Free Legal Information on the Web

First, as a lawyer I have to say this: no attorney-client relationship is created between me and you by me contributing this to Gizmo's website. My advice is general and may not apply to you; you should always consult your own attorney. I am licensed to practice law only in Washington State and publishing this essay on the Internet does not constitute the practice of law anywhere.

The Best General Resources

The best single website for legal site links in the United States is www.findlaw.com. I can't comment about sites in other countries because I don't know much about them, but I'd be glad for tips about this or any other topic that would improve this essay; e-mail me at JBNForeman@Gmail.com.

The IRS has always been a leader in making information and forms available freely and conveniently on the web, at www.irs.gov – you can fill in forms online and then download them as PDF files.

My favorite sources to find federal statutory law are  www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html and uscode.house.gov (no "www.").

For the latest Supreme Court briefs and opinions, see www.supremecourtus.gov.

Litigation Resources

When you're in litigation (suing or being sued), it's important to remember five things.

(1.) Usually facts are more important than the law, and we all know how useful the web can be in finding information. Don't forget the Wayback Machine, which archives snapshots of the web over time: www.archive.org/index.php. The Wayback Machine is very helpful when you want to find web pages defendants took down when they realized the pages could hurt them in court.

(2.) Judges are more interested in doing the right thing than they are in following the law, so don't get so involved trying to prove you should win according to the law that you forget to argue why you should win because that's what right.

(3.) All law is local, and the law changes all the time. You need to find the latest law that applies to your case, and the web is a great leveler for this – you can do what the lawyers in your jurisdiction do; research the law on the web.

(4.) Finding the law is not easy. Legislatures enact statutes, but in the end it's the appellate judges who decide what the law is. Never just read your state's Code and think you've found the law; use the code sections you think apply to your case as search queries to find "cases" – published decisions of your state's appellate courts interpreting the code. And even in code states, most of "the law" is created by the appellate courts and can't be found anywhere in the Code. Remember that later decisions trump earlier decisions and decisions of your state's Supreme Court trump decisions from the lower courts. If your state's lower appellate courts are organized by geographical areas and opinions differ, be sure you are citing a decision from the court in your area.

Reading the latest published decisions in your jurisdiction is the best way to find the law, but don't be surprised if the decisions are not logically consistent. Cite the cases you like, but be sure to also discuss the cases you don't like and argue why they should not apply to your case.

Warning: in almost all jurisdictions, you will also find "unpublished decisions" from the lower appellate courts; these can be good sources for concise statements of law and citations to the best published cases on point, but unpublished decisions cannot be cited as authority in support of statements about what the law is for your case – you must use the published decisions.

Here’s a cheap way to do legal research: contact the law review at your local law school and hire one of those brainy law students to do it for you; they have free access to Lexis and Westlaw, two online legal research services that are not free for you.

(5.) There's no substitute for a good lawyer. Do-it-yourself litigation is a high-risk strategy; the only good thing about it is trial judges bend over backwards to be fair to pro se's (non-lawyer litigants who represent themselves).

Self Help Resources

If you are really too poor (as opposed to too cheap) to hire a lawyer, call your local County Bar Association for a referral to a free lawyer. If you can afford to spend a few hundred dollars to win your case, hire a lawyer to advise you while you do the work. Most lawyers in private practice will meet once with potential clients for little or no charge, but you should be realistic about how much help you can get if you don't sign up as a paying client.

In most jurisdictions, poor people can get an order allowing them to litigate in forma pauperis (IFP). The usual model form IFP order simply waives fees, but you can probably get a judicial officer's signature on the order after you've added language ordering your County Sheriff to serve process for you in your county (and file proofs of service) at no charge, and ordering the Court Clerk to give you two certified copies of every document in the court's file for your case at no charge.

Confused about where to go in the courthouse? You will probably find a court called  Ex Parte. Take your proposed orders there, and they will either sign them or tell you which court you should go to. Otherwise go to the Clerk's office; they will tell you where to take your papers. Many courthouses also have people who will help you for no charge, such as the Family Law Facilitators in many counties of my state, Washington.

Do-it-yourself lawyering works best when you're doing something that only requires filling in a form and sending it to the right address; in many situations, you can do this on the web. But there are still pitfalls for the unwary. For example: in Washington, you can start a business on the State's website (paying fees by credit card), but if your business is in Seattle, you still need to get a business license from the city. Be careful! And be sure to go to the source and get the latest form.

In your state, there should be at least seven good sources of legal information and services on the web:

(1.) Attorneys in your state are licensed by the (your State's name) State Bar Association. You shouldn't have any trouble finding the Bar's website by using a search engine. The Bar's website will have a lot of useful information, including links to other good legal websites in your jurisdiction and information about attorneys.

(2.) Attorneys also belong to voluntary bar associations, organized by locality (typically by county, such as the King County Bar Association for the Seattle area) or by practice area (such as the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association). There are also national bar associations, such as the American Bar Association or the American Trial Lawyers Association. I think by now all these bars have websites, which can be especially useful when you're looking for a lawyer.

