Legal Resources in Cyberspace
By Douglas A. Kewley, Esq.
D. Law Libraries and Legal Collections
F. Statistical Information and Databases
G. Other Legal Resources and Site Examples
In the all perfect world, there would be one website you would go to and find all of the decisions of all of the courts. There are. They are called:
1. http://www.lexis.com
2. http://www.loislaw.com
3. http://www.versuslaw.com
4. http://www.westlaw.com
There are more. Of course, these all charge a fee for use. Some have more extensive databases than others. Lexis and WestLaw have been available for years. So what is new with the Internet and where is the free stuff?
Over the last few years, more and more free court opinions have been added to the Internet. Most only go back a few years. However, the amount of material available increases almost daily.
United States Supreme Court decisions from 1893 forward can be found on http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html. An interesting Supreme Court site is Oyez Oyez Oyez. http://oyez.nwu.edu/. In addition to opinions, Oyez, Oyez Oyez contains sound files of various Supreme Court arguments.
As do all federal appellate courts, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals maintains a website where you can research their opinions going back to 1985. While 1985 may not seem like a large database, most other federal appellate courts only go back to the mid-nineties. The federal Fifth Circuit's opinion site is located at http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov:8081/ca5/index.htm.
Other federal decision sites include:
http://www.guo.gov/decisions/decision.htm for GAO Decisions
http://www.usps.gov/judicial/ald.htm for Post Office Administrative Decisions
http://www.law.gwu.edu/asbca/ for the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals
http://www.nlrb.gov/ for the National Labor Relations Board Decisions
http://www.oshrc.gov/index.html for OSHA decisions
Federal case records are available, but at a cost. Previously, you could access the docket sheet for the federal Fifth Circuit on line for free. However, starting in 2000, a charge of 7¢ a page has been instituted. The appellate docket sheet can be found at http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/caseinfo.htm. The federal Fifth Circuit's website is located at http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/.
All federal District Court's dockets can be accessed through PACER, a fee based service. PACER originated as a non-Internet service, but can now be accessed through the Internet at http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/ or through the federal district courts' websites. Louisiana's federal District Courts all have websites, They are:
Eastern District http://www.laed.uscourts.gov/
Middle District http://www.lamd.uscourts.gov/
Western District http://www.lawd.uscourts.gov/
The Middle District currently permits viewing of the docket sheets and documents on two cases, U.S. v. Edwards and U.S. V. Brown, at no charge.
At present, there are no Internet websites (other than Lexis, Lois, WestLaw, Versuslaw, etc) that provide significant searchable opinion databases. The recent opinions of the Louisiana Supreme Court can be viewed at http://www.lasc.org/documents.html. However, the opinions are not searchable. The Supreme Court also provides its argument docket on the Internet, but no other record information is available on-line.
The only Louisiana court of appeal that has any opinions on-line is the Second Circuit. The Second Circuit's database is very new and only contains published opinions dating from March 2000. The Second Circuit's database is found at http://www.lacoa2.org/opinions.htm. Curiously, while there are few State Court opinions available on the web, the Commissioner of Insurance's administrative law rulings are available at http://www.ldi.state.us/Rulings.htm.
Louisiana's First Circuit Court of Appeal has its docket on-line at http://www.la-fcca.org/docket.htm. The Second Circuit's docket can be viewed at http://www.lacoa2.org/the_docket.htm. The Fourth Circuit provides case record information at http://4thcir-app.state.la.us/caserecourses.htm. At present neither the Third nor the Fifth Circuit has a web presence.
Some Louisiana district courts have record access available for a fee. The Orleans Parish Civil District Court has Remote Access available for $250.00 for unlimited access. Http://www.orleanscdc.gov/remote,htm.
Records of the 24th Judicial District Court can be accessed through JeffNet. http://www.clerkofcourt.co.jefferson.la.us/. JeffNet also comes at a cost. There is a $200.00 initiation fee, an $8.50 a month charge and a 25¢ a minute charge. In addition to civil and criminal records of the 24th JDC, JeffNet can provide mortgage and conveyance records, assessor rolls, marriage license indexes and the records of both the First and Second Parish Courts.
Similarly, St. Tammany provides computerized access to its civil, criminal and land records. http://stp.pa.st-tammany.la.us/othergov/clerk/compindx.html. St. Tammany's remote access has a $100.00 for single and $250.00 for organizations (up to 10) initial setup fee, plus a 30¢ a minute charge.
