Legal Research on the Internet

Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research
Copyright © 1995-2008 Catherine P. Best
Conditions and terms of use

Introduction

Types of legal information available

Caveats

Search engines

Customized searching of legal sites

	Bookmark lists
	Guides to legal research on the Internet

Introduction

This is a very cursory introduction to legal research and the Internet. There is a wealth of material written on this subject, much of it available on the Internet and included in the links on this page. If you are a beginner, the general information on this page may be helpful. If you already know the basics, go ahead and explore the links in the Reference section.

Types of legal information available

Internet sites contain various types of useful legal information, including statutes, bills, case law, and periodicals. The most useful free legal sites for researching case law, with links included, are summarised in the Internet Legal Sites chart.

There many other sites containing links to legal information on the Internet. A good legal bookmark list, such as the list maintained by the BC Courthouse Library Society (under Links), LexUM, Legal Tree or FindLaw provides a starting point to explore legal information on the Internet.

For a basic list of legal bookmarks, see the bookmarks list for this site.

Caveats

Conducting legal research on the Internet can be frustrating, time-consuming, and risky.

	Internet sites change rapidly: links to sites become outdated very quickly.
	Many sites are just a list of links to other sites. You may find yourself going in circles and finding nothing of substance at all.
	There is no guarantee that information posted on the Internet for free access is comprehensive, current or reliable. If you are conducting legal research, you need to ensure that the information you obtain meets these criteria. An excellent discussion and collection of links concerning evaluating Internet sites is available at the Virtual Chase website.
	You may not be familiar with the search syntax of the different search engines at the various legal sites, meaning that your search queries may be inappropriate for the particular search engine you are using. You will either end up with many completely irrelevant documents, or you will miss relevant documents.

To make your searching on the Internet more efficient and effective, use a bookmark list of good legal sites, and be sure to check the help information on how to search at each site. The quality of your searches will increase tremendously.

Search engines

There are several general search engines on the Internet that you can use to locate sites of interest.

	Google is the favourite of most general searchers because of its consistent success at generating results lists with the highest quality sites at the top of the list. Although you can just type words in, try some of the search techniques in the Google Cheatsheet to take full advantage of Google's capabilities.
	For a broader range of sources and searching techniques, try the search engines listed on the Internet Search Tools page created by the UBC Library.
	Search Engine Land and Search Engine Showdown are excellent sites for information about and evaluations of general search engines.

The Law Library Resource Exchange has published several articles about Internet research. Beyond Google and Yahoo contains a listing of several specialized search engines that will allow you to find material often not indexed by general search engines.

Customized searching of legal sites

Google Coop allows creation of a customized search engine that will search specified Internet sites. Some useful adaptations of this in the Canadian legal context are

	Legal Research page where you can search within Canadian legal research guides
	Canadian Government Documents where you can search across websites of federal, provincial and municipal governments
	Canadian Law Schools page where you can search within the websites of Canadian law schools
	Major Canadian Law Firms page where you can search within the websites of leading Canadian law firms
	Cornell Law Library Research Guides where you can search within US and international legal research guides

Blogs

Blogs are websites containing a series of postings. They range from personal musings to the views of experts in a particular area. The latter type of blog is useful for keeping current on specialized topics. Individuals can often contribute their views by posting comments in response to blog entries.

A good search engine for the general universe of blogs is Technorati. To restrict your search to legal blogs, use BlawgSearch. In addition to being searchable, BlawgSearch has a directory with categories. Several Canadian legal blogs are listed under the category for Canada.

Blogs for Canadian legal research include

	SLAW
	Vancouver Law Librarian Blog
	Library Boy
	Connie Crosby Law Librarian Blog
	Shaunna Mireau on Canadian Legal Research

There are several Canadian law blogs in substantive areas of law. These include

	Canadian Privacy Law Blog
	Michael Geist's Blog (technology law)
	Law of the Land: Canadian Commercial Real Estate Law Blog
	Canadian Trademark Blog

Instead of checking each blog for new entries, you can subscribe to an RSS feed from the blog that will notify you when new postings are added to the blog.

RSS feeds

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It allows you to receive information feeds from various Internet sources so that you don't have to visit individual sites to obtain the information. To use RSS, you have to set up an RSS reader. There are several free ones on the Internet, including Google Reader.

For a good discussion of RSS and how it can be used in the law firm context see the following:

	Using RSS to Create and Enhance Current Awareness Services
	10 Top Uses for RSS in Law Firms

In addition to sending you blog postings, RSS feeds can be used to send you news articles, government information, and new case law and legislation. Instead of cluttering your email box, the feeds are collected in your RSS reader and can be reviewed at your convenience.

Wikis

A wiki is a website that is created collaboratively using software that allows individuals to add and edit content. One of the best known research sites created this way is Wikipedia. Just as when evaluating the content on web sites, care must be taken when relying on content published in a wiki.

Legal Tree is a Canadian website using wiki technology to collect and publish Canadian legal information.

Best, Internet Legal Sites
Evaluation Criteria for Internet Research
Harvard Research Guides.
Intute Tutorials for Lawyers
The Law Library Resource Xchange
Tsang, Overview of Sources of Canadian Law on the Web
Virtual Chase, Guide to Resources for Legal Professionals