(3.) The federal government, the states, and local governments also have their websites, organized by branch of government: legislatures, executive branches, and the judicial branch, such as your state's court system and also your local courts (there will probably be three levels of courts: county courts of general jurisdiction, county courts of limited jurisdiction, and municipal courts) -- and don't forget the fourth branch of government: administrative agencies, that make rules, issue licenses, decide cases with administrative law judges, etc; the agencies have websites, too. There are also specialty government legal websites, such as PACER (bankruptcy cases, pacer.psc.uscourts.gov – no "www") and the Immigration and Naturalization Service's website, www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis, which includes excellent, detailed information in plain English about visas.

Here in Washington, almost everybody in our state government is on the web; for example, when P sues D in the King County Superior Court, you can read the court's case file on the web (with a few exceptions) and download PDF copies of almost all file documents for a small per-page charge. Many documents recorded in King County(such as sales of land) are available on the web for free download. In Washington, you can find a corporation's registered agent (for service of process), adult criminal histories, the Seattle Municipal Code, and a wide variety of other legal information on the web, all for free and usually easily searchable.

You can also find the e-mail address of the people in government who are in charge of specific things, and often an e-mail sent to the right person gets faster and better results than a lawsuit. If a government agency is related to something you're interested in, that agency almost certainly has a website that will be useful.

My state's court system's website has a great collection of forms to download – but remember: they only apply here in Washington. Washington's Superior Courts also allow document filing by uploading PDF files (with a few exceptions), and many judges in King County will hear motions made by e-mail. Your state's courts probably have a lot of these features on their websites, too, and it never hurts to ask your judge's bailiff what you can send to the judge by e-mail (or PDF attachment) sent to the bailiff – remember to always CC all the other attorneys of record in your case – and most lawyers these days are OK with serving documents on each other as PDF attachments to e-mails.

(4.) Other people and organizations have useful law-related websites, too, especially the law schools; be sure to check the websites for all your state's law schools. Here in Washington, an association of local governments created the first website where people could read, for free, the published decisions of our state's Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal, which is where you find Washington law, http://www.legalwa.com/.

Many lawyers have created excellent websites, full of good information including legal forms – this public service not only attracts clients by demonstrating expertise, it's also the way to get your website ranked high by the search engines without paying them to move you up. You find these websites by using a search query such as "divorce and 'King County'" or "bankruptcy and Seattle." Many attorney yellow pages ads include their website addresses.

Associations of all sorts often have useful legal information on the websites, sometimes available to non-members, and sometimes you can hack in without being a member by adding "/index.html" to the website's name (the Apache default). For example, your state's realtors association probably has all the many forms you need to buy or sell a house available for free download on their website.

(5.) There are many helpful people and organizations who have created websites especially for non-lawyers who are trying to do their own legal work, and many of these websites are very useful, with forms, information, advice, and/or links to other websites. For example, here in Washington, the Northwest Justice Project has an excellent website that covers many areas of civil litigation. But you need to be a sophisticated consumer; many of these non-lawyer websites are full of obsolete (or just plain wrong) “information" and bad advice; as is always true on the web, be careful! If there's a lot of partisan ranting and raving, you should be skeptical about their "information" and advice, and if it sounds crazy, it probably is.

(6.) Especially in litigation, there are a lot of legal service companies that have websites: legal messengers, process servers, court reporters, attorneys service organizations that sell forms and do things (such as receive your court filings by fax and then file them for you), etc. These are the services attorneys use, and you can use them, too. Many of these websites also have useful information and forms available for free download. The forms attorneys purchase from their service companies probably will be better than the ones you can buy in general business supply stores, and usually also will be cheaper.

(7.) More and more attorneys are practicing law on the web. I've seen lawyers' websites where you can ask a question and get it answered by e-mail for a small fee, or have forms prepared and sent to you as e-mail attachments. Some attorneys have websites to help people who don't want to hire a full-service lawyer but do want to pay for help, anything from drafting documents to arranging face-to-face consultations or limited representation in court. I'll bet there are lawyers in your jurisdiction who are doing this in a wide variety of practice areas. Finding them might require some time spent using your favorite search engine, because the more traditional law firms have paid to be listed high – draft your search query carefully and/or be prepared to search through many pages of results.

Miscellaneous resources

(1.) "Objection, hearsay!"

We've all heard that in movies and on TV, but what does it mean?

"Hearsay" is a statement made outside the courtroom that a party wants to introduce as evidence so as to prove the truth of what was said. This includes print-outs from web pages.

Why is hearsay a problem? The speaker wasn't under oath and on the record, and the other parties can't cross-examine.

But hearsay is often great evidence -- very persuasive -- if you can get it admitted.

How can you get hearsay into evidence?

I can't write a treatise on hearsay or other evidence rules here. Prof. Edward J. Imwinklereid's "Evidence Foundations" is a fun read, which can be comprehended by non-laywers, with a lot of good examples of how you get your evidence admitted over objection. (My favorite part is when illustrates how to qualify an expert witness: a little boy who collects frogs and knows what kind of frogs are found in his neighborhood.) You can probably order this book from your local library via inter-library loan, and it might be available for anybody to read at your local law school.