Lafayette offers Tele-Search. http://www.lafayetteparishclerk.com/. Tele-Search is not an Internet site, but requires phoning Lafayette. Tele-Search, which offers civil, criminal and land records, has a $100.00 setup fee, $15.00 monthly fee and a 50¢ a minute time charge.
The Internet does a much better job providing state and federal statutes to the Louisiana lawyer. The United States Constitution is searchable, with annotation at http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/constitution/. The United States Code can be searched at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/. The United States Code can also be searched by popular name at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/topn/.
The Code of Federal Regulations can be found at http://www.access.gpo. gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html. The Federal Register is found at: http://www. access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces140.html. The Congressional Record is located at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces150.html.
Access to other federal codes can be found at FindLaw http://www.findlaw.com. Federal legislation can be checked on http://thomas. loc.gov/.
Only recently, Louisiana's statutes have been put on-line. http://www.legis.state.la.us/tsrs/search.htm. The Louisiana Administrative Code can be found http://www.state.la.us/osr/lac/lac.htm and the Louisiana Register can be found at http://www.doa.state.la.us/osr/reg/register.htm. You can also check on pending legislation at http://www.legis.state.la.us/. The Governor's Executive Orders can be found at http://www.state.la.us/osr/other/exord.htm. Many of Louisiana's municipal codes are also available in-line. http://fws.municode.com/CGI-BIN/om_isapi.dll?&softpage=LA_Multi_Query_ Request.
Finding an expert on the Internet is relatively easy. If anything, there are too many sites that list various experts. Some of these sites even have search engines.
One of the most extensive expert lists can be found at http://experts.law.com/. You can search by name or area of expertise. Additionally, the browsing directory is well designed for locating experts without having to guess how the site categorizes expertise.
You can search by keyword or subject category on http://www. expertfind.com/directory/expertwitness/. Expertfind even has a list of experts by state and region.
You can search by keyword on http://www.expertlaw. com/experts/index.shtml. You search by keyword, location and name in http://www.hg.org/ex_sel.html (Hieros Gamos). Hieros Gamos also has a list of other expert databases where you can look for an expert. You can search by state or field of expertise on http://expertwitness.com/.
Findlaw has a list of experts at http://www.findlaw.com /13experts/witness.html . However, Findlaw's search engine does not search just the expert list, so is not of as much use as some of the other lists.
One of the best search engines for experts is found at http://www.claims.com/Members2/search.html. You can enter three keywords or keyword phrases, which could involve specialties, sub-specialties, states or whatever else you might want.
There is a good list of expert lists to be found at http://www.nocall.org/experts.htm. Of course, you can always draft a search for an expert using one of the more traditional search engines such as Altavista or Yahoo.
D. Law Libraries and Legal Collections
Law libraries have limited usefulness on the Internet since their volumes are not accessible. The Louisiana Supreme Court's law library can be found at http://www.lasc.org/lawlib/lawlib.html. The Supreme Court's site lists where to find things in the physical library. It also provides "pathfinders" which suggest ways to research different issues such as legislative history.
The federal Fifth Circuit's library is located at http://www.ca5.uscourts. gov/library.HTM . However, it's catalog is not searchable.
LSU's Law Library can be found at http://www.law.lsu.edu/library/. LSU's Law Library's book catalog can be searched at http://webpac.louis.lsu.edu:8080/webpac-bin/wgbroker?061014044059855+-access+top.special.lsulaw. Tulane's law library is found at http://www.law.tulane. edu/library/lib.htm. Loyola's law library is found at http://www.loyno.edu/ lawlibrary/index.html. Loyola's Law Library's book catalog can be searched at http://lawcat.loyno.edu/search. While Southern's law library is not on the Internet, its book catalog can be searched at http://webpac.louis.lsu.edu:8080/ webpac-bin/wgbroker?061014044059855+-access+top.special.subl.
There are a number of legal collections available on-line. If you primarily do federal research, the one site you should remember from this seminar is www.legal.gsa.gov, otherwise known as Fedlaw. FedLaw is a portal to the United States Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, the Supreme Court, the federal appellate courts and many federal district courts. Additionally, FedLaw provides access to GAO decisions and legislation. Finally, FedLaw even provides some links to state law.
Another excellent starting point is Findlaw, found at http://www.findlaw.com/. Findlaw provides references to most areas of the law and is searchable.
For more local matters, Louisiana maintains http://www.state.la.us/ state/judicial.htm. This site lists state courts, libraries and other resources.
