Introduction

The major legal research databases can be prohibitively expensive for some researchers. There are, however, a number of online alternatives that are either free or less expensive than Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw.

The first part of this guide provides an overview and links to different types of free materials and the second part summarizes the features and costs of less expensive databases.

Free Sources of Legal Materials

There are several databases which provide access to primary source materials on their own sites, without any charge to the user. These sites vary in terms of the types of materials collected, the scope of their coverage, and their search options. We have created a table for each type of material which includes the major online sources and their coverage.

Because the availability of state legal materials varies so widely, we have only included descriptions of the federal materials available for free online.

Secondary Sources

While most of the free legal material available online is primary law, there are a few sources of secondary materials, and we have identified and described some of the best sites we have found. While these sources may not be authoritative, they can be useful in providing analysis, opinion, or explanation of the law, as well as covering recent legal developments.

• ABA Journal
  The ABA has made this legal news magazine available for free online. Site contains the current issue and archived issues since 2004.
  
  
• Google Scholar
  This search engine employs the Google algorithm to find relevant scholarly articles using keyword searches. Google Scholar searches both full text articles and abstracts that are available for free online, so users should be aware that not all results will lead to full articles.
  
  
• Law.com Dictionary
  While neither as extensive nor authoritative as Black's Law Dictionary, this site does provide basic definitions to thousands of legal terms and concepts. Users can search for terms or browse alphabetically.
  
  
• Legal Information Institute (Cornell University Law School)
  In addition to a wealth of primary sources, the Legal Information Institute (LII) also contains some useful secondary materials, especially the Wex Legal Dictionary/Encyclopedia. Wex provides brief overviews of dozens of legal topics, arranged alphabetically. While not as extensive as a traditional legal encyclopedia, these overviews do offer introductions to some of the most important concepts in these areas of law, along with citations to principal sources of primary law.
  
  
• Oyez.org
  This site collects information related to the U.S. Supreme Court. While it includes some information about past and present justices and the Court's cases, its most notable content is a collection of audio recordings of oral arguments. All arguments from 1981 to the present are included, as well as those from selected earlier cases.

Case Law

There is an abundance of free case law available online. Unfortunately, many of the editorial enhancements and finding aids that legal researchers are accustomed to are not available through these free sources. For example, these sources do not provide digests or headnotes, which organize cases by points of law. Instead, these sources utilize browsing and keyword searching as the principal means of finding relevant cases. Researchers should be aware of these limitations and understand that keyword searching and browsing are not necessarily the best methods to find cases.

For guidance on the significance of case law and methods for finding relevant cases, please see our Case Law Research Guide.

U.S. Supreme Court Cases

Source	Dates	Notes
FindLaw	1893 - present	Browsable by year and U.S. Reports volume number, and searchable by citation, party name, and keyword.
Google Scholar	All	Uses the Google search algorithm to find and rank cases. Click "Legal documents" and then "Select courts" to choose the jurisdiction(s) you want to search.
Justia	All	Browsable by year and U.S. Reports volume number, and searchable by citation, party name, and keyword.
Public Library of Law	All	Searchable by citation and keyword. Search can be limited by jurisdiction and date.
U.S. Supreme Court	1991-present	Browsable only. Click "Opinions" on the left, then scroll down and click the "Bound Volumes" link to find cases from 1991-2005.

Federal Circuit Court Cases (Reported)

Source	Dates	Notes
Circuit Court Pages	Coverage varies by circuit	Find individual circuits using this map.
FindLaw	Coverage varies by circuit but is generally from the mid-90s forward.	Browsable by year and reporter volume number, and searchable by citation, party name, and keyword. (Circuits have to be searched individually.)
Google Scholar	1923-present	Uses the Google search algorithm to find and rank cases.
Justia	1950-present	Browsable by year and U.S. Reports volume number, and searchable by citation, party name, and keyword.
Public Library of Law	1950-present	Searchable by citation and keyword. Search can be limited by jurisdiction and date.

Federal District Court Cases

Source	Dates	Notes
District Court Pages	Coverage varies by district.	Find individual district court pages using this map.
Google Scholar	1923-present	Uses the Google search algorithm to find and rank cases.
Justia *	2004-present	Searchable by citation, party name, and keyword. Can limit search by date, court, and lawsuit type.

* Contains cases from most, but not all district courts.

State Court Cases

Online access to state materials varies widely. Please consult our state research guides for information about individual jurisdictions.

Constitutions

U.S. Constitution

For information about constitutional law research generally, please see our Constitutional Law Research Guide.

Source	Dates	Notes
Founder's Constitution	N/A	A collection containing the Constitution and related original-source documents.
GPO Access	Annotations updated through 2010.	Annotated version (2002) of the Constitution prepared by the Congressional Research Service. (Scroll down on linked page.)
Legal Information Institute	Annotations updated through 2000.	Annotated version (1992) of the Constitution prepared by the Congressional Research Service.

