Resource Links

westlaw.com	The class of legal research. Westlaw’s search engines and databases provide access to virtually any legal information that a lawyer or a layperson possibly could require in any legal matter. Westlaw permits some free searching of limited databases, but its real meat is in its fee-based materials, which can be accessed through annual contracts or pay as you go arrangements. In either case, Westlaw is quite pricey, but if you need a comprehensive or speedy answer to any legal question, Westlaw’s user-friendly search and retrieval formats and top-notch technical and reference assistance are unmatched by any other site.
lexis.com	A close second. Lexis will provide you with most of what Westlaw does (and a few extras to boot). It also can be less expensive (in some case, much less expensive) than Westlaw, but its searching methodologies are more complex, and the results more difficult to follow and utilize. Lexis was the first "online" legal resource (pre-dating the Internet by more than a decade), so it possesses a loyal following despite Westlaw’s somewhat better research tools. Like Westlaw, Lexis also permits limited free searching, but if you are looking for free research, you’d be better off sticking with the free legal resources discussed above.
loislaw.com	A great deal if it fits. Loislaw is one of the few, if not the only, legal research services that provides a viable, but far less expensive, alternative to Westlaw and Lexis. For large law firms, and even for solo practitioners who litigate frequently, it is hard to imagine that Loislaw could provide sufficiently comprehensive databases to allow for top-notch work. But if you are a transactional attorney, or a non-attorney researching a current legal issue, Loislaw may provide the right compromise between the free resources and the two most expensive fee-based ones.

Findlaw.com	– the king of the freebies. For no charge, Findlaw gives you access to loads of information about federal and State governments, including links to the official sites of their executive, legislative and judicial branches (most of which are also free), and to most federal and state statutes and regulations. Findlaw also hosts one of the best lawyer and related professional search engines, so if you need legal assistance, Findlaw is the place to go. Finally, Findlaw provides access to some, more recent, federal and state court decisions and opinions, but without nearly the comprehensive databases or powerful search engine available only on fee-based sites.
fatty.law.cornell.edu	Legal Information Institute - for legal research, as good as it gets. LII has been around as long as any of the Internet legal databases, and it continues to rank at the top of them. Although the site, which is hosted by Cornell University, does not provide the extensive access to lawyer searches and other non-research links that Findlaw does, it is as good as or better than Findlaw for straight legal research.
Alllaw.com	Particularly good for plaintiffs and their attorneys. Alllaw.com is similar to, but different in some important respects from, Findlaw and LII. Like Findlaw, it provides an easy-to-use lawyer locator as well as some reasonably good legal databases for researching numerous areas of the law. Alllaw, however, relies more on links to other websites (as opposed to its own databases) for much of its research resources — a difference that has its pros and cons. In addition, Alllaw tends to be tailored more towards plaintiffs and their lawyers than the other legal resource sites.
catalaw.com	For international legal issues, weird but worthwhile. Catalaw is not a site that you would turn to for domestic American legal resources or research. Although you can use Catalaw to find or link to just about anything you could locate on other free sites, you would need a while to find it, and might well get distracted by some of the site's other links (e.g., detoxing from religion, or the doomsday clock of cyber-rights) along the way. If, however, you need to research an international legal issue or the domestic laws of a foreign country, Catalaw is a great place to start. Just click the "all" link within the text of the home page, and you go directly to a catalogue of websites from a number of countries around the globe (most of which are available either in English exclusively or together with another language).
Law.com	One of the best for current news and issues. Law.com is really more of a site for lawyers than for laypersons, but if you’re interested in seeing what’s in the legal news nationally or in an individual State, then law.com is the place to start. The site also provides some useful links to free and fee-based legal research and related resource sites (including Loislaw.com, discussed in the fee-based section).