The following is a selected list of legal and government portals and search engines, though the categories often overlap. The portals organize a massive amount of information into categories, and offer search capabilities. The search engines are useful as a beginning point in research. A search engine is an alternative for information not easily found through the categories of this pathfinder or the portals. The subjects of law and government are technically inseparable because government entities are responsible for laws. However, the "legal" portals tend to focus on specific legal subjects and legal problems, while the "government" portals focus on political institutions and issues.

All Law

This site has links to state, federal, and international laws. A lawyer locator can assist in finding an attorney. There are overviews of legal topics. such as bankruptcy and family law, legal forms, and information about legal organizations and law schools. Business and other non-legal news is also included.

American Law Sources On-line

This site contains a wealth of legal information for each of the U.S. states. The links are to law, commentary, and legal practice. Canadian law is also available here, as is a link to Mexican law.

FindLaw

A very popular subject directory/search engine among a variety of audiences. FindLaw has separate sections for the public, business, legal professionals, and law students. The section for the public includes housing, autombile, personal injury, crime, government and politics, family, money, work, immigration, and lawyers and legal services. FindLaw can be searched in various categories, including a legal dictionary, legal news, government Web sites, the Supreme Court, U.S. Federal Circuit Courts, the U.S. Code, and Constitution.

Hieros Gamos

This portal serves a variety of audiences through different "Centers." These include Legal Employment, Law News, Law Library, Law Student, Law Business, Law Consumer, and Law Practice Centers. There are links to U.S. law, International law, and legal associations, legal consultants, and more.

Internet Legal Research Group

According to its home page, ILRG has an "index of more than 4,000 select web sites in 238 nations, islands, and territories..." ILRG has an archive of over 1,750 legal forms. The site's main subject divisions are the legal profession, law school, and legal research.

JURIST: The Legal Education Network

This Web site has links in several areas: studying law, legal news, legal research, legal scholarship, teaching law, and world law. JURIST is edited by law professors.

Law.com

The legal profession is the primary intended audience, but the site offers useful information for the public. The full-text of news articles regarding legal issues is available. The site has content for law students and librarians. A Supreme Court Monitor is available, as is limited content from the Practice Centers.

Government

FirstGov

The first official search engine of the U.S. Government, FirstGov's offers online services for citizens, businesses, and governments. A page features answers to Frequently Asked Questions of the U.S. Government. The site also has important contact information.

Google Unclesam

This is a pure search engine without subject categories to select from. It searches government Web sites; there are search tips, an advanced search option, and a choice of languages to specify for searching results. Similar to the general Google search engine, Google Unclesam generally produces highly relevant results.

GovEngine.com

Includes an extensive collection of links to government Web sites at the federal, state, and local levels.

GovSpot

This government portal includes links to extensive information primarily regarding the United States, but also to other countries. The federal government, state government, government news, government reports, historical documents, important issues, and trivia are just some of the areas covered here. Social services, justice and the military, money, science and travel, and world affairs are other areas related to government included here.

Political Information.com

This Web site has links to various political portals, news sites, information on political parties, campaigns, and grassroots efforts, and to sites focused on specific political issues. Each of these areas of information are searchable.

Portals to the World

This Web page from the Library of Congress has links to information about many countries of the world. Government, legal, business, education, geography, health, religion, science, and history are some of the categories for many of the countries listed.