The guide provides an overview of the legal issues that may arise as citizens gather and publish new and exciting information. It is meant to be useful to citizens with or without formal legal training who are creating content online as well as those who teach students how to research the law.

Practice guides are heavily relied upon by attorneys and legal professionals to save time when performing legal research, drafting a document or in a number of other scenarios. However, not all practice guides are created equal. There are several media conglomerates that rapidly churn out guides covering countless areas of law. It is important to look at the author and publisher, as well as the table of contents and index before purchasing a guide. A truly useful guide will contain time-saving motions and pleadings, forms, client letters, step by step procedural checklists, pattern arguments, model questions, pitfalls to avoid, and practice tips.

In compiling this research guide, emphasis was placed on sites that offer the full texts of laws, regulations and court decisions, with commentary from lawyers writing primarily for other lawyers. The DMLP has made every effort to include all sources available in the United States. If you know of additional resources or would like to suggest a correction, please let us know by using our Ask a Librarian form.

For a more practical approach to legal research, try Casetext, which offers 91 premier practice guides from James Publishing and can be used in CALI Lawbooks. These guides are authored by experts in their fields and provide real-world solutions for solving common problems faced by attorneys and legal professionals.