New York Official Reports: Legal Research Portal
If you are trying to learn how to use the LRB website or Thomson Reuters Westlaw to find NY court decisions, please refer to our Electronic Resources User Guide. It contains information about what content we offer and how to find it online.
Court Resources and Links
There are numerous resources available for learning about the various court systems in New York and the rest of the United States. We've compiled a list of websites for your convenience below. We also provide links to other imporant agencies on our other sites of interest page.
Table of Contents
New York State Court Resources
New York State Agency Resources
New York State Legislative Resources
New York City & Other Local Sites
Ethics Resources
Federal Legal Resources
Comprehensive Legal Services
Miscellaneous Resources
Legal Writing Resources: Clarity, Plain English, Grammar, Punctuation, Diction
New York State Court Resources
Comprehensive and searchable collection of state court decisions and motions dating from 2000
The past and present of New York's high court along with recent decisions
Cases against the State of New York
Court information, rules and publications, featuring E-Courts case searching and tracking
Catalogs of court libraries, records & briefs, trial transcripts
Criminal charges to New York State juries and baseline colloquy scripts
A compilation of New York's existing evidentiary rules.
Large library of NY judiciary historical documents, biographies of Judges, and profiles of state courts
Forms for various state actions and proceedings
Rules of various state courts
New York State Agency Resources
Complete unofficial NYCRR
Fully searchable archive of NYCRR dating 1945 through 2001
Access to a variety of state government information including agency publications
Links to many state agencies
Home of Excelsior, an exhaustive catalog of state government documents
Including the 2015 International Codes:
Residential,
Building,
Existing Building,
Plumbing,
Mechanical,
Fuel Gas,
Fire,
Property Maintenance and
Energy Conservation Codes and Additional Uniform Code Provisions (19 NYCRR parts 1220-1229)
New York administrative rules from 2003
Local Laws adopted by the legislative body of a local government (county, city, town or village) are filed with the Department of State pursuant to section 27 of the Municipal Home Rule Law. The NY Department of State maintains an electronic database of local laws and county codes filed after 1998 and 2015, respectively.
Selected state agency opinions, decisions, codes and regulations
New York State Legislative Resources
Check bill text and status of current state bills
Collection of state legislative resources, including Senate and Assembly debate transcripts
Senate information, current legislation, Senate Rules, NY Constitution
Browse or search New York laws courtesy of the State Legislature
Files, or “jackets,” dating from 1995-present, which document the Governor’s legislative decision-making process on bills that have been signed into law or vetoed by the executive
New York Session Laws dated between 1800 and 1922 preseved on HathiTrust by the University of Iowa
New York City and Other Local Sites
General information on NY City; links to city agencies.
Follow instruction to navigate to searchable Code and Charter.
Browse and seach the Rules of the City of New York on the website of the City's official rule publisher.
Searchable full text of NY City Local Laws, Introductions and Resolutions since 1998
Current NY City Zoning Resolution and Maps
Regulations covering a wide range of policies including student-related
issues and employee issues
Database of notices published in the City Record newspaper which includes: public hearings and meetings, public auctions and sales, solicitations and awards and official rules proposed and adopted by NY City agencies.
