Pennsylvania Legal Research 2010

Dittakavi RaoAssociate DirectorDuquesne University School of Law Center for Legal Information/ Allegheny County Law Library

(Copyright 2009)

State Government – www.state.pa.us Appellate Courts – www.aopc.org Allegheny County Court –

www.alleghenycourts.us (Fifth Judicial District) Philadelphia County Court –

http://courts.phila.gov/ (First Judicial District) General Assembly – www.legis.state.pa.us Legislative Reference Bureau – www.palrb.us

Pennsylvania Code – www.pacode.com Pennsylvania Bulletin –

www.pabulletin.com Palawlibrary – www.palawlibrary.com Rao’s Pennsylvania Site –

www.pennsylvanialegalresearch.com MyPLS – www.mypls.com

Allegheny County Bar Association – www.acba.org

Pennsylvania Bar Association – www.pabar.org

Pennsylvania Bar Institute – www.pbi.org Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners –

www.pabarexam.org Pennsylvania CLE – www.pacle.org

Pa.Legal Intelligencer – www.law.com/pa Pa.Law Weekly – www.palawweekly.com Philadelphia Bar Association –

www.philabar.org

Court Structure◦ http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Research/Ct_Struct/state_inc.asp?

STATE=PA Supreme Court

◦ www.aopc.org (select Supreme Court) Superior Court

◦ www.aopc.org (select Superior Court) Commonwealth Court

◦ www.aopc.org (select Commonwealth Court) Trial Courts

◦ www.palawlibrary.com (subscription required). You may use official county court websites.

Cases from Supreme Court are available from 1996 to current. Superior Court cases from 1997 and the Commonwealth Court cases from 1997. Cases are available in pdf (portable document format).

Generally, cases are posted on the same day they are decided.

You can retrieve cases by author (judge),caption (name of the parties), and date.

You can retrieve all appellate court cases from a link “Search contents of opinions and postings from all appellate courts.”

You can also select individual court and retrieve cases.

Trial court cases are published individually in each county court reporter and also in Pennsylvania District and County Reports (Pa D&C reports).

Cases from some counties and complete set of Pa D& C Reports are available from www.palawlibrary.com for fee.

Most of the County Courts have official websites and post cases.

http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Research/Ct_Struct/state_inc.asp?STATE=PA

Supreme Court

Superior Court

Commonwealth Court

LexisOne (www.lexisone.com) provides FREE case law from all 50 state Appellate Courts and Federal Courts.

Cases are available from the last ten years. U.S. Supreme Court cases are from 1781.

You can retrieve cases by using cite or keyword search. You can use Pennsylvania Reporter case cite (581 pa 1) or Atlantic Reporter cite (855 A.2d 648).

Full text of a case is available upon free registration.

General Assembly◦ www.legis.state.pa.us

Legislative Reference Bureau◦ www.palrb.us

Pennsylvania Legislative Service◦ www.mypls.com

Full Text of Bills◦ Available from 1969-70 Regular Session to 2009-10 Regular

Session. Floor Debates (Legislative Journal)

◦ Legislative Journals (Senate) from 1993 Regular Session to 2009 Regular Session. For House 1975 Regular Session to 2009 Regular Session.

Full Text of Acts◦ Statutes At Large from 1682 to 1809 (vol.1-18); Smith’s Laws

from 1700 to 1802 and Pamphlet Laws from 1970 to 2009. Purdon’s Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes

◦ Offered by Westlaw the text of all 79 Titles are available without annotations (no case law and other library references). You can search all titles by phrase/natural language/cite or browse each title.

2009 – 1975Full Text of Acts

Remember this is not annotated Code. No Case Law.

Pennsylvania Bulletin (Weekly publication)◦ www.pabulletin.com

Pennsylvania Code (Loose-leaf binders)◦ www.pennsylvaniacode.com

Research Methods◦ Pennsylvania Bulletin is available from vol.26 (1996) from the

official site (www.pabulletin.com) . You can use search function to find information in all volumes or in a single volume. Also you can browse individual volume.

◦ Pennsylvania Code can be accessed by Search (All or Individual Title) and Browse (Individual Title) methods from the official site (www.pacode.com).

◦ Master Index and Finding Aids (paper) will help in locating information. The code is updated monthly and/or quarterly.

Counties Home Rule Charters

Master IndexPa.Code References To Purdon’s StatutesSections

Release Number and Issue Date

Topic Outline

Agency decisions are available from the agency websites. You can access agency websites from any comprehensive legal website such as Findlaw (www.findlaw.com) or from the Pennsylvania Government website (www.state.pa.us)

LexisNexis and Westlaw has several Pennsylvania Agency decisions databases for fee. A detailed list can be found from the Drexel Law School website (http://www.drexel.edu/law/library/guide-paadmin.htm)

http://www.drexel.edu/law/library/guide-paadmin.htm

Journal conducts annual Survey on Adm. Law.