A legal publisher, now known as Thomson West, publishes useful treatises for attorneys, which you can probably understand. Be sure to look at the back of these books, for paperback supplements known as pocket parts, where you'll find updates since the book was published. Your state's evidence treatise is probably easily available at your local library, and should certainly be available in the library at your courthouse.

To get back to hearsay -- your state's rules of evidence probably include a few dozen hearsay exceptions; try to find one that will allow you to introduce your hearsay evidence as an exception. The most important exception is an admission against interest by a party opponent.

Here is another example of a hearsay exception: how much was your old car worth before the Defendant totaled it?

You can find out at Kelly Blue Book online: www.kbb.com. Print out the result and offer it as evidence.

"Objection!" says the lawyer the Defendant's insurance company hired, "hearsay!"

But you say, "exception 803(17), Your Honor; it's a market report." (or whatever the exception number this is in your state)

Isn't it fun playing lawyer in a real courtroom?

But the fun can stop real fast if the other side objects to an exhibit you need to win your case and you don't know how to answer; this is one reason why I recommend consulting a real lawyer, who can help you identify the evidence you need to win and explain how to get it admitted at trial. Warning: there are many different legal specialities, and few lawyers are genuinely competent outside their own speciality. Fewer than 10% of attorneys do almost all the trials, so be sure you're talking to somebody who regularly tries cases.

Here's one tip for a situation that comes up a lot:

Somebody sends you an e-mail. You print it out and offer it as evidence. "Objection, hearsay!"

If you don't have anything better, try: "Not offered for its truth, Your Honor, but to show that the words were said."

(2.) electronic evidence generally

Evidence retrieved from computers or the Internet (such as printed-out e-mails) is increasingly important in court, but there are usually many hurdles you have to jump over to get it admitted. A recent opinion written by a federal judge analyzing these evidentiary issues is attracting a lot of attention and is a good place to start, but if you find it difficult to read, try the summaries written for lay readers that many lawyers are posting on the Internet; just use the case name as your search query.

The full cite is: Lorraine v. Markel American Insurance Co., 241 F.R.D. 534 (D. Md., 2007). You can download the case for free by using the full cite as your search query.

(3.) This tip is for attorneys and others concerned about privacy.

Two free applets available at the Microsoft Download Center, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/

1. Office 2003 Add-in: Word Redaction v1.2
-- adds a redaction toolbar that is very useful for attorneys and others concerned about keeping data private (sometimes required by court rules)

As court files become more available on the Internet, courts are requiring the redaction of more private information from documents filed; this free redacter makes it easy. Notice that the old-fashioned way to redact -- use a black Marks-al-lot to cover text -- often doesn't work; you can still read what's been "covered." I've heard that some federal courts are requiring the use of this free tool from Microsoft. I assume a Vista version will be available eventually.

2.  Office 2003/XP Add-in: Remove Hidden Data
-- adds a convenient button to remove metadata, such as changes that were saved so they could be restored by "undo."

Lawyers are getting really sophisticated about looking for metadata when somebody sends them a file, and it can be really interesting to read the earlier versions of documents.

And here's an important consideration, if you want to make it harder for the other side to introduce into evidence computer files obtained by discovery; one of the ways you can authenticate a file, so you can enter it into evidence, is by analysis of metadata, which typically includes information about who created the file and when. Routinely removing metadata makes it harder for the other side to use your files against you as evidence in court.

(4.) discovery and requests for admission

Discovery is the process by which you get information from party opponents, either by requesting it in writing or by examining witnesses under oath prior to trial. You don't have to be a lawyer to conduct discovery, and it's the way lawyers collect a lot of the evidence they use at trial. Be sure to use requests for admission; if the other party admits a statement is true, you an offer that admission as evidence at trial and the other party can't deny it -- and if the other party won't admit the truth of a statement that is a necessary part of your case, and you go on to prove it at trial, the judge should order the other party to reimburse you for your costs of proving the fact. But to be useful, requests for admission have to be carefully written; here's another area where consulting a trial specialist can be money well spent.

On the lighter side

Here's a funny story to reward you for reading all the way to the end.

Recently my state's largest newspaper (the Seattle Times) hired a high-powered downtown Seattle law firm to conduct a holy war on sealed files (court files that can't be read by anybody except parties and their attorneys).

The Times moved to unseal about four dozen case files. I was one of only two attorneys to beat the Times and keep my case's file sealed. I distracted the attorney for the Times by saying service of their motion to unseal on me was bad service because I couldn't reach my client; she had moved without telling me where. The other lawyer promptly located somebody with her name on the web and sent me a web page with "her" work address and phone number.

Instead of responding directly, I Googled the lawyer's name, found a gay porn star with the same name, e-mailed the lawyer a web page from a fan site where somebody was gushing about the size of "his" penis, and asked him: is that you? Are you moonlighting as a porn star?

The web can help you litigate in all sorts of ways! Have fun, and as my mom always said: "play nice, but win!"

Joshua Foreman

Attorney at Law