• Library of Congress
  Links to Web, gopher, telnet, and ftp sites that contain the full text of state statutes, state constitutions and other legislative resources
• American Law Sources On-line (ALSO)
  Links to state laws, court information, Attorney General opinions, and more
• FindLaw: State
  Links to State statutes, codes, Supreme Court opinions, and case law
• National Conference of State Legislatures
  Links to State Legislatures
• State and Local Government Resources on the Net
  By Piper Resources

Researching laws of the states is like detective work: it requires time, experience, and knowledge of how states reference their laws. What follows are some basic guidelines for Internet searches.

The first problem you may encounter when doing a Web search is actually locating each state's laws. A state may refer to its laws as statutes, code(s), or laws . You may have to look carefully to find the appropriate term; it may be listed on its own or it may be combined with other things such as a state's constitution or administrative regulations.

The second problem, finding the actual law for which you are looking, is even more complicated. You may be able to search by typing in citation numbers , doing a keyword search , or both.

Global searches might be difficult unless you know the exact title of the law you are seeking. For example, California's APS law is titled "Adult Protective Services," whereas North Carolina's APS law is titled "Protection of the Abused, Neglected or Exploited Disabled Adult Act." (Names of laws are more likely to be revised than citation numbers, which is why we have listed state citation numbers rather than the statutory titles.)

States also have different ways of formatting their citations. The citations listed above are written in "blue book" format. This is the format that is used most often by lawyers when they are writing articles or documents for presentation to a court and it is the appropriate way to indicate citations in a document such as this one. These citations give you the information you need to use the finding tools above; however, it will be easier to use that information if you understand the meaning of the numbers and the importance of their order.

It can be very important to know in what code, chapter, or title a provision of the law is located. Sometimes a citation format will clearly indicate that information, as in the citations for California and Delaware. Most other states, however, are like Alabama and Alaska, which simply use numerical and symbolic (hyphens, colons, periods) formats as a guide to indicate the location of a provision of law. The first number of the guide is the broadest category, and the latter numbers indicate categories that are more specific.

Thus, if the Web site you are searching prompts you to first indicate what section, title, chapter you are looking for, and the citation does not explicitly use those (or any) terms, use the first number provided. The subsequent numbers indicate sub-parts, and should be used in the order indicated.

This symbol - § - represents "Section." Be aware that blue book format calls for the section symbol to be used unless a state's citation format indicates otherwise. This means that even when the section symbol is given here, the statute may actually use such terms as "title" or "chapter" or "code." For example, Florida's APS law is found at "chapter 415, section 101," not at "section 415, subsection 101." Again, if you understand the meaning of the numbers and the importance of their order, you will be able to use them regardless of the words that are used to describe them.

The term "et seq." is an abbreviation that means "and the following." It indicates that there is more than one sub-part to the statute.