Members of Pennsylvania Bar Association have free access to InCite that provides

access to LexisNexis

LexisNexis and Westlaw are required subscription. Full Subscription (all databases), package subscription

(state or federal), and transaction (pay as you use) payment methods are available.

Primary Authority materials such as Constitutions, Statutes, Administrative materials, Cases (state & federal), briefs, trial transcriptions, public records, legal periodicals, newspapers, jury instructions, law encyclopedias, legal forms, practitioner guides, texts etc. are available.

Following is the list of secondary materials available in both systems.

Pennsylvania Business LexisNexis Forms Pennsylvania Civil Procedure and Evidence

LexisNexis Forms Pennsylvania Criminal Law LexisNexis Forms Pennsylvania Employment Law LexisNexis Forms Pennsylvania Estates and Probate LexisNexis

Forms Pennsylvania Family Law LexisNexis Forms Pennsylvania Litigation LexisNexis Forms Pennsylvania Personal Injury LexisNexis Forms

Pennsylvania Real Estate LexisNexis Forms All Pennsylvania LexisNexis Forms Dunlap Hanna – Business Law Forms &

Commentary Dunlap Hanna – Civil Procedure & Evidence Law

Forms & Commentary Dunlap Hanna – Criminal Law Forms &

Commentary Dunlap Hanna – Estates and Probate Law Forms &

Commentary Dunlap Hanna – Family Law Forms & Commentary

Dunlap-Hanna Pennsylvania Forms Ohlbaum on the Pennsylvania Rules of Evidence Pennsylvania Benchbook for Criminal Proceedings Pennsylvania Business Law Encyclopedia Pennsylvania Civil Practice Pennsylvania Civil Procedure & Evidence

Encyclopedia (PLE) Pennsylvania Criminal Law Encyclopedia Pennsylvania Domestic Relations Forms Pennsylvania Estates and Probate Law

Encyclopedia (PLE)

Pennsylvania Evidence Courtroom Manual Pennsylvania Family Law Encyclopedia (PLE) Pennsylvania Law Encyclopedia Pennsylvania Personal Injury/Torts Law

Encyclopedia (PLE) Pennsylvania Tax Practice Insights Pennsylvania Real Estate Law Encyclopedia Pennsylvania Transaction Forms LexisNexis Pennsylvania Transactions Guide – Business

Forms Pennsylvania Transactions Guide – Estates & Law

& Forms

Pennsylvania Transactions Guide – Family Law

Pennsylvania Transactions Guide – Real Estate Forms

Pennsylvania Transactions Guide – Legal Forms

Remick’s Pennsylvania Orphans’Court Practice

Admissibility of Evidence: A Manual for Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers (PAAOE)

Goodrich Amram 2d (GOODRICH) Goodrich Amram 2d – Construction Law (GOODRICH-CSTR) NBI CLE PA Estate Planning and Probate (NBI-PAEPP) NBI CLE PA Family Law (NBI-PAFL) NBI CLE PA Business Organizations (NBI-PABUS) NBI CLE PA Real Property (NBI-PARP) Pennsylvania Business Organizations Forms, Clauses, and

Checklists (PA-BUSFORM) Pennsylvania Practice Series: Discovery (PAPRAC-DISC) Pennsylvania – Criminal Litigation Combined (PA-CRIMLIT)

Pennsylvania Contracts/Commercial law Forms, Clauses, and Checklists (PA-CMLFORM)

Pennsylvania DUI Forms, Checklists & Clauses (PA-DUIFORM) Pennsylvania Estate Planning & Probate Texts (PAEP-TEXTS) Pennsylvania Family Forms, Clauses, and Checklists (PA-FAMFORM) Pennsylvania Forms: Business & Commercial (PAFORMS-BUS) Pennsylvania Forms: Family (PAFORMS-FAM) Pennsylvania Forms (West’s) (PAFORMS) Westlaw eforms: Pennsylvania Federal Courts (PAFD-FRMS) Westlaw eforms: Pennsylvania State and Federal Courts and

Agencies (PA-FRMS-ALL) Westlaw eforms: Pennsylvania State Courts and Agencies (PA-

FRMS) Pennsylvania Personal Injury Texts & Legal Forms (PAPI-TLF)

Pennsylvania Practice Library (PAPRACLIB) Pennsylvania Practice Series – Family Law (PAPRAC-FAM) Pennsylvania Texts, Periodicals, and Legal Forms (PA-TPLF) Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Law and Practice (PAPRAC-

WC) Pennsylvania/National Transactional Forms (PA-TRANSFORMS) Pennsylvania Real Property Forms, Clauses, and Checklists (PA-

RPFORM) Pennsylvania: Standard Pennsylvania Practice: Family (SPP-FAM) Pennsylvania: Summary of PA Jurisprudence (PAJUR) Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Forms, Checklists & Clauses

(PA-WCFORM)

When in doubt go to the library