Case Law on the Internet

After a year or two of law school, you may find yourself addicted to those free Wexis accounts...and then have a rude awakening when you graduate and see the real bills. Luckily, more and more legal information is becoming freely available on the Internet.

Case law is written in the courts - it's the kind of information that really does want to be free. In the past year, a number of sites have popped up providing case law and other legal information for free.

Where to look...

• Precydent - Search case law, statutes (includes Fed. Rules of Civil Procedure), links & legal documents; jurisdiction list; site still in beta with lots of space to grow; coverage from 4/1/1759-present
  
• Public Library of Law - Search case law, statutes, regulations, court rules, constitutions, forms; case law coverage - U.S. Supreme Court & Court of Appeals, plus all 50 states back to 1997; some information is free and some is available for a fee from FastCase; check out the user guide
• Megalaw - Similar to Precydent & PLOL, provides access to federal cases & courts, coverage varying by jurisdiction
• Altlaw - Keyword, title, citation searching of of U.S. Supreme Court cases (back to 1781) and Federal Appeals cases (coverage varies by circuit); full-text searching of "the last few decades"; updated daily; no state law or district court cases
• lexisONE - Free with registration, search the last 10 years of federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court back to 1781
• Findlaw Cases and Codes - Provides opinion summaries
  
• K&L Gates Electronic Discovery Case Database - Electronic discovery cases from U.S. state and federal jurisdictions, searchable by keyword or case attribute
• Public.resource.org's Courts database - Not a pretty site but a lot of information; coverage varies by jurisdiction. Check out the readme file first. Federal Reporter & United States Reports plus state cases here and here, and a PACER section.
  
• Tribal Court Decisions from the Tribal Court Clearinghouse: "annotated Tribal Court opinions, memorandums and orders from Twenty-One Tribal Courts"
• Case updates are also available from the Native American Rights Fund site
• Cases.justia.com - List of case law resources; maybe they have one that we missed!

Or try getting it from the source:

• Colorado Court of Appeals opinions
• Colorado Supreme Court opinions
• U.S. Supreme Court - opinions - oral arguments - dockets
• PACER - Public Access to Court Electronic Records - This site is not free but the fees are small. You have to sign up and charges are based on usage. Includes the U.S Party/Case Index. Check out the User Manual to learn more.
• Circuit & District PACER list - each court has its own PACER site, so check this list to find yours
  

This information is also in the library's list of case law resources - check there for updates!

But how do you cite it? What if the online version does not have page numbers? Check back tomorrow for information about alternative citation formats.