Extensive collection of Municipal Codes
Ethics Resources
Advisory opinions issued by NYSBA Committee on Professional Ethics
Advisory Opinions from 1988 to date
Opinions from 1986 to date
Browse or search the committee's ethical opinions
Read the Rules of Professional Conduct and commentary
Policy positions of the American Medical Association
Federal Legal Resources
Federal bills, Congressional Record, treaties, committee reports
The Office of the Law Revision Counsel’s Table of Popular Names of Federal Statutes tool enables you to search or browse the United States Code Table of Acts Cited by Popular Name
Free online access to official publications from all three branches of
the federal government. United States Code, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register, Hon. Gerald Lebovits, A Collection of Works on Legal and Judicial Writing, United States Court Decisions, Compilation of Presidential Documents, Congressional Bills, Congressional Documents, Congressional Hearings, Congressional Record, Congressional Reports, Economic Indicators, Public and Private Laws, Additional Government Publications
Opinions, dockets, argument transcripts, argument audio, free online access to the US Reports and the Preliminary Prints that precede bound volume publication
Easily track the status of federal legislation, find information about
the activities of Congress generally and specific members, and more
Comprehensive listing of federal courts
US Commerce Department's access point for federal information; 20 searchable databases. (read more)
Includes Executive Orders, Presidential Memoranda, and Proclamations (January 2009-present)
Codification of Presidential
Proclamations & Executive Orders (1945-1989), Executive Orders Disposition Tables Index (1937-2017)
US Constitution & Bill of Rights; Congressional Bills (House 1799-1873, Senate 1819-1873); Congressional Committee Reports (US Serial Set 1833-1917); Congressional Debates (1789-1877); documents from the Continental Congress & Constitutional Convention;
US Treaties
(1795-1945) and Other International Agreements (1950-1982)
Provides links to historical documents related to the development of the Constitution
Large compilation of historical documents, e.g., Federalist Papers, presidential papers, early state constitutions
Treaties in Force, and Texts of International Agreements (TIAS) to which the US is a party (1981-2023)
Information about many of the major laws administered and enforced by the US Department of Labor
Free access to the Department of Labor's Wirtz Labor Library, providing the general public with a wealth of labor resources
Free access to the Department of Labor's Wirtz Labor Library, providing the general public with a wealth of labor resources
Learn how to conduct a preliminary patent search using a video tutorial.
Access to Housing Handbooks, forms, and publications.
Compilation of links to federal research guides, tables of information, and out-of-print sources.
International Legal Resources
A collaboration between Duke University School of Law and University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, this tutorial teaches research strategies and methodology for research print and electronic sources of international legal materials.
Comprehensive Legal Services
Free access to a range of federal and state resources and materials from other countries; also offers forms for purchase. (read more)
Free access to a range of federal and state resources.
Sign up for access to legal blogs, top cases and more.
Collection of some of the best resources for free legal research on the web. Contains links for Primary Federal Law, Primary State Law, U.S. and International Treaties, Foreign and International Law, Secondary Sources, and Empirical Sources.
Organizes free legal research websites, search engines and databases.
Full-service federal and state site with comprehensive Supreme Court collection. (read more)
Free video tutorials for conducting legal research, including Administrative Law, Legislative History and Treaty Research.
Guide to general legal research prepared by the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.
Information service on environmental law that includes information on treaties, international soft-law and other non-binding policy and technical guidance documents, national legislation, judicial decisions, and law and policy literature. Users have access to the full text of most of the information provided.
Links to freely-accessible online sources of law for the US and Canada.
Free access to over 400,000 law articles.
Free full-text online law review/journal search.
Database containing scholarly working papers and articles recently accepted for publication.
Miscellaneous Resources
Searchable phone directory of state employees (provided by the Office of Information Technology Services)
Official Directory of the City of New York
From the US Department of Health and Human Services
Legal Writing Resources: Clarity, Plain English, Grammar, Punctuation, Diction
Practice Law Institute, Thinking Like a Writer: A Lawyer's Guide to Effective Writing and Editing, The Principles of Super-Clarity
Federal Register, Drafting Legal Documents, Principles of Clear Writing
Federal Register, Drafting Legal Documents, Preferred Expressions
Hon. Gerald Lebovits, A Collection of Works on Legal and Judicial Writing
U.S. Securities and Exchange Comission, A Plain English Handbook: How to Create Clear SEC Disclosure Documents, Writing in Plain English (Aug. 1998)
William Strunk, Jr., The Elements of Style (1999), portions available on Bartleby.com
Capital Community College Foundation, Guide to Grammar and Writing
Purdue University, The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)