Internet Legal Research
(http://www.GlenPritchard.com/paralegal)

I last taught this class in 2015. This content has not been updated since. Enter “shebang” in the form to see all of the questions and answers.

The goal of this class is to help you feel confident in your ability to solve legal problems at any internet connected computer in the world without relying on paid services like Lexis or Westlaw. We will not try to catalog all websites where legal information may be found. Instead, the goal is to develop a thought process for solving legal problems with free web resources.

We will work through a series of (mostly) real-life problems one section at a time. Each section emphasizes a different type of law:

• Ohio Cases and Courts
• Ohio Statutory Law
• Ohio Procedural Law (Rules)
• Ohio Government
• Cases, Courts, and Statutes in Other States
• Federal Law
• Federal Government Resources
• Investigation

You will have some time to try to solve these problems at your own pace. If you get stuck, ask me for help or move on to another problem. Before moving to the next section of problems, I will give you an “Answer Code” to reveal answers (or at least hints) to help you. Of course, all of the material will be available for you to review on this web page (www.GlenPritchard.com/paralegal) for the remainder of the semester.

Again, getting the right answer is not the goal. The goal is to develop a thought process that can be applied to solving any legal problem you may encounter.

These Legal Research Tutorials and Starting Points may help you get started.

If you are unfamiliar with some of the more advanced features of Web browsers, such as tabs, the ‘find’ feature, and using the shift key to open links in new windows, you should look at my browser tips page to help you use a web browser efficiently.