Google Scholar Offers Free Case Law

Google Scholar now offers free case law. You can find and read full-text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state courts, including district, appellate, and supreme court opinions, through Google Scholar. Opinions can be searched by case name, subject topics, or other queries that you are interested in.

To conduct a search, go to Google Scholar, click on the "Legal opinions and journals" button, then enter your query. Your search results will include links to complete opinions.

The "Advanced Scholar Search" options allow you to set your default search on your computer to: all legal opinions and journals; only US federal court opinions; or whichever state(s) you wish, such as "only California."

You can explore cited and related cases using the "Cited by" and "Related articles" links on the search result pages, too. As you read an opinion, you can even view other cases to which it refers by clicking on the linked citation within the opinion.

You can also see how individual cases have been quoted or discussed in other opinions and in articles from law journals. Browse these by clicking on the "How Cited" link next to the case title.

http://scholar.google.com/

The above information was provided by Tina at the San Diego County Public Law Library. Law librarians work diligently to assist us in the pursuit of resources on behalf of our clients. Show your thanks to the courts and library personnel during this holiday season by showing your support their fundraising and book/food/clothing drives.