Legal Research by State

This lesson will provide you with an introduction to Connecticut's secondary source materials. After you have completed this lesson, you will have a better understanding of where to find and how to use the state's secondary source materials including the practice series, periodicals, and practice aids.

This lesson covers Delaware primary legal research resources including the state's constitution, statutory code, legislative history materials, administrative code, administrative bulletin, case decisions, court rules, and legal ethics materials.

This is an introductory lesson about using District of Columbia secondary sources. The secondary sources that are featured in this lesson will help students when they are searching for pertinent discussion and information about District of Columbia law and references to relevant District of Columbia primary sources of law.

This lesson will familiarize you with primary and secondary sources available in Idaho. It covers the Idaho primary law including the Idaho Constitution, statutes, legislative history, municipal codes, administrative law, and court decisions. The secondary sources portion of the lesson provides a general overview of secondary sources and how you can use them in your research as well as coverage of Idaho specific secondary sources.

This lesson provides an introduction to primary sources of law in Illinois.

In this lesson the student will learn the basic secondary sources that are specific to the state of Indiana and how to use them. No prior knowledge of Indiana law is necessary to understand this lesson; however, students interested in learning more about legal research in Indiana law are invited to peruse the companion CALI lesson on Indiana Primary Resources.

This lesson is intended to familiarize the user with the types of primary legal research materials you will encounter when researching Iowa law. The lesson focuses on primary source material including: the Iowa Constitution, Iowa statutes, codes, and administrative law, the Iowa court system, and Iowa cases. The lesson is aimed primarily at students and professionals who will be learning about these materials for the first time. Thus, no prior knowledge of Iowa legal research is necessary to follow this lesson.

This lesson will introduce the reader to secondary research sources for Iowa legal research. The lesson will begin with a discussion of finding aids, and will then transition to a discussion of the following secondary resources: Treatises & Practice Materials, Legal Periodicals & Restatements, and sources for Iowa Legal Forms. The lesson is primarily intended as an introduction to these sources but can also be used as a refresher for the seasoned Iowa attorney.

This lesson covers secondary resources specific to the State of Maryland.

This lesson teaches proper use of citation in Florida legal documents and court memoranda. You'll want to have a Bluebook handy while doing this lesson.

This lesson provides an introduction to legal research in Massachusetts primary law sources. You will explore Massachusetts state statutes, constitution, cases, digest, and regulations in the context of a simple legal problem and answer follow-up questions.

This lesson introduces major Massachusetts secondary sources to the researcher. After this lesson, the student will be familiar with major Massachusetts practice materials and know how to find other state specific sources, such as forms, treatises, manuals, legal periodicals, and news sources.

This lesson is designed to familiarize the user with materials used in Minnesota legal research. The focus of the lesson is Minnesota's primary source materials.

This lesson guides the user through Minnesota Secondary Sources.

This lesson is designed to provide students with both an overview of Michigan primary resources and a "how to" guide to researching various Michigan primary resources.

While the lesson aims to introduce the specifics of researching Michigan law to a researcher already familiar with the basics of legal research, it will also be helpful to students and professionals trying to understand those basics through the process of Michigan-specific research.

This lesson shows how to research Michigan state law using secondary sources. This lesson assumes the audience has access to WestlawEdge, Lexis Advance and HeinOnline. We will walk through a research scenario together using a few major types of secondary resources discussing Michigan state law, including encyclopedia, American Law Reports, treatises, journals and law reviews and free online resources.

This lesson covers the Mississippi constitution, statutes and legislation, cases, court system and rules, administrative materials, and municipal laws. It was designed for those who have a general knowledge of researching primary legal sources.

This lesson will cover the range of secondary materials available for the research of Mississippi law.  As a smaller state, there are less extensive secondary sources available than are available for other states.  However, the materials that do exist provide a deep and rich body of literature for assisting in the research of legal issues in the state.

