Should I use free legal research resources?
The availability of legal materials on the Internet has changed rapidly over the last 15 years. As legal materials have been digitized, or produced in digital formats, their availability on the Internet has increased expotentially. Many legal practicioners rely upon the availabily of electronic legal materials via major vendors such as Lexis and Westlaw. These vendors have added editorial content, finding aids, and metadata to primary legal materials which have made them easier to find, use, and implement in practice. The cost of these vendors, however, may be impractical or prohibitive depending upon the area of practice and the client's ability to pay.
In reponse, an effort has been made to make primary legal materials available for free online or at low-cost. These materials will often lack the additional content added by major vendors and must be independently evaluated for their currentness, authority, and accuracy. As they lack finding aids and extensive metadata, they are also more difficult to find.
When evaluating free, or low-cost, online legal materials a practicioner must carefully evaluate the following:
- Credibility and authority
- If a primary legal source, is the document authentic? Is it from a government/legislative website?
- If a secondary source, who is the author? Is he/she considered an expert? Who is the publisher? Has the source been cited by a court or other authoritative sources?
- Currency
- Has the code section been modified? Has the case been distinguished, questioned, overruled?
- What is the date of the source? Have there been major developments in this area since publication?
- Finding aids and functionality
- How do I search? Is there additional metadata? Is this metadata automated or added by legal professionals?
- Can I locate materials by citation? By subject area?
- Cost
- What is the cost, if any, of the source? Will using this source require additional time? If so, is the value of my time more than the cost savings?
CALI Tutorials
- Cost of Legal ResearchThis lesson will help you avoid the pitfalls of poor research strategy when using Lexis® service and Westlaw® and briefly introduce you to some cost-saving alternatives.
- Evaluating Web SitesThis lesson will provide the student with the tools to effectively judge the content of web pages. Included in the exercise are four criteria for evaluation: authority, accuracy, comprehensiveness and currency. Each of these concepts is defined through the use of descriptive text followed by screen images of actual law-related web sites to illustrate the concepts.
- Government DocumentsThis lesson is intended to familiarize the user with the range of documents produced by the Federal government, where they can be found, and how they can be used in a law practice. The lesson focuses on issues surrounding government documents including: authenticity, how to find and use government documents, and statistics. While this lesson is aimed primarily at second and third year law students who will be learning about these materials for the first time, each section may be used independently to gain knowledge about the particular topic involved.
- Free Internet Legal ResourcesThis lesson will give students a basic introduction to using the Internet for legal research. Students will consider when it is appropriate to use the Internet as a research tool in legal practice, and they will learn how to evaluate the quality and reliability of free web resources. Students will then be introduced to three practical approaches to doing legal research on the Internet.
Other Research Guides
- Harvard Law - Free Legal Research ResourcesThis guide brings together some of the best resources for free legal research on the web.
- University of Washington - Free Law OnlineThis page links to databases and websites that provide legal information and materials (including laws, bills, court opinions, and related documents) and/or links to legal material.
- Georgetown Law - Free and Low Cost Legal Research GuideThe first part of this guide provides an overview and links to different types of free materials and the second part summarizes the features and costs of less expensive databases.
