Electronic Sources for Law Practice

This page was created for participants in the library's Prepare for Summer Research Bootcamp. The library subscribes to selected resources on this page, as indicated by the notation BULaw next to the database name. Other resources are selected from among products commonly available in practice settings. Inclusion does not signify endorsement by the Boston University Law Library.


Computer Aided Legal Research (CALR) Alternatives

Faced with high costs for CALR on LexisNexis and Westlaw, small to medium sized firms as well as firms with transactional/hourly access to the products may subscribe to CALR alternatives with flat rate access. This is especially helpful when conducting "non-billable research". Other products such as Casemaker or Fastcase may be available as part of membership in a bar association or a membership library.

In addition to the flat rate advantage, these products may provide sources not available on LexisNexis and Westlaw.


Specialized Electronic Products

Even firms with flat rate contracts to LexisNexis and Westlaw may not have access to all of the databases available therein. BNA and CCH provide stand alone databases of their information with search interfaces that are especially suited for them. Litigation sources are slowly being included in LexisNexis and Westlaw, but are often less expensive in their standalone platforms. Finally, "academic" databases such as HeinOnline and LLMC-Digital are being licensed by many firms, state, court, and county law libraries, offering increased access to older documents that are simply not available on LexisNexis and Westlaw.


State Specific

Some states are fortunate to have membership libraries that bar members can join for an annual membership fee. These libraries may provide electronic access to primary materials, full text legal databases, and news sources to their members.

  • Massachusetts' Social Law Library (SLL): Provides flat rate online access to a variety of Massachusetts primary law: appellate and trial level cases, court rules, statutes, and regulations. Its Administrative Law Library provides unparalleled electronic access to administrative agency decisions.
  • Pennsylvania's Jenkins Law Library


FREE!

The databases included here combine free primary materials via easily searchable interfaces and secondary sources that may not be available in electronic form at your firm. Government web sites may provide PDF documents as authoritative as the books, so they can be an excellent resource. When a source is not considered authoritative, these web sites will indicate that the source is not an official version.

State, court, and county law libraries may license electronic resources available to all patrons. Some electronic resources such as Lexis and Westlaw may only be available on site. In addition to electronic resources, these libraries provide jurisdiction specific research guides and print resources that may not be available at your firm library.

Local public libraries may be an excellent resource for non-legal databases. Many provide off-site access to patrons who hold a library card. Your tax dollars at work!

Page maintained by Raquel Ortiz
Last updated: May 2007