This lesson is designed to familiarize law students with Missouri's primary law sources. It gives them basic information about locating Missouri's constitution, statutes, bills, legislative history, court opinions, and administrative regulations. No prerequisite knowledge is required to follow this lesson.

This lesson is designed to introduce you to Montana primary and secondary legal research resources.

This lesson is designed to demonstrate the secondary and primary legal research sources in New Hampshire while working through a landlord/tenant dispute.

This lesson provides an overview of the primary resources involved in New Jersey legal research. These include statutes, administrative regulations, administrative registers, administrative decisions, court decisions, court rules, and the state constitution.

This lesson is intended to supplement the CALI lesson on New Jersey primary sources and serve as an introduction to some of the secondary resources available in New Jersey law. The topics covered include the online and print format of treatises, practice guides, and periodicals.

This lesson will familiarize you with primary and secondary sources available in New Mexico. It covers New Mexico primary law including the New Mexico Constitution, statutes, legislative history, municipal codes, administrative law, and court decisions. The secondary sources section of the lesson provides a general overview of secondary sources and how you can use them in your research as well as coverage of New Mexico specific secondary sources.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the lesson, the student will be able to:

This lesson on North Carolina primary legal research materials will provide an introduction on how to locate North Carolina legal materials including North Carolina constitutional provisions, statutes, case law, regulations, and municipal provisions. In addition to discussing how to locate these materials in print, we will also discuss how to locate them in the major databases and free and low cost databases.

This lesson is designed to give a basic overview of secondary sources used in North Carolina legal research. Secondary resources are commentary on the law written by legal professionals or legal publishers. They are useful for finding background information and citations to primary resources, but it is important to remember that secondary resources are not the law.

This lesson gives a brief explanation of secondary sources and then examines the most frequently used sources in Ohio. Explanations of print and online sources are integrated and alternate approaches to finding material are also explored.

This lesson will introduce you to important secondary sources for Oklahoma legal research and help you develop strategies for using secondary sources to research Oklahoma legal questions. This lesson is intended to supplement the CALI Lesson on Oklahoma primary sources. In addition to the important Oklahoma secondary sources covered in this lesson, researchers should also be aware of secondary resources that are not Oklahoma specific. For information on secondary resources generally, see the CALI Lesson "Introduction to Secondary Resources."

This lesson will familiarize you with primary and secondary sources available in South Dakota. It covers South Dakota primary law including the South Dakota Constitution, statutes, legislative history, municipal codes, administrative law, and court decisions. The secondary sources section of the lesson provides a general overview of secondary sources and how you can use them in your research as well as coverage of South Dakota specific secondary sources.

This lesson will introduce you to Tennessee primary sources. As an overview of these materials this lesson will not describe any one resource in great depth. CALI lessons describing statutes, cases, digests, etc. are a great resource for learning more about individual authorities. This lesson is intended primarily for first year law students.

This lesson is intended to familiarize the reader with Tennessee legal research materials and will focus on Tennessee secondary authorities. You will learn about finding aids for researching secondary authorities and explore both hard cover and online tools to access secondary source materials.

This lesson is intended to familiarize the reader with Texas legal research and will focus on Texas' primary legal sources: constitution, statutes, legislative history, local legislation, court cases and administrative law. The major finding tools and their various types of updating methods are also explained.

This lesson will help you master legal citations using the Texas Rules of Form, Fifteenth Edition (hereinafter “The Greenbook"), particularly with respect to specific rules of citation for your briefs and legal memoranda. The Greenbook at times refers to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, Twenty First Edition (hereinafter “The Bluebook”), so you may also want to have that handy for use during this lesson.

This lesson is an introduction to researching Virginia law using primary source materials, such as the Code of Virginia, Virginia state caselaw, and the Virginia Administrative Code.

This lesson covers secondary source research for the State of Washington. The lesson introduces students to secondary sources through a hypothetical research problem.

This lesson will introduce you to primary legal materials in Wisconsin. You will learn how to locate Wisconsin constitutional provisions, state statutes, case opinions, and regulations using both print and electronic resources.