Internet Legal Research

Web 2.0 The Web 2.0 mainly includes works of

collaboration and social networking. RSS feeds, Wikis, Blogs, Microblogging, Podcasts,

Tags, Folksonomies, Social Networks, Cloud Computing and Bookmarking etc. are also part of Web 2.0.

Web 1.0 may include e-mail/webmail/gmail; Intranets and Extranets; Listservs; Search engines etc.

It is good to be a member of one or two job related listservs that helps when you are in need. You can post a question or read the information exchanged among others.

Listservs Listservs are useful resources to share

and seek information when one needs. Find and register with one or two work

related (topics) listservs to keep up with the recent trends in your area of interest.

University of Chicago (http://www2.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/refugeelists.html) and Washlaw (http://www.washlaw.edu/listservs/) lists are good resources to find an interesting listserv.

Click to see thecommunities

Blawgs Legal blogs are known as blawgs are web sites

belonging to an individual consisting of diaries, journals, opinions, reviews, clippings etc. posted typically daily for others to read. Blawgs contain very useful information.

www.blogger.com is a free blog hosting site. There are several legal blawgs and blog indexes. To create your own blog go to Blogger (

www.blogger.com) and follow the instructions.

www.justia.com

Administrative Law G.P.O.

http://www.gpoaccess.gpo.gov Firstgov

http://www.firstgov.gov or usa.gov Regulations

http://www.regulations.gov The CRE

http://www.thecre.com

Wiki Wiki is a collaborative website comprised of the

collective work of many authors. Similar to blog in structure and logic, a wiki allows anyone to edit, delete, or modify content that has been placed on the website using a browser interface, including the work of previous authors.

Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) is one of the examples of wiki. Jurispedia (www.jurispedia.org), LawBrian (www.lawbrain.com) are examples for the legal information.

Pbwiki (www.pbwiki.com) wikihost (www.wikihost.org) are few of several free hosting sites for wikis.

RSS Feeds RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich

Site Summary) feeds allows to see when sites from all over the Internet have added new content.

Feeds are written in XML language. You need to have a reader to read the feeds. There are several free readers including Bloglines (www.bloglines.com)

Currently, legal news, court cases, and statutes are available as RSS feeds.

Case Law Official Websites

www.supremecourtus.gov etc. U.S. Courts

http://www.uscourts.gov Pacer; Courtlink etc.

Statutory Law Thomas

http://thomas.loc.gov (no www) House

http://www.house.gov Gallerywatch

http://www.gallerywatch.com Statenet

http://www.statenet.com

www.law.cornell.edu

Podcasts Podcasting is a way to receive audio files

over the Internet. Many content providers offer podcast feeds at no cost. You can listen podcasts on your computer or other mobile devices.

Several legal talk radio stations and courts make cases and other legal information available as podcasts.

Justia provides a directory of legal podcasts (http://blawgsfm.justia.com)

Periodical Articles Infotrieve

http://www.infotrieve.com Publist

http://www.publist.com Ingenta

http://www.ingenta.com FindArticles

http://www.findarticles.com

Click on case to hear oral arguments

www.lawwebtv.com

Social/Legal Networks Sharing views, photos, etc. among people

through free websites (registration required) offered by online services.

Lawfirms and lawyers are becoming members of Popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin etc.

There are several social networks exclusively for legal community are in the offing (beta mode.)

Social/Legal Networks - Websites

Facebook – www.facebook.com Myspace –

www.myspace.com/legallyblondepa Linkedin – www.linkedin.com Lawlink – www.lawlink.com Martindale –

www.martindale.com/connected Onramp – www.legalonramp.com

What is Web 2 & WEB 3 Networks & Collaboration Blogs Wiki RSS Feeds Podcast (recruitment & research

tool)

Acronyms What is EDD? (electronic data

discovery) What is ESI? (electronically stored

info), ESF (electronically stored files) What is TIFF & PDF?

Social Networking Facebook, Myspace Linkedin Martindale/connected Lawlink

Microblogging Microblogging referes to the ability to add

materials such as text, photos, etc. to one’s blog when away from a computer.

The postings are bare-bones (140 words), on-the-go versions of online journals in which people share their lives and dreams.

Twitter – www.twitter.com, Jaiku – www.jaiku.com are few examples.

TweetLaw (www.tweetlaw.com) is a twitter exclusively for legal profession.