State Constitutions

Online access to state constitutions varies widely. Please consult our state research guides for information about individual jurisdictions.

Statutes & Codes

The United States Code and most state codes are available for free online. These sources usually only provide the text of the statutes, however, and do not include annotations or case references. The online versions of codes also may not be current, which means they may not reflect the changes made by more recent legislation. Researchers therefore need to be careful to update these code sections with relevant case law and session laws.

For information about finding relevant statutes and statutory law generally, please see our Statutes Research Guide.

United States Code

These sources contain the most recent official version of the U.S. Code, which is published every six years. As a result, some individual code sections will be out-of-date and these sources need to be updated with session laws. As noted in the table below, the version provided by Cornell's Legal Information Institute provides links to recent legislation so researchers can easily determine how a particular code section has changed since the last official publication.

Source	Dates	Notes
FDsys (Government Printing Office)	1994-2011	Browsable and searchable by citation and keyword. To search the full text of the Code, use the advanced search interface.
Legal Information Institute	Most recent official version (with links to recent changes).	Browsable and searchable by citation and keyword. Each code section includes a "Current through" notation and an "Updates" tab, which provides a list of recent modifications.
U.S. House of Representatives	Most recent official version (with tables indicating recent changes).	Searchable by citation and keyword. Use the "Classification" link to find tables providing cross-references between code sections and recently enacted public laws.

U.S. Session Laws

Source	Dates	Notes
U.S. House of Representatives	As indicated.	The Office of the Law Revision Counsel provides classification tables which indicate the updates made to each section of the Code since the last official publication.

State Codes & Session Laws

Online access to state materials varies widely. Please consult our state research guides for information about individual jurisdictions.

Legislative History

Several types of legislative history documents are available for free online, although mostly only for recent Congresses. Like other free online legal materials, legislative history documents are not usually annotated or linked to cases or enacted statutes. Researchers typically have to rely on document numbers or keyword searching to find relevant documents. Please also note that many of these sources only provide selected documents, meaning they do not contain all documents for a particular time period.

For information about the significance of legislative history and the different types of documents involved, please see our Legislative History Research Guide.

Congressional Bills

Source	Dates	Notes
American Memory (Library of Congress)	House bills from 1799 through 1873 (6th to 42nd Congresses), with the exception of the 12th Congress. Senate Bills from 1819 through 1873 (16th to 42nd Congresses).	Browsable by Congressional session and type of legislation. Searchable by keyword (full text).
FDsys (Government Printing Office)	From 103rd Congress (1993) to present.	Browsable by Congressional session and type of legislation. Searchable by bill number or keyword (full text). To search the full text of bills, use the advanced search interface.
Thomas (Library of Congress)	Bills From 101st Congress (1989) to present.	Searchable by bill number or keyword (full text).

Congressional Hearings

Source	Dates	Notes
FDsys (Government Printing Office)	Selected hearings from 99th, 100th and 102nd Congress (1995) to present (none from 101st).	Browsable by Congressional session and searchable by keyword (full text). To search the full text of hearings, use the advanced search interface.
Rutgers School of Law	Selected hearings from 1970's to 1998 (approx. 9350 hearings available).	Searchable by keyword (full text).

The Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. provides a list of links to the hearings pages of Congressional committees, which contain transcripts of selected hearings.

Congressional Committee Reports

Source	Date	Notes
American Memory	Selected reports from 23d to 64th Congresses (1833-1917).	Browsable by Congressional session and searchable by keyword (full text).
FDsys (Government Printing Office)	From 104th Congress (1995) to present.	Browsable by Congressional session and searchable by keyword (full text). To search the full text of reports, use the advanced search interface.
Thomas	From 104th Congress (1995) to present.	Browsable and searchable by report number and keyword (full text).

Congressional Debates (Congressional Record)

Source	Date	Notes
American Memory	Annals of Congress (1789-1824, 1st-18th Congresses). Bound Edition. Register of Debates (1824-1837, 18th-25th Congresses). Bound Edition. The Congressional Globe (1833-1873, 23rd-42d Congresses). Bound Edition.	Browsable by Congressional session and searchable by keyword (full text).
FDsys (Government Printing Office)	Bound Edition (December 1998 - 2002) Daily Edition (1994 - Present) Congressional Record Index (1983 - Present)	Browsable by Congressional session and searchable by keyword (full text). To search the full text of the Congressional Record, use the advanced search interface.
Thomas	From 101st Congress (1989) to present. Daily Edition.	Browsable and searchable by keyword, date, and member of Congress.