Similarly, the LSBA's Sole Practitioner and Small Firm Section maintains a resource site at http://www.gnofn.org/~spsfslba/ref-la.html. This site lists several courts, bar associations, newspapers, etc.
More general sites that contain some search capability are:
http://www.alllaw.com/default.asp.
http://www.counselquest.com/
http://www.lawguru.com/
http://www.lawinfo.com/
http://dir.yahoo.com/Government/Law/
A lengthy list of other legal collections can be found at http://www.abanet.org/yld/links.html.
Information concerning how to obtain public records is more available than the actual records. You can obtain information about obtaining vital records anywhere in the country at http://vitalrec.com/index.html.
Genealogy interest has led to the creation of databases with certain genealogy information, primarily death records. A United States site is found at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/. Louisiana's part of the genealogy project can be found at http://www.rootsweb.com/~lagenweb/.
Recently, the Louisiana State Police put on the Internet a Sex Offender and Child Predator website at http://www.lasocpr.lsp.org/socpr/. On this website, you can search for the names and addresses of convicted offenders in any area.
The Louisiana Secretary of State provides public records at http://www.sec.state.la.us/. On this site, you can research corporation, election and, for a price, UCC information.
F. Statistical Information and Databases
The Internet contains statistical records of every conceivable kind. Its just a matter of locating the data you seek.
There are statistical sites that deal solely with Louisiana. Census information concerning Louisiana can be found at http://www.state.la.us/ state/census/census.htm . Louisiana also has the Louisiana Electronic Assistance Program, a project sponsored and funded between the State and small business. This site, located at http://leap.nlu.edu/, contains substantial data involving business, such as agricultural and natural resources, economic and labor issues and vital statistic information.
Every United States government agency publishes statistics. The Department of Commerce puts out information collected in the census at http://www.census.gov/. The Department of Justice puts out crime statistics at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/. The Center for Disease Control puts out its data, including its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report at http://www.cdc.gov/scientific.htm. The Department of Labor's OSHA data can be found at http://stats.bls.gov/oshhome.htm.
There is substantial economic information available on the web. The White House puts out the Economic Statistics Briefing Room at http://www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/esbr.html. This is an all-in-one site containing information concerning production, sales, orders, inventories, output, income, employment, etc. The Federal Reserve puts out http://www.stls.frb.org/fred/. This site contains banking information. The USDA puts out agricultural data, including the all important cheddar cheese prices, at http://usda.mannlib.cornell. edu/usda/usda.html. The Department of Commerce puts out trade data at http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/industry/otea/. The Department of Transportation puts out transportation statistics at http://www.bts.gov/. Labor statistics are found at http://stats.bls.gov/.
There are too many statistical databases to list in this paper. However, additional databases can be found at http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Statistics/.
G. Other Legal Resources and Site Examples
There are numerous other sites that may be of interest to a Louisiana lawyer. The Louisiana State Bar Association's site is located at http://www.lsba.org/. The American Bar Association can be found at http://www.abanet.org. Information concerning Gilsbar can be found at http://www.gilsbar.com/Home_40.asp. The Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association is found at http://www.ltla.org/. And what review of Louisiana websites would be complete without Pelican Politics, found at http://www.pelicanpolitics.com/. At Pelican Politics, you can find the name of every elected official in Louisiana.
Forms are abundant on the Internet. IRS forms can be downloaded at http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/cover.html. Patent and Trademark forms can be found at http://www.uspto.gov/web/forms/index.html. Copyright forms can be obtained at http://www.loc.gov/copyright/forms/.
Federal District Court forms can be obtained at http://www.laed.uscourts.gov/ Forms/FORMS.HTM. Federal Appellate Court forms can be found at http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/clerk.HTM. Orleans Parish CDC forms can be downloaded at http://www.orleanscdc.gov/forms.htm.
The Library of Congress maintains a site at http://www.loc.gov/. This site contains a searchable catalog and samples of exhibits. An interesting site with various legal articles can be found at http://www.uslaw.com/.
Switchboard, at http://www.switchboard.com/, provides a way to locate individuals and businesses. Mapquest, at http://www.mapquest.com, provides maps, driving directions, line traffic reports, yellow and white pages, a travel guide and a city guide.
Finally, what review of legal sites would be complete without legal humor. A list of lawyer jokes can be found at http://xar.bw-inet.com/funny/lawyer.html and http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~atan/jokes/canonical_lawyer.html. Canadian legal humor can be found at http://www.legalhumor.com/. After all, how many lawyers does it take to . . .