Building

Better
Briefs
Legal Research &
Citation
Tools on the
Internet

Bonnie Shucha
There is a lot of great legal
information on the Internet.
It’s not always easy to find.
And watch out for the
bad information.
When brief writing, it’s
important that you get it right.
 Evaluating
Web Sources
Who created the site?
What is the
site about?
When was the info
last updated?
From
where is
the info
coming?
Why does
the site exist?
How accurate is

the information?
The Many Faces of
Google
Google
Search Terms in Quotes
Google Scholar
Google Books
Google U.S. Gov’t Search
There is a lot of great legal
information on the Internet.
It’s not all on Google.
The Invisible Web
What Google Finds

0.03%
What Google Can’t Find

84%
Search Engines & the Visible Web

Search engine spider crawls Web starting

with already indexed static pages

Spider encounters link to Webmaster registers

a new static Web page new static Web page
with search engine

Spider follows link

Spider adds new Web page to search engine’s index

Content rendered “visible”
Search Engine Database
Author Title Publication
Search this Database
B. Shucha Searching Wisconsin
Shucha Go Smarter Lawyer

J. Doe Common Marquette

Your search results Law Law Review

1. B. Shucha, “Searching Smarter,”

Wisconsin Lawyer. J.Q. Public Legal ABA
Tech Tips Journal
Search Engines & the Invisible Web
Spider crawls Web starting with
already indexed static pages

Spider encounters database

Query is required to access “dynamic” data

Spider incapable of generating query

Spider stops and cannot index data in database

Content rendered “invisible”
The key is not locating the
answer itself as the first step…
…but in
locating the right database
in which to search for it.
 Federal Law
• GPO Access, http://www.gpoaccess.gov
– U.S. Code, C.F.R., etc. from the Government Printing
Office

• Thomas, http://thomas.loc.gov
– U.S. legislation and other congressional information

• American Law Sources Online (ALSO),

http://www.lawsource.com/also/
– Portal to federal & state cases, statutes, regs, uniform
laws, and more
 Federal Law
• Justia Federal District Court Filings & Dockets,
http://dockets.justia.com/
– Dockets, opinions, orders, etc. since 2004

• FindLaw's Supreme Court Center,

http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/resources.html
– Recent U.S. Supreme Court opinions, orders, briefs,
docket, and more

• FedStats, http://www.fedstats.gov
– Statistics from United States government agencies
 Wisconsin Law
• WisBar State and Federal Legal Resources,
http://www.wisbar.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Legal_Research
– Links to Wisconsin and federal resources

• Wisconsin Briefs,
http://library.law.wisc.edu/elecresources/databases/wb/
– Supreme Court & Court of Appeals briefs since 1992

• Wisconsin Legislative Drafting Records,

http://www.legis.state.wi.us/w3asp/documents/drafting_files.aspx
– Written materials given to or created by the legislative
drafting attorney, 1999 to 2005
 Wisconsin Law
• Wisconsin Legislature Infobases,
http://nxt.legis.state.wi.us/
– Wisconsin statutes, acts, bills, and more

• Wisconsin Online Court Records (CCAP),

http://www.wicourts.gov/casesearch.htm
– Status information for Wisconsin cases
 Journals, News & More
• Badgerlink, http://www.badgerlink.net
– Scholarly & popular journals and newspapers
– Available to Wisconsinites

• Legaltrac, http://wsll.state.wi.us/enterlt.html
– Index of legal periodicals
– Available to WSLL card holders
 Journals, News & More
• MPL Database for Remote Use,
http://www.mpl.org/files/great/bookmark.cfm?Category=82
– D&B Million Dollar Database, CQ Researcher, etc.
– Available to Milwaukee PL card holders

• South Central Library System Online Resources,

http://www.scls.info/resources/
– ReferenceUSA, ProQuest, EBSCO, etc.
– Available to Madison area library card holders
Citation Tools
 CheckCite
Batch Shepardizes your doc & verifies quotes

Free to
LexisNexis
subscribers
 StyleCheck
Ensures citations conform to BlueBook style
 FullAuthority
Builds a table of
authorities from your
document
 Shepard’s Link
Adds links to Lexis, Web and your other docs
Batch KeyCites your document
 Citrus
Auto-corrects citations as you type – MS Word
 Zotero
Collect cites while Web searching

Free!

Supports
BlueBook
Questions?

Bonnie Shucha
Head of Reference
UW Law Library
bjshucha@wisc.edu