Free Legal Research Online Category: Legal Research
Back to Search Overview
Primary law available on the Internet is freely accessible from almost anywhere from reliable, authoratiative websites. In-depth authoratative secondary material is rarely available on the free internet, although there are some excellent resources for general information or self-help instruction on some topics.
California Legislative History
Researching Legislative Intent in California The Sacramento County Public Law Library has limited access to California legislative history material, especially for bills passed prior to 1993, when online information becomes available. For bills prior to 1993, the Law Library has the Session Laws (annual record of enacted statutes), the Journal...
Read MoreCalifornia Primary Law
The purpose of this guide is to identify all of the California primary law in the Law Library’s collection, and how to access each type. Primary law includes constitutions and charters, statutes and ordinances, legislative documents, court opinions (cases), court rules, and administrative regulations and rulings. Related Guides California Legislative...
Read MoreFederal Primary Law
This guide details the major sources of primary federal law, and how to access them at the Sacramento County Public Law Library. Legal research materials are generally classified as being either primary or secondary sources. Primary sources are “the law” itself, which we are bound to follow. Secondary sources are...
Read MoreFinding People and Businesses
Tips to Locate a Hard-to-Find Person Patrons frequently need to find people and businesses, for instance to serve them with legal papers. If you cannot find a person, it may be possible to serve them by publishing the notice in the newspaper. Before you can do this, you need to...
Read MoreJury Instructions
Civil and Criminal Jury Instructions At the end of a trial, but before the jurors deliberate, the judge reads them “jury instructions.” The instructions explain the laws that apply to the case. Types of Jury Instructions Usually, lawyers adapt these instructions from sets of standard jury instructions. In California, there...
Read MoreReading Citations
Finding Cases and Statutes by Citation Any reference to any primary law source - case or statute - has a citation. The basic format of a citation is standardized, and generally includes a volume number, an abbreviation of the title of the publication in which the law appears, a page...
Read MoreCalifornia State Law Library
Legal Research
The Witkin State Law Library offers an extensive collection of primary and secondary sources with a focus on California law. Primary sources from California’s beginnings aid the Legislature and state agencies in tracing legislative or regulatory histories, and practice guides and court briefs aid lawyers and those proceeding pro se. Their collection includes materials for other states, federal legislation, and even historical and international law. Services not provided: No legal advice or interpretation of information. No document delivery service.
Council of California County Law Librarians
Legal Research
Find your local public law library, events and workshops, and links to legal research resources. Free online classes on many common legal questions.