Internet Legal Issues
and Research
Faye
Jones
Director and Professor
Florida State University
College of Law Library
fejones@law.fsu.edu
Acknowledgements

Florida State University Law Library

Mary McCormick, J.D., M.S.
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Margaret Clark, M.S.
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Reference Librarian
Marin Dell, J.D., M.S.


Assistant Director for Public Services
Reference Librarian
U.S. Department of Defense

ARPA/DARPA,
http://www.darpa.mil/body/arpa_darpa.html
Internet Legal Issues
Internet Legal Issues
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E-commerce
 Contracts, Intellectual Property, Privacy, Cybercrime
E-discovery issues and metadata
E-data from automobile black boxes
 Is Your Car Spying on You?
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MVEDRs
Ethical issues
 Risks of law firm websites, blogs and email
Ex parte communication
 Mullins v. Department of Commerce, 06-3284 (C.A. Fed Circuit,
May 4, 2007)
E-lawyering
 LegalXML, http://www.legalxml.org/about/index.shtml
Keeping up with the Joneses, Esq.
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Blogs & RSS feeds
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DennisKennedy.com
 Feedblitz
Tech Law Prof Blog
 Google To Offer Deep Government Info for Four States
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Search engines
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California, Arizona, Utah and Virginia
To Googlize inaccessible data in state electronic files
Google and 47+ others
Internet legal research
Florida Electronic Library
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http://www.flelibrary.org/
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Available resources include electronic
magazines, newspapers, almanacs,
encyclopedias, and books, providing
information on topics such as current events,
education, business, technology, and health
issues.
FloridaLawHelp.org
FloridaLawHelp.org

http://www.floridalawhelp.org/FL/index.cfm
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Links to a Legal Services Directory for the
State of Florida, as well as a list of collected
information materials from agencies and
legal clinics throughout Florida.
Caselaw – Where to Find It for
Free
US Supreme Court:
Official Slip Opinions: http://www.supremecourtus.gov
Legal Information Institute: http://www.law.cornell.edu
LexisONE: http://www.lexisone.com/ (Click on “Find Cases for Free”)
US Circuit Courts:
Office of US Courts: http://www.uscourts.gov/links.html
Federal Courts Finder: http://law.emory.edu/caselaw/
US District Courts:
Office of US Courts: http://www.uscourts.gov/links.html
Legal Information Institute:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/federal/districts.html
Pacer
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http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/
Electronic access to U.S. District, Bankruptcy,
and Appellate court records
Free written opinions
Federal case statistics
Party/Case Index
LexisOne
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http://www.lexisone.com/
Use the LexisNexis® Research Service to
access U.S. Supreme Court cases from
1790 to present, as well as federal and state
cases decided within the last five years.
(selected coverage)
Florida Supreme Court website
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http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/
index.shtml
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Also provides links to District Court of
Appeals opinions and Court Rules.
Justia
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http://www.justia.com/
Free legal information on practice areas
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Cases
Regulation tracker, a free searchable database of
Federal Register Regulations, Proposed Rules
and Notices
Online Sunshine
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http://www.leg.state.fl.us/
Links to Florida legislation, including the
Florida Statutes, the Laws of Florida and the
Florida Constitution.
LII/Legal Information Institute
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http://www.law.cornell.edu/
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The Legal Information Institute (LII) is a
research and electronic publishing activity of
the Cornell Law School.
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Wex: a collaboratively-created, publicaccess law dictionary and encyclopedia.
Municode.com
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http://www.municode.com
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Online Library with U.S. municipal/county
ordinances
Pamphlets for selected state analysis by
Municode
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Forms.gov
Forms.gov
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http://forms.gov/bgfPortal/citizen.portal
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Federal Forms listed by form number, agency
and “frequently used” forms.
USCourtforms.com
U.S. Courtforms
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http://www.uscourtforms.com/
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Court, Legal & Business Forms Available in
non-fillable PDF format
Federal, State and Local County Forms in all
practice areas.
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Florida State Courts website –
Family Law Forms/Rules &
Opinions
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http://www.flcourts.org/
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Family law forms for use in dissolution,
paternity, child support, name change, and
grandparent visitation cases. The forms are
up-to-date, in engrossed (ready to use)
format, with all amendments incorporated.
Internet Legal Research Group
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http://www.ilrg.com/forms/
Over 2000 free legal forms, a number of
forms are adapted for state-specific use.
‘Lectric Law Library
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http://www.lectlaw.com/form.html
Business & General - dealing with subjects
like Real Estate, Corporations, Employment,
Contracts, Trusts and Wills.
Legal Practice - focusing on Law Practice
Management, Litigation and related matters.
FindLaw
FindLaw.com
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http://public.findlaw.com/library/statelaws.html
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Legal information portal for the general
public; contains links to forms, state and
federal legislation and a legal dictionary.
LLRX.com
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http://www.llrx.com/resources7.htm
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Legal information portal with links to a legal
resource center, legal articles and law related
listservs.
MegaLaw.com
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http://www.megalaw.com/states.php
Legal portal with state specific legal resource
pages.
LawSource
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http://www.lawsource.com/
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The home of American Law Sources On-line
(ALSO!), providing a comprehensive,
uniform, and useful compilation of links to
freely accessible on-line sources of law for
the United States and Canada, as well as
Mexican sources.
Where to find briefs
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http://www.legaline.com/freebriefslinks.html
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Portal linking to free Internet sites with
searchable state and federal briefs.
FSU Law Library
Free Internet Research Page
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http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/databases/publicl
egalinfo.html
International Law
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http://www.asil.org/
http://lexmercatoria.net/
Human rights
International business transactions
Arbitration
Maritime law
Taxation
Tips for Creating a Practice
Library

Organize bookmarks of most frequently used sites
by jurisdiction, function and subject

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MFU-FL
MFU-FRM
MFU-FAM
Review daily client schedule and pull up relevant
bookmarks for that day
Download or cut/paste frequently used forms for
quick use
Check sites often for new content and functionality
Need More Help?


Inter Alia weblog, http://www.inter-alia.net/
Zimmerman’s Guide:
http://www.lexisone.com/zimmermanguide/index.html
An online legal encyclopedia providing definitions, examples,
explanations and useful links

The Virtual Chase How-To Guides:
http://www.virtualchase.com/resources/court_records.html
An annotated guide to sources of information on various types of legal
research