Research Guides: Legal Research Guide: Law Quick Reference Online Sources

General

Guide to Law Online
The Guide to Law Online, prepared by the U.S. Law Library of Congress Public Services Division, is an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online. It includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for legal information.
ABA Lawyer Locator
Martindale-Hubbell and the American Bar Association have joined forces to provide you with enhanced search capabilities of the extensive Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Locator database of over 1 million listings of lawyers and law firms.
FindLaw: Internet Legal Resources
A really well organized legal reference site with links to federal and state codes, court decisions, law school information, legal forms, etc.
Free Legal Forms, FindForms.com, Legal Forms, Forms, Documents, Form Letters
In addition to free legal forms, there is also a search engine for a state specific database of non-free legal forms.
Lawguru.com - Legal Research Page
More than 535 legal search engines and tools may be searched here.
Legal Information Institute
From Cornell Law School. Has an extensive listing of People and Organizations Working with Law in the U.S. as well as a Directory of Legal Academia where you can find contact information for faculty and staff at U.S. law schools.
U.S. Blue Pages
Comprehensive directory of federal, state, and local government office listings for all 50 states and the District of Columbia as well as hundreds of cities and metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. Includes listings grouped by twenty different topical areas - from "Consumer Services and Safety" to "Money and Taxes" (though an individual state must first be chosen to view listings). Also includes useful "America Anywhere" listings for toll-free and other frequently called customer service federal government numbers.

California & Other States

Bills in the California Legislature
You may search by bill number or bill text at this site from the California State Senate, Rules Committee. Covers 1993 to date.
California Code
Search by code and/or keywords for California laws currently in effect.
California Statutes
California Statutes are the chaptered bills. A bill is "chaptered" by the Secretary of State after it has passed through both houses of the Legislature and has been signed by the Governor or becomes law without the Governor's signature. Statutes are available starting from 1993.
State Law Library
Comprehensive list of links to state agencies, courts, and laws - organized by state.
Your Legislature
Type in your zip code and find the California legislators and their home pages for that district.

Federal

Code of Federal Regulations
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is a codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the Executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government.
Congressional Directory
The Congressional Directory databases contain the directories for the 104th (1995-96) through 108th (2003-2004) Congresses. The most current directory is available for browsing while the earlier ones are searchable. Updated irregularly.
How Our Laws Are Made
Information about the U.S. legislative process is provided by the Parliamentarian of the House of Representatives.
Internet Library of Law and Court Decisions
From Phillips Nizer, this interesting site "features extensive summaries of court decisions shaping the law of the web; providing facts, analysis and pertinent quotes from cases of interest to those involved in New Media addressing copyright, trademark, dilution and other intellectual property issues, jurisdiction, linking, framing, meta tags, clip-art, defamation, domain name, e-mail, encryption, gambling, click-wrap agreements, shrink-wrap licenses, spamming and other subjects."
Supreme Court Decisions
FindLaw's searchable database of the Supreme Court decisions since 1893 (U.S. Supreme Court Decisions: US Reports 150-, 1893-). Browsable by year and US Reports volume number and searchable by citation, case title and full text. This is a free service that will remain free.
THOMAS -- U.S. Congress on the Internet
Legislation being considered by Congress is accessible from this site. Information includes Bill Text, Congressional Record Text, Bill Summary & Status, Hot Bills (now covered under the headings "Congress Now" and "Major Legislation"), the Congressional Record Index, and the Constitution (now found, along with other historical Congressional documents, under the "Historical Documents" category on the THOMAS home page).
United States Code
The United States Code is prepared and published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives. This database contains the general and permanent laws of the United States. U.S. Code Search. Another site for the United States Code is available at Cornell University's Legal Information Institute.