From the Law Library: State Legal Resources

Most attorneys know their own state’s legal web sites. It isn’t hard to locate the laws and administrative regulations when on the official Ohio site (http://www.ohio.gov). Researching which “foreign” state agency to contact to authenticate a document or finding the directory assistance phone number for the state government is more difficult. Use the following web sites to make state legal research a breeze.

One of the easiest ways to find state resources is to use a portal. A portal is a collection of links for a particular subject or jurisdiction. The U.S. government’s main web portal USA.gov (http://www.usa.gov) is not just for information from the federal government. Under each “tab” or section is a link to state information. Click on “More Audiences” when on the Citizens tab or the Business tab to locate a list of links on the left of the page arranged by organization. Links for State Government, Local Government and Tribal Government are available. The State Government page has the usual list of states, but it also links to information more difficult to locate. Under “Contact Government: choose Frequently Asked Questions on the left side of the page. Choose “all topics” and type authentication in the search box to locate a list of state agencies authenticating documents. Each state lists the agency responsible for authenticating various types of documents, the contact information and a link to the agency’s web site. The same page also links to state vital records offices. USA.gov is always up to date and easy to navigate.

The Law Librarians Association of Washington D.C. (http://llsdc.org) has assembled the Legislative Source Book: State Legislative Resources (http://llsdc.org/sourcebook/). The Legislative Source Book lists links to many federal sources at the top of the page; the state sources may be located by scrolling down the page. The page State Legislatures, State Laws, and State Regulations: Website Links and Telephone Numbers (http://www.llsdc.org/state-leg/) is especially useful. Click on the state to access links to each state’s legislature, statutory code and administrative code. Telephone numbers are included for the state’s Senate, House, Legislative Information, State Law Library and the State’s Directory Assistance. The Legislative Source Book is easy to use and is worth exploring.

Legislative history research can be challenging. Use State Legislative History Research Guides on the Web published by the Maurer School of Law Library, Indiana University Bloomington found at (http://www.law.indiana.edu/lawlibrary/research/guides/statelegislative/index.shtml) to locate a research guide for any state. Guides for all fifty states are published by a state agency, law school library, research library or other reliable source. To obtain copies of those hard to locate documents the American Association of Law Libraries Document Delivery Caucus has compiled a list of law libraries willing to supply documents (http://www.aallnet.org/caucus/docdel/supplier.html). Each library listing includes the library’s address, phone number, contact e-mail and fax number. A check box confirms the library’s document delivery service includes delivery by fax, mail or email.

Have a legal research topic you would like to know more about? Let us know! If you have any suggestions or requests for the topic of our next article, please email us at reference@law.capital.edu.