How to Search State Materials

Searching Individual State Material Collections

With the exception of the LII's collection of the decisions of the New York Court of Appeals and its American Legal Ethics Library, the judicial opinions, statutes, regulations and other legal materials accessible from these pages are maintained by other institutions. Most provide some form of full text search, but the search engines and appropriate strategies of search vary widely. We suggest that when you access a state law site for the first time you read any available guidance on use of its searchable index if you encounter any difficulty with your search.

Finding Relevant State Material Using the LII "Law About ..." Pages

Instead of proceeding straight to the judicial opinions or statutes of a particular state, you may find it useful to begin with the most relevant page in the LII's "Law About ..." collection. Those pages provide links back to state material but put it in context and will also direct you to pertinent uniform laws and federal material.

State Statutes by Topic

If your interest is in a matter likely to be addressed by a state statute, the LII editors may have done some of your work for you. Have a look at the LII's state statutes by topic page which gathers together statute statutes that are on the Net, topic by topic.