Explosion of New Free Legal Databases

Sue Altmeyer, Electronic Services Librarian, sue.altmeyer@law.csuohio.edu | February 18, 2008 - 11:48

The latest free case law databases:

1. The Public Library of Law by Fastcase contains the case law of all states, 1997 to present, all Supreme Court decisions and Circuit Court decisions from 1950 to present. There are handy links to other websites containing state statutes, court rules, the Code of Federal Regulations and more. Public Law Library's U.S. Code is the official version of the code, which is published every six years. The Public Law Library does not have an update feature like Cornell's U.S. Code. Prior versions of the official U.S. Code are available back to 1988. Don't get too excited about the forms section - the forms are all for a fee. Thanks to Wisblawg- Public Library of Law Gathers Free State & Federal Law - Cases, Statutes, Regs, Etc.

2. Justia is not new, but has recently added Federal Appellate decisions from 1950 forward, complete with F.2d and F.3d cites. (Thanks to Wisblawg - Free Federal Case Law (F.2d and F.3d) Available on Justia)

3. PACER Recycling Center - Access PACER documents (Federal court documents) donated by others. There are not many documents in the Recycling Center at the moment, it is somewhat difficult to use, and it does not contain dockets. Try Justia Dockets, which has dockets and a limited amount of documents. (Thanks to Wisblawg- Recycled PACER Documents Available at No Cost.)

4. PreCYdent contains cases in the public domain, including U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Court of appeals cases from 2004 to 2008. Recent state cases will be added. The site will also contain legal documents uploaded by the site’s registered users. Registration is free. PreCYdent has a unique search algorithm which hopes to enable people to search for legal precedent with a Google-like search of just a few words. There is also an advanced search using boolean operators, field searches and date restrictions. The site is in the very early stages of development. Thanks to LexLibris - PreCYdent: New Public-Domain Law Search Engine

Also, see our prior post regarding: Altlaw. As the comment below states, Altlaw now contains appeals decisions back to 1950. It also now has all U.S. Supreme Court cases and Boolean search capability.

Altlaw [Reply]

Tim Wu | 19/02/2008, 01:19

Altlaw also now has court of appeals from 1950 onward.

[Reply]

RGHK | 30/03/2008, 11:11

Thanks for the info. I'm going to have to check those out. Great blog by the way. Lots of great links here..

Shepardizing [Reply]

Woodrow Sanders | 01/04/2009, 05:50

Is there a free way to shepardize on the internet.

Shepardizing [Reply]

Sue Altmeyer | 01/04/2009, 18:55

Sort of .....

Altlaw and Precydent have free citators, see our blog post ...

http://cmlawlibraryblog.classcaster.org/blog/legal_research__writing/2008/10/15/_free_shepards-like_services_on_the_web_

but be aware of their limitations. They do not contain signals or treatment, such as followed, distinguished, questioned, etc. It provides a list of cases that have cited the case. Also these databases do not include all the years of case law --- so that is a limitation as well.

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