Legal Information on the Internet in the USA

The United States House of Representatives provides a major source of information, including:

• The schedule of bills, resolutions, and other legislative issues before the House
• The Library of Congress with Information about the U.S. Congress legislative process, bills, the Congressional Record, committee information, and historical documents
• Information on committee meetings.
• Contacts - Constituents may identify and/or contact their elected Member
• Access to the basic documents of U.S. law. Full text searchable copies of the U.S. Code (a consolidation and codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the US).
• Note that the Internet Law Library is no longer hosted here. It can be found in various new forms, including at the LawGuru site).

The White House provides information speeches and plans for legisation relating to the president. There is also a history of past presidents and of the White House itself and of the American system of Government.

US Department of Justice sets out its aims as "To enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans." There are links to government departments and agencies relating to legal matters as well as press release and reports relating to issues of current interest.

The Library of Congress site is designed both for lawyers and for members of the public. As well as serious legal material, it has several unique public-oriented features including "American Memory" Exhibits, a searching engine called Thomas (after Jefferson) and current and changing events and exhibits. In the section for finding legal resources in a global context, there are various resources including:

• Global Legal Information Network, (GLIN) a database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions and related legal sources from around the globe. Documents are submitted in their original language with English summaries available.
• The Global Legal Monitor (GLN) is an online publication covering legal news and developments worldwide.
• The Guide to Law Online provides a vast network of links to content-based Web sites of primary and secondary legal and legislative information services from 193 nations and all U.S. federal, state and territorial government entities.
• The Multinational Collections Database lists items which reprint the laws and regulations of international jurisdictions on a particular legal topic, comparative in nature. The purpose of the database is to provide additional identifying information about titles, beyond that which is provided in the Library's Online catalog.

Google Scholar now provides Legal Opinions. (Choose "Search legal opinions and journals" from the Scholar Preferences option at the right hand side; you can then choose "Save Preferences" to retain this option). A search here opens up access to full text legal opinions from US federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts and (via a "Cited By" feature) links to other cases and articles on Google Scholar that cite them. Though court opinions in the US are not protected by copyright, they were hitherto only readily available for comprehensive searching via subscription services such as Lexis and Westlaw. You can also use Google Scholar / Legal Opinions to follow up citations of judgments that are not themselves indexed in full text, including those from other jurisdictions. For example, one will readily find citations of leading cases such as Hedley Byrne and Donoghue v Stevenson, and more recent cases of course. See also Don Cruse's Supreme Court of Texas Blog for more on this.

Internet Library of Law and Court Decisions,authored by Martin H. Samson, features extensive summaries of over 600 court decisions shaping the law of the web; providing facts, analysis and pertinent quotes from cases of interest to those who do business on the Internet and in New Media.

In terms of State news and information, many States and also Cities have their own sites, for example:
California Law
Pennsylvania's Legal Information Network
New York Law Journal

CriminalJusticeProfiles.org is a non-commercial site aiming to help aspiring criminal justice professionals, job seekers and students make better, more informed career choices by providing them with relevant, reliable and up-to-date career and job information. There are features and news items on the site as well as links to other key criminal law resources.

American Law Sources Online is a useful new source of law for the USA, Canada and Mexico. There are sections offering federal, state or province law sources, as well as commentaries and practice aids.

University Sites and Law Libraries

For USA Law Schools, try Best Graduate Schools or Law Schools.

The Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School offers the Institute's collection of recent and historic Supreme Court decisions, its hypertext versions of the full U.S. Code, U.S. Constitution, Federal Rules of Evidence and Civil Procedure, recent opinions of the New York Court of Appeals and other federal, state, and international material.

The Internet Legal Resource Guide, based at the University of Texas, is a categorized index of more than 4000 select web sites in 238 nations, islands, and territories, as well as thousands of locally stored web pages, legal forms, and downloadable files. This site includes
Law Related Newsgroups and
Law Firms and Lawyers on the Internet.
Both of these are USA based of course.

The American Bar Association

The American Bar Association site includes information about its publications, forums, groups and events although large parts of the site are now only available to members.

Legal Directories

Martindale-Hubbell provides its Law Directory here.

Network of Trial Law Firms provides a litigation-specific national directory with links to law firms who have web sites.

For the Citizen

Nolo Press is a "Self-Help Law Centre" publishing books and software on consumer law related subjects such as wills, small claims court, divorce and debt problems. Now with a presentation on the WWW (under a link called "Reference Library"), Nolo offers a good starting point for the citizen with a legal problem who is prepared to do some work to understand the background.

Lawyers.com provides a consumer-oriented set of legal resources, including how to find a lawyer.

Other Useful Sites

Law.com is an extensive source of legal news and resources.

Another starting point for the USA legal resources is called All Law - A Law and Legal Research site.

Katsuey D Kat provides a wide ranging set of USA legal links by topic.

HG.org (previously Hieros Gamos) is now a site of many types of directory - useful if you are searching for an attorney or a topic.