COOL SITES FROM A TO Z Everyone has favorite Web sites—the ones they always use, the tried and true. The list below contains some of the sites I’ve found to be user-friendly, content-rich, fast-loading or easiest-to-navigate. Many of them combine these characteristics, which makes them indispensable for online legal research. So grab your boards! Surfology 1011.
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courtesy of Legal Assistant Today magazine. Cool Sites: A. Arizona Lawyer’s Guide to the Internet www.azstarnet.com/~frey Don’t let the name of this site fool you-it’s not just for Arizonans. This site is for legal research, factual research and other assignments relating to the practice of law. Webmaster Jesse Frey updates the site continuously. It’s well organized, with sites for learning the Internet, factual research and legal research. Don’t miss the “What’s New” page. B. Basic Legal Citation www2.law.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/foliocgi.exe/citation? This site is a must for legal writers. The author amplifies and provides illumination of the mysteries of legal citation, with a foundation upon The Bluebook. The site features citation examples and clarification of some of the rules found in The Bluebook. C. Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute www.lawa.cornell.edu This server offers the LII’s collection of recent and historic Supreme Court decisions, its hypertext versions of the full U.S. Code, U.S. Constitution, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Rules of Evidence and Civil Procedure and much more. This site is worth a bookmark because it provides comprehensive coverage of federal, state, foreign and international material. D. DocLaw http://washlaw.edu Part of Washburn University’s Washlaw site, Doclaw is a gateway to federal government Internet resources and other government-related material. Documents are organized by subject with the assistance of organizational charts. E. ExpertPages www.expertpages.com/about.htm Since 1995, the Expert Pages has been dedicated to helping lawyers, government agencies, insurance companies, businesses and the media locate experts through the Internet. It features a fast-loading, easily searchable site. Experts can be located by specialty or location and a section about using experts effectively is a great resource. F. FindLaw Legal News http://legalnews.findlaw.com A wealth of linked legal resources, neatly categorized, Findlaw is also interested in feedback from its users and invites comments via e-mail for additions to its content. A great starting point for legal research. G. GPO Access www.access.gpo.gov GPO Access, a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office, provides free electronic access to important information produced by the federal government. The information provided on this site is the official published version, and can be used without restriction, unless specifically noted. The free services include government information databases, individual federal agency files and user support. H. Hieros Gamos www.hg.org The objective of this site is to provide users with the most comprehensive information in the shortest time by putting all law and government materials in one place. With a searchable database of over 50,000 law and government URLs, Hieros Gamos is possibly the largest collection of law-related sites on the Internet. I. Internal Revenue Service www.irs.ustreas.gov The IRS has provided a user-friendly site for tax information, statistics and help. The Forms and Publications sections are especially helpful, featuring downloadable forms, instructions and publications from as far back as 1992, available in PDF format. J. Jeff Flax’s Law Resources http://shell.rmi.net/~jflax/index.htm Jeff Flax has compiled a fabulous collection of categorized and alphabetically listed sites on all sorts of topics. It is especially rich in medicine-related information and truly comprehensive. This site is well worth a stop on the information super highway. K. Kelly Blue Book www.kbb.com From the publishers of the print version, this site contains new car pricing, used car values and financing information. This information can be especially helpful in an asset-valuation situation. L. LLRX-Law Library Resource Xchange www.llrx.com LLRX is a terrific “Webzine.” It emphasizes research, management and technology topics for the legal profession. The site is updated twice a month and features articles and columns with up-to-date information written by experts such as law librarians, attorneys, information specialists and legal technology consultants. It covers a wide range of topics including Congressional activities, World Wide Web sites and training resources. There is no fee for a subscription to this great resource. M. Mapquest www.mapquest.com This site is a very useful tool. It provides maps from just about anywhere to just about anywhere, complete with driving instructions. It is especially valuable when you might be planning a deposition or making a court appearance in an unfamiliar location, or simply providing directions to your office. N. National Federation of Paralegal Associations www.paralegals.org NFPA has launched a great site, bursting