Comprehensive Legal Websites

Findlaw – www.findlaw.com Justia – www.justia.com Heiros Gamos – www.hg.org Cornell – www.law.cornell.edu Megalaw – www.megalaw.com LawGuru – www.lawguru.com Washlaw – www.washlaw.edu Library of Congress – www.loc.gov/law

Caselaw - Websites U.S.Courts – www.uscourts.gov U.S.Supreme Court –

www.supremecourt.gov Findacase – www.findacase.com Google Scholar –

www.scholar.google.com PLOL – www.plol.org

From Scholar select “legal opinions andJournals” and enter your query

Provides cited by other Cases and related

documents

Statutory Law - Websites Thomas – http://thomas.loc.gov Gallerywatch –

www.gallerywatch.com Statenet – www.statenet.com GPO – www.fdsys.gov House of Representatives –

www.house.gov

Other Popular (new) Search Engines Cha-Cha (www.chacha.com) for

mobile Powerset (www.powerset.com)

(Natural Language search) Zuula (www.zuula.com)

Lawyer Directories Martindale (www.martindale.com Avvo (www.avvo.com)

Adm.Law - Websites GPO – www.fdsys.gov Federal Register –

www.archives.gov/federal-register Regulations – www.regulations.gov US Gov – www.usa.gov The CRE – www.thecre.com Statenet – www.statenet.com

Secondary Materials

Dictionaries Encyclopedias Law Review Articles Legal News Directories Legal Forms Useful Sites

Pennsylvania Specific Case Law Supreme, Superior and

Commonwealth Courts http://www.courts.state.pa.us http://www.aopc.org

Legal News/Research Articles Llrx

http://www.llrx.com Jurist

http://www.jurist.law.pitt.edu Courttv

http://www.courttv.com American Lawyer Media

www.law.com

Administrative Law Pacode

http://www.pacode.com Pabulletin

http://www.pabulletin.com

Comprehensive Sites Pennsylvania Legal Research Web Sites

http://www.pennsylvanialegalresearch.com Law.com/pa

http://www.law.com/pa PaLawnet

http://www.palawnet.com PaLawLibrary www.palawlibrary.com

Free Info. From Fee-Based Sites Lexisone

http://www.lexisone.com Incite (From http://www.pabar.org) Loislaw

http://www.loislaw.com Versuslaw

http://www.versuslaw.com

Legal Forms There are sites which offer free legal forms. There are fee-based sites which offer legal forms

for every type and jurisdiction. Docstoc (www.docstoc.com) and Your Free Legal

Forms (www.yourfreelegalforms.com) sites provide several legal forms free of cost that are uploaded by people to share with others.

State and federal government sites also provide court and agency forms.

Public Records Knowx

http://www.knowx.com ChoicePoint

http://www.choicepointonline.com Accurint

http://www.accurint.com

People Finder 555-1212

http://www.555-1212.com Switchboard

http://www.switchboard.com Bigfoot

http://www.bigfoot.com Worldpages

http://www.worldpages.com Argali (meta engine)

http://www.argali.com

www.docstoc.com

Alternatives To LexisNexis/Westlaw

LexisNexis and Westlaw offers several package deals and subscription rates (federal/state/flat/transactional etc.)

There are several fee-based low cost online services available for legal research and practice. Loislaw (www.loislaw.com), Versuslaw (www.versuslaw.com), Fastcase (www.fastcase.com) are few popular ones.

Lawyer Directories To find a lawyer several free online lawyer

directories are available. Sites such as Martindale (www.martindale.com)

and Avvo (www.avvo.com) provide ratings of lawyers and law firms.

Lawyerfinder (www.lawyerfinder.com) and Lawyers (www.lawyers.com) of LexisNexis are other popular sites.

Majority of the sites allow you to find lawyers by name, city, and practice area (subject speciality) etc.

More Useful Sites There are several sites providing

citation information, free legal advice, free legal forms, free public domain documents such as cases, statutes, administrative regulations etc.

Pennsylvania Legal Websites

State Government – www.state.pa.us

Appellate Courts – www.aopc.org General Assembly –

www.legis.state.pa.us Legislative Reference Bureau –

www.palrb.us

Pa.Legal Websites - 2 Pennsylvania Code – www.pacode.com Pennsylvania Bulletin –

www.pabulletin.com Palawlibrary – www.palawlibrary.com Rao’s Pennsylvania Site –

www.pennsylvanialegalresearch.com MyPLS – www.mypls.com

Pa.Legal Websites - 3 Allegheny County Bar Association –

www.acba.org Pennsylvania Bar Association –

www.pabar.org Pennsylvania Bar Institute – www.pbi.org Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners –

www.pabarexam.org Pennsylvania CLE – www.pacle.org

Pa.Legal Websites - 4 Pa.Legal Intelligencer –

www.law.com/pa Pa.Law Weekly –

www.palawweekly.com Philadelphia Bar Association –

www.philabar.org

LexisNexis –Legal Practice Software

PCLaw – Billing & Accounting Juris – Billing & Accounting CaseMap – Case Management Martindale – Lawyer Directory Accurint – Background Checks InterAction – CRM Total Litigator – Collaboration Tool Time Matters – Calendar Application Net Documents – Document Management Law Prediscovery – EDD Concordance – EDD LexisNexis Total Search – Knowledge Management Lexis Document Profiling – Risk Management CourtLink – Docket Search Database of Filings

Thomson West – Legal Practice Software

LiveNote – Real Time Court Reporting Hubbard One – Prospective Client Connection PeopleMap – Public Records, Legal Filings Elite – Case Management ProLaw – Case Management West KM – Knowledge Management Case Notebook – Case Management Westlaw Litigator – Complete Litigation CourtExpress – Docket Search Database of

Filings