New York Official Reports: Legal Research Portal
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 on this page. We also provide links to other imporant agencies on our other sites of interest page.
Table of Contents
New York State Court Resources
Comprehensive and searchable collection of New York State court decisions and motions
Decisions of New York's high court, along with records and briefs
Cases against the State of New York
Court information, rules and publications
Case searching and tracking for New York local, supreme, criminal and family courts
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Large library of NY judiciary historical documents, biographies of Judges, and profiles of state courts
Court forms for various state court actions and proceedings
Rules of NYS Courts
Practice Rules of the Supreme Court, Appellate Division (PDF)
Rules of the Appellate Division, First Department
Rules of the Appellate Division, Second Department (PDF)
Rules of the Appellate Division, Third Department (PDF)
Rules of the Appellate Division, Fourth Department (PDF)
Rules of various state courts
New York State Agency Resources
Home of Excelsior, an exhaustive catalog of state government documents
Access to a variety of state government information including agency publications
Links to many state agencies
Weekly State Register provides information on the rulemaking activities of state agencies
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.
Office of the New York State Attorney General, Opinions of the Attorney General
New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Policy Directives
New York State Committee on Open Government
New York State Comptroller, Legal Opinions
New York State Education Department, Office of Counsel, Commissioner's Decisions
New York State Department of Financial Services, Industry Guidance
New York State Workers' Compensation Board, Select Full Board and Panel Decisions
Selected state agency opinions, decisions, codes and regulations
New York State Legislative Resources
Check bill text and status of current state bills
Senate information, current legislation
Collection of state legislative resources, including Senate and Assembly debate transcripts
Browse or search New York laws courtesy of the State Legislature
Files, or “jackets,” 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.
Official directory of the City of New York
Navigate to searchable Administrative Code of the City of New York, New York City Charter, and 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.
Current NY City Zoning Resolution and maps
New York City Department of Education's Chancellor's 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 searchable by state
Ethics Resources
Advisory opinions issued by New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics
Formal advisory opinions issues by the Commission and its predecessor agencies
Browse or search the Committee's formal and informal ethics opinions
Browse or search the committee's opinions and Rules Governing Judicial Conduct
Read the Rules of Professional Conduct and commentary
National code of ethics for physicians
Federal Legal Resources
Federal bills, Congressional Record, treaties, committee reports
Includes a link to the Popular Name Tool, which 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, including: United States Code, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register, 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
Provides links to 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
National Archives Office of the Federal Register's codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders, with a link to the Executive Orders Disposition Tables Index
United States Constitution and 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: collections; researcher resources; legal reports
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 to which the US is a party
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
Conduct preliminary patent and trademark searches
Online resource for forms, handbooks, policies, and other related information
Compilation of links to federal research guides, tables of information, and out-of-print sources.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Online Manual System is used to administer CMS programs and offers day-to-day operating instructions, policies, and procedures based on statutes and regulations, guidelines, models, and directives.
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.
Free access to a range of federal and state resources.
Sign up for access to legal blogs, top cases and more.
Collection of resources for free legal research
Organizes free legal research websites, search engines and databases
Full-service federal and state site with comprehensive Supreme Court collection
Free video tutorials for conducting legal research, including Administrative Law, Legislative History and Treaty Research.
Guide to general legal research
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
Free access to a large number of law articles.
Free full-text online law review/journal search.
Database containing scholarly working papers and articles recently accepted for publication.