Legal Reference

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Legal Reference

The Legal Reference section has books with general legal tips, legal news, books explaining basic legal research, legal dictionaries, and a legal encyclopedia. The online resources include sites that have state and local laws, legal news, legal research instruction, libraries, and selected legal publishers. The "legal research" area offers tips and links to finding aids such as legal dictionaries and encyclopedias. The links to libraries include major Ohio public libraries, law libraries, and depositories of government documents; other U.S. libraries are included. Major publishers of legal content and self-help guides are listed. Their Web sites have catalogs of titles available to purchase.

Books/Print

Legal News | Legal Reference | Legal Research

Legal News

Daily Legal News: This newspaper, begun in 1885, is published every Tuesday through Saturday. It offers legal and business information on the local, state, and national levels.

Legal Reference

Consumer's Guide to Understanding and Using the Law / Daniel Johnson.: Explanation of legal terms in various legal subjects, such as family law, criminal law, real estate law, and personal injury law. Includes a glossary of terms.
CQ’s Desk Reference on American Courts / Patricia G. Barnes.: Anwers over 500 frequently asked questions about state and federal courts.
Everybody's Guide to Small Claims Court / Ralph Warner.: Explains how to prepare and argue a small claims case.
How to Mediate Your Dispute / Peter Lovenheim: An introduction to the mediation process as an alternative to the court system.
How to Try Your Own Case in Court--and Win! / Mel Red Recana: Written by a judge, this book explains how to defend yourself in court.
Jurors' Rights / Jacqueline D. Stanley: An overview of jurors' rights and responsibilities.
Lifetime Family Legal Guide / Steven Mitchell Sack.: Overview of family law, including buying a house, writing a will, making retirement plans, and arranging for child care.
Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory: A popular multi-volume directory of both domestic and international lawyers. A directory of corporate law departments and digests of the laws of the states in the U.S. and countries abroad are included.
Nolo's Everyday Law Book: Answers to Your Most Frequently Asked Legal Questions / The Editors of Nolo Press.: Presents strategies for frequently asked questions regarding areas of law such as wills, credit, debt, social security, child support, and workplace rights.
Power of Attorney Handbook / Edward A. Haman.: A guide to the importance of a Power of Attorney, and how to prepare your own Power of Attorney document.
Represent Yourself in Court: How to Prepare & Try a Winning Case / Paul Bergman & Sara J. Berman-Barrett: This book offers tips on how to act as your own lawyer.
Want's Federal-State Court Directory.: Contains information on the U.S. Supreme Court, Special Courts, Appellate Courts, District Courts, State Courts, and Places of Holding Court.

Legal Research

Instruction | Secondary Sources/Finding Aids

Instruction

Basic Legal Research / Amy Sloan: A detailed introduction to legal research; learn how to generate search terms, develop a research plan, and more.
Legal Research: How to Find and Understand the Law / Stephen Elias and Susan Levinkind; edited by Janet Portman.: Designed for the beginning legal researcher. Provides an overview of legal research with a hypothetical case to demonstrate the process.
Legal Research in a Nutshell / Morris L. Cohen, Kent C. Olson.: Comprehensive overview of legal research aids for statutory, case, and regulatory law. Includes appendices for further state research, and title and subject indexes. The Nutshell series is widely used by law students.

Secondary Sources/Finding Aids

Black's Law Dictionary: Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and Modern / Henry Campbell Black.: Widely used legal dictionary. Includes pronunciation guide, cross references, and citations to statutes, court cases, and other laws.
Dictionary of Legal Terms: A Simplified Guide to the Language of Law / Steven H. Gifis.: Includes a pronunciation guide and cross references to similar terms.
Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations Used in American Law Books / Doris M. Bieber.: Contains abbreviations used in legal encyclopedias, dictionaries, law reports, loose-leaf services, law reviews, legal treatises, legal reference books, citators, and more.
Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage.: Comprehensive guide to legal style and usage. Provides practical advice on how to write clear legal prose.
Dictionary of Selected Legal Terms / Margaret C. Jasper.: Basic dictionary of general legal terms.
Legal Thesaurus / William C. Burton.: Compiled to assist judges, lawyers, and students of the law to communicate more effectively.
West's Encyclopedia of American Law, 12 Vols.: This set includes 10 volumes arranged alphabetically that each have subject and name indexes. Every entry on a legal term is followed by a definition. Selected entries have cross-references and citations. An appendix volume examines important historical developments in U.S. law with the aid of historical documents. The final volume has a dictionary of legal terms, table of cases cited, and cumulative indexes of subjects and names.

