Legal Research FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about how to conduct legal research on federal and state law in the U.S.

This FAQ about how to conduct legal research on federal and state law in the U.S. was compiled and written by Mark Eckenwiler with numerous contributions by others.

Copyright 1994, 1996 Mark Eckenwiler. Permission is granted to redistribute this article in its entirety for noncommercial use provided that this copyright notice is not removed or altered. No portion of this work may be sold, either by itself or as part of a larger work, without the express written permission of the author; this restriction covers all publication media, including (but not limited to) CD-ROM.

The author is an attorney admitted to practice in the State of New York and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Having recently moved from NYC to Chicago, he misses Brooklyn to an irrational degree. He is also an amateur genealogist and would appreciate hearing from or about anyone named Eckenwiler, Chmieletzski, Breazeale, or variants thereof.

Special thanks go to Terry Carroll, Mike Godwin, Michael Froomkin, Lori Fox, Larry Kolodney, Simona Nass, and Brian Smith. This FAQ (and its author) benefitted immensely from their helpful insights and criticisms.