Giving thanks for free online legal research resources
In the spirit of the season, let's give thanks for the wonderful technology that puts so much free content at our fingertips. Here are a couple more free legal research sites to feast on.
The Federal Judicial Center maintains a website at www.fjc.gov in furtherance of its stated goal to promote continuing education and training for federal judges, court employees, and others. The site provides free articles on a wide range of topics, including antitrust law, civil procedure, expert witnesses, securities law, and many more. The catalog includes articles produced since the FJC's creation in 1967. According to the website's description, "Included are reports of research and analysis done by or for the Center, monographs on substantive legal subjects, manuals, and desk references for judges and court staff." Among this selection are longer treatises, as well, such as the entire Manual For Complex Litigation, Fourth, available as a PDF download. There are also streaming videos available, such as a bankruptcy basics series (hosted at www.uscourts.gov) and a 17-minute introduction to the patent system.
Lawsource.com is the home of "American Law Sources On-Line" (ALSO), a site that collects many free primary and secondary legal resources available on the Web. The design of the site is simplistic and, frankly, unattractive. But it's about the quality of the content, right? ALSO is fairly inclusive, providing links to resources such as the constitution, recent bills, law reviews, and forms. Many of the links available on the site you will be familiar with, but having all these organized in one page according to available content is very helpful. For some content areas, such as county and municipal ordinances, ALSO provides multiple websites where the information is available, so you can avoid broken links and outdated sites.
Don't gorge yourself on these, now. We have plenty more link tips coming.