Web Sites

State & Local Laws | Legal News | Legal Research | Libraries | Legal Publishers

State and Local Laws

State and Local Government on the Net: From Piper Resources, this page has links to state Web sites, and legislative, judicial, and executive branch information. Within each state, there are links to the Website of counties and cities. Dates of last update are included.
State Legislatures, State Laws and State Regulations: From the Law Librarians' Society of Washington D.C., Inc., this page brings together the Web sites for the state legislatures, along with links to state codes. Important phone numbers are provided, as are commercial sources for state legislative research.
Municode.com: Online Codes: The Municipal Code Corporation has links to various city codes in the United States, though no codes from cities in Ohio are present. These online versions are unofficial.

CNN Law Center: Presents current legal news stories of interest; legal analysis; and links to the FindLaw Supreme Court opinion database and Martindale.com Lawyer Locator.
Court TV: This is the Web site of the cable television channel focusing on legal and criminal justice issues. Top legal news, trial coverage, video, chat, message boards, and more are available.
The Daily Legal News: The online version of the Cleveland newspaper that has provided legal and business information for over 100 years.
Law.com: This legal portal offers full-text legal news from a variety of publications.

Legal Research

Instruction | Secondary Sources

Legal Research Instruction

Introduction to Basic Legal Citation: Written by Peter W. Martin of Cornell Law School, this citation guide is based on the 17th Edition of the "Bluebook." It explains the purposes of legal citation, types of citation rules, how to cite, examples of citation, and more.
Law Library Resource Xchange (LLRX): LLRX was created by law librarians in 1996. The site has content primarily in the areas of legal research, libraries, and technology. An archive, which is searchable, offers many informative articles useful to the general legal researcher.
Public Library Toolkit: Sponsored by the American Association of Law Libraries, this basic guide is intended for librarians, but is useful for library patrons and other legal researchers. A general overview of types of legal resources and the research process is provided.
The Virtual Chase: Legal Research on the Internet: This Web site, maintained by an expert legal researcher, offers articles on legal research, Internet research guides, online teaching tools, and more. Basic and advanced search features are present.

Secondary Sources

Nolo.com: A great resource for the general individual seeking an introduction to the law. There are answers to frequently asked questions in a variety of legal subjects. A legal encyclopedia, legal dictionary, calculators, and links to primary legal materials assist with legal research. Nolo publishes an extensive collection of legal self-help books.
Martindale-Hubbell Attorney Locator: This database contains over one million lawyers and law firms in 160 countries. Patrons may search for a lawyer by name, practice area, geographic location, language, firm size, government agency, corporation, law school affiliation, and law school attended.
Findlaw Dictionary: This dictionary is based on "Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law" ©1996, and is published under license with Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
Law.com Dictionary: Based on "The Real Life Dictionary of the Law" written by Gerald and Kathleen Hill. The dictionary is searchable by legal term, keyword, and by letter of the alphabet.
Zimmerman's Research Guide: This online encyclopedia is searchable by keyword and phrase (within quotes) in either the full text, subject headings only, or the text of entries without subject headings.

Libraries

Ohio County and Law School Libraries: This Web page from the Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries has links to Ohio's law school libraries and selected county law libraries. At least some of the resources in these libraries are generally open to the public, but a fee may be charged for services in some of the libraries.
Ohio Depository Libraries: The Government Documents Department at Bowling Green State University has compiled a comprehensive list of Depository Libraries in Ohio. These libraries include the State Library of Ohio, and mainly academic libraries, academic law libraries, and public libraries.
Ohio Public Libraries: This page from the Ohio Public Library Information Network allows one to locate a public library by choosing a county from a map of Ohio or by searching for a specific library.
U.S. Law Libraries: A collection of links to U.S. county, state, court, and academic law library Web sites from the Google Web Directory.
U.S. Public Libraries: Links to public library Web sites throughout the United States.

Legal Publishers

LexisNexis: One of the premier publishers of legal information in print and online.
Nolo.com: A premier source of legal products designed for the layperson.
Oceana Publications, Inc.: A popular source of legal products designed for the layperson.
Socrates.com: A popular source of legal products designed for the layperson.
Sphinx Publishing: A popular source of legal products designed for the layperson.
Thomson West: One of the premier publishers of legal information in print and online.