QUICK GUIDE: LEGAL RESEARCH ON THE WEB: RECOMMENDED SITES & SEARCH ENGINES

I.  Legal Research on the Web: Recommended Search Engines

A. Conducting Legal Research on the Web:

1.  Availability of Legal Materials

• Web is not a good resource for in-depth, thorough legal research
• Few archival sites; the web is not very old
• Web is often a good source for current legal documents
• Structure of the web is constantly changing
• No web research tool or search engine retrieves all legal information or documents 
• Rely on authoritative web sites for gathering legal information/documents
  [Example: http://www.gatt.org  vs. http://www.wto.org]
  [Example: http://www.whitehouse.net vs. http://www.whitehouse.gov]

2. Select a Research Tool

• Define the research project
• Conducting research on a topic?
• Looking for something specific (i.e., brief, report, research paper, article)?

3. Evaluate the Research Tool

• How does a particular search engine search the web?
• How reliable/relevant is the information being retrieved?
• Are web sites listed under a particular topic reliable–government agencies or organizations who have been involved in the area of research?
• How current is the information being retrieved?
• Are links to retrieved sites/documents still active?

B. Recommended Search Tools for Legal Research:

1. Legal Portals

A number of the legal web directories (providing topical indexing of legal resources on the web) have evolved into "Legal Portals." Legal Portals are web sites which link to legal resources by topic as well as provide search features, reference information, news and sometimes customization options.

FindLaw: http://www.findlaw.com

• Established in 1996 and acquired by West Group in January 2001
• A comprehensive site from which a researcher can locate law related resources on the Internet
• Topical index provides a point and click directory of resources arranged in law-related categories The index itself can be searched

Guide to Law Online: http://www.loc.gov/law/public/law-guide.html

• Created and maintained by the Law Library of Congress
• A selected, annotated list of links to the full text of laws, regulations, court decisions and commentary from lawyers
•  Includes links to foreign and international legal materials
• Topical Index

Hieros Gamos:  http://www.hg.org

• Established in 1995
• Focus is law and government web resources
• Particularly good for locating foreign/international law-related web resources

Cornell University Law School: Legal Information Institute (LLI): http://www.law.cornell.edu

• Established in 1992
• Gateway as well as provider of selected full text legal information on the web

2. General Search Engines:
 
Google Advance Search: http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
Yahoo! Search Advanced Web Search:  http://search.yahoo.com/search/options?p=
Live Search:  http://www.live.com/ (link to advance search becomes available after conducting a search)
Ask.com Advance Search:  http://www.ask.com/webadvanced

3.  Specialized Search Engines for Legal/Government Information:

LawCrawler: http://lawcrawler.findlaw.com

• Search engine developed by FindLaw for legal research on the web; powered by Google
• Limits searches to legal or law-related sites, thus retrieving fewer sites than general search engines
• Not case sensitive
• Use quotation marks when searching for a specific phrase

Google U.S. Government Search: http://www.google.com/ig/usgov

• Searches only .gov and .mil web sites
• Not case sensitive
• No symbol to retrieve variations in word endings
• Use quotation marks when searching for a specific phrase
  

II. Miscellaneous web sites:

 LLRX (Law Library Resource Xchange, LLC.): http://www.llrx.com

• Created by Sabrina Pacifici, a law librarian, in 1996
• Provides reviews, research guides and content-rich resources on web-related applications, tools, services, links and related information invaluable to legal researchers
• Updated monthly

Search Engine Watch: http://searchenginewatch.com/

• Created by Danny Sullivan, an Internet consultant and journalist, in 1995
• Current news about search engine developments

 Search Engine Showdown:http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/

• Greg Notess is a writer and speaker who has been researching and reporting on Internet resources since 1990
• Current news about search engine developments

last updated: 8/07