State Legislative History

Online access to state materials varies widely. Please consult our state research guides for information about individual jurisdictions.

Administrative Regulations

Regulations are also available on the web, although typically only current and recent versions. Regulations are also not directly linked to relevant statutory authority, although some sources allow searching by code section. See help pages on individual sites for search techniques. For information about finding relevant regulations and administrative law generally, please see our Administrative Law Research Guide.

Code of Federal Regulations

Source	Dates	Notes
E-CFR UNOFFICIAL VERSION	Updated daily (updates the current CFR with newly issued regulations).	Browsable and searchable by keyword as well as CFR citation and relevant U.S.Code section.
FDsys (Government Printing Office) OFFICIAL VERSION	Print versions from 1996 - present.	Browsable and searchable by keyword and CFR citation. To search the full text of the CFR, use the advanced search interface.
Legal Information Institute	Current print version with links to more recent amendments.	Browsable and searchable by citation.

Federal Register

Source	Dates	Notes
FDsys (Government Printing Office) OFFICIAL VERSION	From 1994 - present	Browsable and searchable by keyword. To search the full text of the Federal Register, use the advanced search interface. Also includes the List of Sections Affected for updating.
Regulations.gov	Current proposed regulations open for comment.	Includes a form for submitting comments.

State Administrative Regulations

Online access to state materials varies widely. Please consult our state research guides for information about individual jurisdictions.

Low-Cost Legal Databases

The free sources we have listed contain a great deal of primary source legal material. They are, however, much more limited in terms of search options and finding aids than fee and subscription based sources. In particular, free sources rely almost exclusively on keyword searching and browsing to find cases, rather than headnotes and digesting, which are used in Lexis and Westlaw. For this reason, the free sources may ultimately be inadequate.

There are also several relatively inexpensive online legal research databases. While none of these contains all of the material on Lexis or Westlaw, many lawyers will find that they provide most or all of the sources they will need in their practice. The databases use a variety of search methods and finding aids, and we have tried to provide that information about each source along with an overview of its content and pricing.

Virtually all of these databases provide a "citator" service. It is important to note, however, that these citators typically only provide a list of cases in which the citation appears. They do not include qualitative information, such as an indication that a particular case has received negative treatment. Westlaw provides this information through their Keycite service, and that service is available through the lower cost Westlaw by Credit Card listed below.

Caselex (http://www.caselex.com) Caselex provides selected coverage of case law from the European Union and individual European countries. Only cases with EU relevance from individual countries are included. Caselex limits their coverage to cases involving one or more of the ten areas of law listed below. National cases are provided from 2000 forward, and all dates are provided for EU cases. There are several licensing options and a 14-day free trial is offered.

 

Casemaker (http://www.casemaker.us/) Casemaker provides unlimited access to the members of bar associations that join the Casemaker Consortium. A license fee is paid by each bar association and there are no additional fees to use the service. Currently, 30 state bar associations are members. Consult the Web page of your bar association to find out if you have access. Individual subscriptions are currently unavailable.
Federal materials U.S. Supreme Court (1790 - current) Courts of Appeals (1930 - current) U.S. District Courts (1932 - ) U.S. Code CFR Court Rules Court Forms	State materials Consortium member libraries generally include: Case Law - historic to current (average starting point 1924) Statutes Codes Court Rules State Constitutions Attorney General Opinions Jury Instructions Ethics Opinions

 

Fastcase (http://www.fastcase.com) Fastcase offers two subscription plans: a premium subscription ($95/month or $995/year) and an appellate subscription ($65/month and $695/year). Both plans offer access to the Fastcase appellate case law library, as well as state and federal codes and regulations. The premium plan also includes trial level opinions, while the appellate plan does not. Fastcase also offers a free 24-hour trial and 30-day money-back guarantee. Subscriptions are also covered through some state bar associations.

 

Loislaw (http://www.loislaw.com) Loislaw offers extensive coverage of all types of primary legal materials from all 50 states and federal jurisdictions (see subscription options for coverage of specific sources). Loislaw also provides access to treatises organized by subject or jurisdiction. Several different subscription plans are offered, with prices ranging from $40 to $250.

 

VersusLaw (http://www.versuslaw.com) VersusLaw offers three pricing plans - standard, premium, and professional - which range in price from $13.95 to $39.95 per month. Coverage materials varies by jurisdiction. Please see library directory for coverage.

 

Westlaw by Credit Card (http://creditcard.westlaw.com/welcome/frameless/default.wl) Westlaw by credit card is a document retrieval service provided by West Group that lets you easily retrieve legal documents on Westlaw and check citations using KeyCite. You can use this service with a credit card or with your Westlaw subscription, if you have one. Prices vary but users are asked to confirm transactions before their credit card is charged. New users need to register in order to pay by credit card.