Legal research website?

lindarn · May 19, 2005

Can anyone recommend a good website for legal research? I just want to find information, cases etc. Some sites I found charge a fee, I'd rather find something like a legal ( especially of course health care related issues) database. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Have you tried FindLAw.com? It is a free web site, and contains links to all 50 states, and their websites. It also includes Cases and Codes, where you can do legal research. However, speaking as someone who went through a Legal Nurse certificate program, and took classes on legal research, it is not that simple. If you are looking for a way to find medical related cases, you would need to go to a law library and search through the State Recorders, and other books that have alphabetical listigs of subject headings (called the "key system"). These headings contain some case law for examples. You would than have to go to the law books and look them up.

A law school, or paralegal achool, might have some used books on legal research that you could buy. I bought my legal research and writing book used when I took it at the community college that I attended. That would give you some guidance.

It is much too involved to explain here. That is the quick and dirty. Your best bet would be to go to a law library, and see if the law librarian has the time to help you. Again, it is more involved than that.

Lindarn

Spokane, WA

medsurgnurse, RN · May 19, 2005

Thank you for the info Lindarn. I'm going to try your suggestions.

Tony B. · Sep 15, 2005

Can anyone recommend a good website for legal research? I just want to find information, cases etc. Some sites I found charge a fee, I'd rather find something like a legal ( especially of course health care related issues) database. Any help is greatly appreciated.

http://www.versuslaw.com is the best and most reasonably priced legal research websites online. It's about $6-9 a month which is several times less expensive than Westlaw which is in the hundreds of dollars a month.

I've used http://www.versuslaw.com many times over the past several years.

Tony B.

Registered Professional Nurse