Legal Research Resources for the Public: Finding Legal Resources

State Court Decisions

Michigan

Michigan Supreme Court decisions since 1847 are published in Michigan Reports. 

• The Library carries Michigan Reports in print.
• Supreme Court decisions since June 2008 are freely available on the Michigan Courts website.

Michigan Court of Appeals decisions are published online and in print.

• Search for Michigan Court of Appeals opinions on the Michigan Courts website.
• The regional reporter North Western Reporter (N.W. & N.W.2d) includes Michigan Court of Appeals decisions.

Michigan Digest and Michigan Digest 2d contain abstracts or summaries of Michigan court decisions, arranged by subject. Start with the general index to find cases relevant to a particular subject.

Other State Courts

• Google Scholar allows users to search and read published opinions of U.S. state appellate and supreme court cases since 1950
• National Center for State Courts directory of State Court Websites provides judicial branch links for each state. Opinions may be available in PDF on these sites.
• The Library carries digests for the states California, Illinois, Florida, and New York.
  • For all other states, use the Decennial and General Digests (REF COLL) or Nexis Uni.

• Appellate decisions of state courts are often published both by the individual state in official state reporters, as well as in regional reporters (which are published by West). Regional reporters and their abbreviations are as follows:

  • Atlantic Reporter (A. & A.2d)
  • North Western Reporter (N.W. & N.W.2d) 
  • North Eastern Reporter (N.E. & N.E.2d)
  • Pacific Reporter (P., P.2d, & P.3d)
  • Southern Reporter (So., So.2d, & So.3d)
  • South Eastern Reporter (S.E. & S.E.2d)
  • South Western Reporter (S.W., S.W.2d, & S.W.3d)

Federal

General

• Google Scholar allows users to search and read published opinions of U.S. state appellate and supreme court cases since 1950; U.S. federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy court cases since 1923; and U.S. Supreme Court cases since 1791.
• Cornell's Legal Information Institute provides a searchable archive of federal court opinions, including U.S. Supreme Court opinions from 1990-present. Also includes a collection of 631 historic Supreme Court decisions.
• Federal Court Locator, from the Villanova University School of Law, provides links to sites that contain recent opinions from federal courts. 
• Findlaw has a searchable database of U.S. Supreme Court opinions, and a Case Summary search for lower court opinions since 2000.

• Digests contain abstracts or summaries of court decisions, arranged by subject. Start with the general index to find cases relevant to a particular subject.The following federal digests are all located in the underground library:

  • Federal Digest (cases before 1939)

  • Modern Federal Practice Digest (1940 - 1961)

  • Federal Practice Digest 2d (1961 - 1975)

  • Federal Practice Digest 3d (1975 - 1997)

  • Federal Practice Digest 4th (1997 - present)

  • United States Supreme Court Digest (1754 - present) 

  • Federal and state cases can be found in the Century, Decennial, and General digests. 

U.S Supreme Court Cases.

• The library carries the official United States Reports (abbreviated U.S.) under call number KF 101.
• Court opinions since 1991 are freely available on the SCOTUS website.
  • Includes Court rules, slip opinions for the current term, PDF copies of the bound United States Reports, and "sliplist" advance sheets (with links to opinions) for previous terms not yet published in a bound volume. 
• Nexis Uni coverage of SCOTUS decision dates from 1789-current. Lexis publishes the "Lawyers' Edition" of SCOTUS cases, abbreviated L. Ed.
• HeinOnline carries the U.S. Reports Vols. 1-566 (1754-2012).

Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal. 

• West publishes the unofficial reporters containing these opinions, called Federal Reporters. 
  • The Federal Reporter (F.) ran from 1880 to 1924. Federal Reporter, Second Series (F.2d) began in 1924 and ended in September 1993. The most recent series, the Federal Reporter, Third Series, (F.3d), began in October 1993.
  • The Library carries Federal Reporters under call number KF 105.
• Nexis Uni carries certain United States Courts of Appeal opinions dating from 1789-current.
• Check individual Circuit Court websites for freely available opinions.
  • Use U.S. Court Locator to find a particular federal court website.

Federal District (Trial) Courts. 

• West also publishes unofficial reporters containing these opinions, called Federal Supplements.
  • The first Federal Supplement (F. Supp.) ran 1933-1998. Federal Supplement, Second Series (F. Supp.2d) ran 1998-2014. Federal Supplement, Third Series (F. Supp. 3d) runs 2014-current.
  • The library carries Federal Supplements under call number KF 120.
• Nexis Uni carries certain cases of United States District Courts for all 50 States from 1789 to current.

Michigan Statutes

Michigan Compiled Laws (MCL) is the official codification of statutes by the state of Michigan.

