. Justia Justia provides links to various courts' websites where users can find court opinions. Links provided are to US Supreme Court, US appellate courts, district and bankruptcy courts and state courts. Internet Legal Research Group (ILRG) The Internet Legal Research Group (ILRG) provides links to numerous courts around the country including US Supreme Court, US Federal Circuit Courts, and the state supreme courts. Cornell University Law School: LII The LII provides free access to federal judicial opinions by links from its website. Included are links to opinions from the US Supreme Court, US Court of Appeals, US district and bankruptcy courts and courts of special jurisdiction including the US Tax Court, the US Court of Claims, US Court of Appeals for Armed Forces, US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and the US Court of International Trade. United States Courts The US Courts website links users to information about all courts that make up the federal court system. Public Library of Law The Public Library of Law provides free access to case law and other primary sources of law. Included are cases from the US Supreme Court and the US Court of Appeals. Case from all states are available back to 1997. LexisNexis Academic LexisNexis Congressional is available in the library on the computers provided. It is also available remotely for law students and staff. Users can access cases from the Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal, the federal district courts, and U.S. Supreme Court. Westlaw Patron Access Westlaw Patron Access is available for use only from within the library at the computers provided. U.S. Supreme Court decisions back to 1790 are accessible. U.S. Courts of Appeal decisions are available back to 1891.
GPOAccess Analysis and interpretation of the US Constitution is provided by the Government Printing Office. There are links to the text and to constitutional law cases. Cornell University Law School: LII Cornell University Law School provides free access to the text of the constitution and amendments. Individual links to each article and each amendment. The Avalon Project: Yale Law School The Yale Law School Avalon Project provides access to an exceptional collection of law and historical documents including the Federalist Papers. Each paper is provided in an individual file. Library of Congress: Thomas Thomas provides access to the entire series of Federalist papers. Links open in individual files. These series of papers were written in order to provide support for ratification of the US Constitution. LexisNexis Academic LexisNexis Congressional is available in the library on the computers provided. It is also available remotely for law students and staff. Users can access the Constitution via the United States Code Service. Westlaw Patron Access Westlaw Patron Access is available for use only from within the library at the computers provided. The United States Constitution is available through the United States Code Annotated.
Government Printing Office: Federal Register The Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, notices of federal agencies and organizations,executive orders and other presidential documents. Code of Federal Regulations GPOAccess.gov provides access to the latest Code of Federal Regulations . Users are able to browse or search the CFR. e-CFR This is the most current electronic source of the CFR provided by the GPO and the Office of the CFR. It is updated daily. It does not provide the official version of the CFR. List of CFR Sections Affected (LSA) The LSA lists proposed, new and amended regulations that have been published in the Federal Register since the most current revision of the CFR. LexisNexis Congressional LexisNexis Congressional is available in the library on the computers provided. It is also available remotely for law students and staff. Users can access the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regualtions . LexisNexis Academic Lexis Nexis Academic is available in the library on the computers provided. It is also avaialble remotely for law students and staff. Users can access the Federal Register back to 1980 and the Code of Federal Regulations back to 1981. Westlaw Patron Access Westlaw Patron Access is available for use only from within the library at the computers provided. The current issues of the Federal Register are available as well as archival issues back to 1936. The curren Code of Federal Regulations is available and archives are accessible back to 1984. HeinOnline Available on campus to use in the library on the computers provided. Remote access is available but limited to ASU students and staff. The Federal Register is available on HeinOnline from 1936 to the present. The Code of Federal Regulations is available on HeinOnline; coverage begins in 1938.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Court Rules The court provides access to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, Ninth Circuit Rules, proposed rules amendments and rule amendments. Other information available on this cite include forms and decision. U.S. District Court, District of Arizona This webpage by the US District Court, District of Arizona provides links to the local rules of practice for Arizona. Also included are local rules of Bankruptcy, Civil and Criminal Procedure, and others. United States Bankruptcy Court, District of Arizona This is a link to the forms and publications page for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Arizona. Cornell University Law School, Legal Information Institute (LII) The LII provides the following on its website:
LexisNexis Academic LexisNexis Congressional is available in the library on the computers provided. It is also available remotely for law students and staff. Users can access federal and state court rules.
LexisNexis Members of the State Bar of Arizona receive discounts on online legal research and other LexisNexis products. Fastcase All active, judicial and over-70 members can access FREE, unlimited online legal research through a new member benefit powered by Fastcase. Click here for more information.
LoisLaw There are numerous subscription options avaialble. See the "subscription options" menu on the left side of the Loislaw webpage. National Law Library National Law Library provides subscription based legal research. The prices area available online as well as descriptions of its collections . VersusLaw VersusLaw offers 3 different monthly subscriptions. Descriptions of the plans and prices can be found online on the VersusLaw website. LexisOne LexisOne provides 10 years of free state and federal decisions as well as U.S. Supreme Court opinions from 1781 to the present. Subscription plans are also offered by the day, week or month. The description of the plan and prices are available online.
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