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Legal Research Links

These free sites are good resources for basic legal information.

  • Legal Research Information at Lawyers.com – This site includes legal articles, law message boards and other legal resources related to nearly 50 different areas of law. This site provides basic information in many areas of law and provides forums for you to interact with others in a virtual community.
  • Find Law for the Public – This site includes information on various areas of law ranging from accidents and injuries to Social Security and retirement. This site also contains message boards so that you can post questions and receive answers to on various law-related topic.
  • Law Guru – This site provides approximately 65 areas of law to guide you in your
  • research. Additionally, the site allows you to ask questions via a message board, search a database of previous questions & answers, and seek popular legal forms.
  • Cornell University Legal Information Institute – This site offers WEX – a collaboratively built, freely available legal dictionary and encyclopedia for “law novices”. The information on this site is able to be submitted by any credible source, the staff at Cornell then filters the information ensuring that the site maintains its integrity by providing only high quality material.
  • Harvard Journal of Law & Technology – This site provides a search engine for you to search by topic for any articles which have appeared in previous versions of Harvard Journal of Law & Technology.
  • Stetson University College of Law – Stetson University College of Law is located in nearby Gulfport, Florida and is considered one of the nation’s top 100 law schools. Through their website you may access a vast array of information from the Law Library including access to journals and other online resources.
  • Google Scholar – Google Scholar is a search engine that provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. You can search across many disciplines for peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles.
  • JURIST – Legal News and Research- JURIST is a web-based legal news and real-time legal research service powered by a mostly-volunteer team of over 30 part-time law student reporters, editors and web developers at the University of Pittsburgh.
  • Nolo – The goal of this website is to make America’s legal system accessible to everyone through the use of top-quality, plain-English products. The site includes articles addressing 5 major areas of law.
  • FLO – Florida Law Online- This website provides a complete index of Florida laws broken down by congressional session. It also provides links to Florida Courts, government agencies and legal journals and periodicals. It is not an official Florida government website.
  • AllLaw-Legal Information and Law Portal – This site provides access to research in various areas of law as well as links to legal journals and periodicals, lawyers, legal forms and documents, and state & federal government resources.
  • Free Legal Advice – Freeadvice.com offers free legal advice on over 100 legal topics. On this site you can also research cases, lawyers and legal forms.

Remember that these sites are not necessarily authoritative. It is always a good idea to check the official state website or traditional legal research sources.

Federal Materials

  • The Federal Judiciary – This site includes the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals, the U.S. District Courts and U.S. Bankruptcy Courts. In addition to links to the various types of court, this website also provides additional information such as publications, statistical reports and web resources.
  • Code of Federal Regulations – CFR is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government. It is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation.
  • The Library of Congress – The Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. Within the site is a link to the Law Library of Congress which contains research services and other legal resources.
  • U.S. National Archives – Founded in 1934, the U.S. National Archives is home to our governments’ most important documents. Of all the paperwork and documents generated by our government each day, only 1-3% are archived here. You can search the site for information on a number of topics including public law, basic laws and authorities, and federal laws and regulations.

State (Florida Specific Research sites)

  • Official Portal for the State of Florida – MyFlorida.com has a link to every administrative or executive agency in the state and every county website.
  • Florida State Courts – FLCourts.org has links to all the rules of the Florida Courts, each court in Florida, Supreme Court briefs, online docketing, and even links to where you can watch Supreme Court oral arguments online.
  • Florida Statutes & Constitution – Research statutes and the Florida Constitution at Florida Statutes Online.
  • Florida Supreme Court – Search this site for information regarding the Florida Supreme Court Justices, read opinions of the court, and access public information such as oral arguments, court orders, death warrant cases and high profile cases.

During the Legislative Session, bills can be tracked on the Legislature’s site:

Each Judicial Circuit Court in Florida has its own website.

  • Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida – The Sixth Judicial Circuit serves citizens of Pasco and Pinellas County. Use this site as a link to divisions of the court and for more information regarding the court system in Pasco and Pinellas counties.
  • Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida – The Thirteenth Judicial Circuit serves the citizens of Hillsborough County. Their website provides general information for the public as well as links to other government organizations.

US District Courts for the various districts within the state of Florida

The District Courts of Appeal also each have their own website, that follow a similar pattern.

  • Florida First District Court of Appeal – This site provides current information regarding the opinions, court docket, court calendars, administrative orders, video of oral arguments and other useful facts regarding Florida’s First District Court of Appeal.
  • Florida Second District Court of Appeal – This site provides current information regarding the opinions, court docket, court calendars, administrative orders, video of oral arguments and other useful facts regarding Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal.

Many of the state court websites have a “Clerk’s Office” section, or something similar, with online docket look-up abilities.

Other helpful state links include:

  • Florida Administrative Code – This site gives Floridians access to the rules and regulations affecting them, as well as notices of proposed rules, public meetings, bid proposals and other items.
  • Department of Business and Professional Regulation – On this site you can search for a license, permit or registration, file a complaint, search unlicensed construction complaints, or apply for a license.
  • Florida Division of Corporations – From this site you can search and access filed information for corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships, trademarks, fictitious name registrations and liens. Images of most filed documents can be downloaded at no charge.
  • U.S. Government Printing Office – The U.S. Government Printing Office disseminates official information from all three branches of the Federal Government. From the site, you can search resources by branch of government or by topic through the use of a basic search engine.