with links to many paralegal-specific information areas. Pages are devoted to career planning, ethics, calendar of seminars and events, legal resources, a legal support services directory, and a paralegal directory. O. Oyez Oyez Oyez http://oyez.nwu.edu This multimedia database about the United States Supreme Court is one of the most interesting and technologically advanced legal sites on the Web. In addition to abstracts of key constitutional cases, it provides digital audio (Real Audio) of the oral arguments in many important cases. With RealAudio installed on your computer, you can hear the actual arguments. It also links to the written opinions of the court in all cases since 1893 and features brief biographies and portraits of all 108 justices who have served on the Supreme Court. This site keeps expanding, and is well worth a visit from time to time, just to see what’s added. P. Practicing Attorney’s Home Page www.legalethics.com/pa/index.html Launched in March 1995, the Practicing Attorney’s Home Page is one of the older compendiums of Internet legal resources and provides searchable links (and brief descriptions) to primary Internet legal resources. It is hosted by Internet Legal Services, which is a consultant to the legal profession on the integration of the Internet into the practice of law. Q. Quickforms www.quickforms.com This is an interactive site which offers automated drafting of documents. You can use QuickForms to draft a document for a specific transaction or to produce an assortment of model documents for your recurring needs. It is especially useful for business and corporate documents, including various contracts and employment-related material. This is a fee-based site. R. Research-It! www.itools.com/research-it/ Everyone who writes should bookmark this site. It boasts several dictionaries, a thesaurus, language translators, maps and more, all easily accessed and searchable. S. Seamless Website www.seamless.com This site is divided into four areas: “The Chambers” contains news and information about the site. This is where you go to see “what’s new.” “The commons” is composed of original writings on legal topics, from Business Law to Trade Secrets. “The Shingle” features the home pages of lawyers, legal associations and legal service providers. “The Cross-Road” has links to other legal sites, furnishing a starting point for further online legal research. T. Thomas http://thomas.loc.gov Acting under the directive of the leadership of the 104th Congress to make federal legislative information freely available to the Internet public, a Library of Congress team brought the THOMAS World Wide Web system online in January 1995. It is the most complete source for federal legislative information on the Web and includes bills, roll call votes, committee activities, historial documents and the Congressional Record. U. U.S. House of Representatives Law Library http://law.house.gov This House site provides free public access to the basic documents of U.S. law, including a full-text, searchable copy of the United States Code. It has organized thousands of Internet law resources by subject or jurisdiction. V. Virtual Chase www.virtualchase.com Since 1996, The Virtual Chase has assisted legal professionals conducting research on the Internet. It contains more than 250 pages of information about resources and research strategies, tailored for lawyers and other experienced legal researchers. Law librarian and researcher extraordinaire Genie Tyvurski hosts this jewel of a site, which is updated regularly. W. WWW Virtual Law Library www.law.indiana.edu/law/v-lib/lawindex.html The World Wide Web Virtual Library is a collection of subject-related Web sites maintained by institutions throughout the world, each administering a different subject. It is organized by type and legal topic. X. KNOW X www.knowx.com This is a fee-based site, but the information it contains is well worth the costs. The primary source is Information America, one of the world’s largest services addressing the relationships between corporations, people and their assets. The scope of information is astonishing and merits an exploration of the services offered. Fees range from 50 cents to $65 and up per record, depending on the request. A price list is available at the site. Y. Yahoo! www.yahoo.com/Government/Law Unless you’ve spent the last few years in an isolated cave, you’ve heard about Yahoo! The legal links area is comprehensive, easy to search and makes a good starting point for a broad search. Z. Z-net www.zdnet.comZ-net provides instant access to information about computing and the Internet. Download sites, computer information, how-to, tips on computing, Windows help, freeware, shareware—the works! Joni McDonald Wallach is a freelance civil litigation paralegal and research assistant at the Sonoma County Law Library in Santa Rosa, Calif. She is a graduate of California State Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo and the Attorney Assistant Program at Sonoma State University. She currently teaches Internet legal research and law office computing for the Sonoma State program. You can e-mail her at jmcwall@aol.com © 1999, Legal Assistants Division State Bar of Texas |