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Legal Research Intro: Additional Resources

The following lists of free websites were compiled by Lynn Wishart, former Director of Cardozo School of Law Library.

Primary Sources

FindLaw (lp.findlaw.com) includes all Supreme Court decisions, Courts of Appeals decisions since 1995, and links to District Court websites. State court decisions including New York Court of Appeals and Appellate Division decisions since January 1997 are available also. Cases on Findlaw can be browsed by year and U.S. Reports volume number, and can be searched by citation, docket number, judge name, case title or full text. It is unclear how frequently the database is updated. Findlaw also has searchable federal and state codes (and the NYC Administrative Code). There is no indication of currency for the codes.

Justia (law.justia.com) allows you to search or browse case law from the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, and District Courts. The case law database is very current. Justia has a non-current version of the United States Code. Justia has the C.F.R., but there is no indication of how frequently it is updated. Free, daily summaries of federal and state court opinions are also available. The service, daily.justia.com, covers all federal circuit courts of appeals and select state supreme courts including the New York Court of Appeals. Also available are weekly digests grouped by practice area.

LII (Cornell) (www.law.cornell.edu) has all opinions of the United States Supreme Court handed down since 1992 and over 600 earlier decisions selected for their historic importance. LII also has over a decade of opinions of the New York Court of Appeals, and the full United States Code. The U.S. Code is generated from the preliminary release (USC Prelim) on the US House of Representatives web (uscode.house.gov).  

New Case Law

Court Listener (www.courtlistener.com) collects cases and makes them searchable by case name, judge’s name, and keywords with connectors and filters. Links are provided to citing cases. Coverage is not complete (no NY State cases), and a coverage chart is provided. Provides free daily email alerts of new federal appellate decisions containing the terms you specify; coverage includes circuit cases except for unreported/non-precedential opinions from the D.C. Circuit. Offers daily alert service.

Law Summaries

Supreme Court Case Law Sources

Source

Coverage

Findlaw

1893-

Google Scholar

1791-

Justia

1791-

LII (Cornell)

1992-

Public Library of Law

1791-

Supreme Court

1991-

Federal Appeals & District Court Case Law Sources

Source

Scope

Coverage

Findlaw

Courts of Appeals

1995-

Google Scholar

Courts of Appeals

District Courts

1923-

1923-

Justia

Courts of Appeals

District Courts

1951-

Various since 2000-

Public Library of Law

Courts of Appeals

1950-

Most federal court websites provide New York Case Law Sources

Source

Scope

Coverage

Findlaw

Selected trial court decisions

Supreme Court, 1997-

Google Scholar

All appellate decisions

1950-

Justia

All appellate & selected trial court decisions

2003- for most courts; earlier for some courts.

Find A Case

Appellate decisions

1955-

New York Official Reports Service

Cases published in the official reporters from all appellate & selected trial courts

1980-

New York State Law Reporting Bureau

All appellate & selected trial court decisions

2003-

Public Library of Law

Court of Appeals

Appellate Division

1997-

Case law of other states can be found on