• Two commercial versions in print:
  • Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated (MCLA) (Ref Coll  KFM 4230 1948 .A44 and Smith KFM 4230 1948 .A44)
  • Michigan Compiled Laws Service (MCLS) (Smith KFM 4225.2 2001x)
• Online on the Michigan Legislature website

Session Laws

• Michigan Legislature website provides access to Public Acts dating back to 1998.
• The Law Library holds Michigan Public Acts dating from 1835-2007.
• HeinOnline Session Laws includes state session laws. Available on U-M campus.

Federal Statutes

• Congress.gov, the official website for U.S. federal legislative information, is a great resource for finding new public laws, pending bills, the status of bills, and committee reports and hearings. Full text legislation is available from 1989 (101st Congress) to present; bill summary/status information is available from 1973-present. 
• Legal Information Institute provides no-cost access to many U.S. primary federal legal sources, including the U.S. Code, U.S. Supreme Court opinions, the Uniform Commercial Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. LII's collection of state legal materials includes Internet-accessible sources of constitutions, statues, judicial opinions, and regulations. 
• Office of the Law Revision Counsel prepares and publishes the U.S. Code; offers several options for accessing both current and historical editions of the U.S. Code, in both HTML and PDF format. The OLRC also publishes U.S. Code Classification Tables, which can be used to show where public laws will be enacted into the U.S. Code and which sections of the Code have been amended by those laws.
• Govinfo provides full-text access to the U.S. Code (1994-present), Public and Private Laws (1995-present), the Code of Federal Regulations (1996-present), the Federal Register (1994-present), the Congressional Record (1994-present), and other government documents published by the U.S. Government Printing Office
• Catalog of U.S. Government Publications is a searchable database of official United States government publications including those in electronic format on the Internet.
• HeinOnline U.S. Code includes the current U.S. Code and past versions. 
• These commercially published, unofficial editions are annotated and can be found in the Library.
  • United States Code Service
  • United States Code Annotated

Session Laws

• U.S. Government Publishing Office. Federal session law from 1993-present can be found here. Freely available.
• HeinOnline Session Laws. Available on U-M campus.

Other States

• Legal Information Institute provides no-cost access to many U.S. primary federal legal sources, including the U.S. Code, U.S. Supreme Court opinions, the Uniform Commercial Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. LII's collection of state legal materials includes Internet-accessible sources of constitutions, statues, judicial opinions, and regulations. 
• National Conference of State Legislators' Legislatures at a Glance tool provides access to state legislative materials; where available, includes access to statutes, bills, and state constitutions.
• Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC. State Legislatures, State Laws, and State Regulations: Website Links and Telephone Numbers
• Nexis Uni. Available on U-M campus.

State Administrative Materials

The following print materials provide information regarding state administrative materials:

• The Book of the States is a survey of the officers, agencies, functions, practices and statistics in all the states.
• State Yellow Book provides names and addresses of state administrative personnel.
• Guide to State Legislation, Legislative History, and Administrative Materials is a source for finding legislative and administrative materials for each state.
  • Also available digitally on the U-M campus through HeinOnline.

Michigan

Administrative Code

• The current Michigan Administrative Code is online and can be searched by department and by numeric range.
• The Office of Regulatory Reinvention website provides information on how to use the Michigan Administrative Code.

Agencies

• The State of Michigan website lists descriptions of and links to the various governmental departments.
• The Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules website links to Decisions, Digests & Opinions of state administrative bodies.

Federal

Agencies

• Federal Administrative Agency Decisions & Other Actions, provided by the University of Virginia Library; links to web-accessible administrative decisions and opinions, arranged by agency and by subject. Availability of material varies by agency.
• Regulations.gov allows users to find and comment on proposed regulations and related documents. Also contains final regulations, notices, scientific and technical findings, guidance, adjudications, and comments submitted by others. 
• USA.gov is a gateway site providing access to all online U.S. government resources (federal, state and local). Includes an A-Z list of government agencies. 

Federal Register

• Freely available on the FR website, including issues dating back to 1994.
• The U.S. Government Publishing Office website provides free access to issues of the Federal Register from 1980-current in full-text, PDF searchable and/or browseable format 
• Federal Register Index, published monthly, is available in the Library. Each month's index cumulates those earlier in the year. For past years there is an annual index. Entries are arranged by agency.
• CIS Federal Register Index published weekly and cumulated periodically (1984-1998) REF COLL KF 70 .A2 Index 
• National Archives provides access to the Federal Register, as well as information about its organization and uses

Code of Federal Regulations

• Find the CFR in paper in the Library Reference Collection.
• Search using the CFR Index and Finding Aids, the paper index that comes with the CFR, in one volume. 
• Use the "Parallel Table of Authorities and Rules" (in the above Index and Finding Aids) to find regulations relating to a statute or presidential proclamation. 
• The Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR) has the current CFR and is freely available online.
  • Allows for browsing by Title and both simple and advanced searching.
• The U.S. Government Publishing Office website provides access to the Code of Federal Regulations from 1996-current, as well as the CFR Index and Finding Aids.