Describing and evaluating 947 legal and governmental information sites at the local, state, and federal levels, this guide provides a starting point for legal research on the Internet. The first chapter describes the nature of legal information on the Internet. In addition to an explanation of where and how law originates in the U.S., there is a discussion of the limitations of Internet resources, including requirements for accessing, limited editorial analysis, and inconsistent indexing. Chapter 2 covers comprehensive Internet directories to legal sources, which in turn lead to many additional resources. Chapter 3 presents judicial law sources for the Supreme Court, U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, federal district courts, and state case law. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are devoted to government information, including GPO access; state constitutions; federal, state, and local laws and codes; and state statutory and legislative information sources, among others. The final chapter covers secondary reference sources, including citation manuals; legal encyclopedias and dictionaries; directories of law firms, schools, bar associations, and electronic periodicals; and international legal and governmental information.
Each chapter opens with a discussion of its scope along with tips for understanding the information once it's accessed. For example, in chapter 3, the components of a published court decision are explained in depth. Each chapter closes with a "best bets" section which lists the sites from that chapter likely to be the most helpful and easiest to use. The general index is complete and the Web-site index is particularly helpful.
Some of the URLs in this directory, as in all print resources of Internet sites, will be outdated, as evidenced by the fact that five of 30 randomly selected URLs which the Board tried resulted in "not found" messages. However, considering the unreliability of many Internet search engines, and the difficulties of focusing Internet searches to retrieve only relevant sites, this guide will save researchers valuable time and lead them to some of the thousands of additional sites related to law and legislation on the Internet. Recommended for public and academic libraries, though some may balk at the price.
