LibGuides: Legal Research: Finding Secondary Sources

Best Bet Databases for Secondary Sources

New York Times - full access This link opens in a new window
Coverage from 1851 to present. New Monmouth University users go to http://accessnyt.com and choose Monmouth University from the menu. Use your MU email address as a username. After that, use nytimes.com to access the site.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline is the world's largest fully searchable, image-based government document and legal research database. It contains comprehensive coverage from inception of U.S. statutory materials, U.S. Congressional Documents and more than 2,700 scholarly journals. HeinOnline provides topic specific databases including all of the world's constitutions, all U.S. treaties, collections of classic treatises and presidential documents, Criminal Justice, Religion and the Law, and Women and the Law among others. Full text of state and federal case law powered by Fastcase is included.
US Newsstream (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
Local and regional news coverage - newspapers

Finding Law Review Articles

What are Law Review Articles?

Periodicals published by a law school or bar association that contain notes; they analyze and evaluate subject areas and developments in the law. Law reviews are scholarly publications that are usually edited by law students, with review from faculty.

Law review articles often focus on new or emerging areas of law and they can offer more critical commentary than a legal encyclopedia

Source: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law & Harvard Law School Library

Where can I find Law Review Articles?

Law Journal Library from HeinOnline.
Law Reviews & Journals from Westlaw.
Law Research Centers Papers from SSRN.

Search for Press Releases

USA.gov searches only federal, state, and local government websites for the public. If an agency issues an update or press release, this site will allow you to search all agencies at once. For example, try searching "Frank James Subway Shooter" in the keyword box and you'll see updates from the Department of Justice, ATF, and other government agencies.

Why Use Newspapers?

Newspapers, law reviews, and legal journals are examples of secondary legal sources in U.S. law. Court cases and original court documents are considered primary documents. Newspapers can be a good source of information about a case that is still pending or about a particular suspect.

For example, if you are looking for specific details about a suspect like what type of murder weapon was used in the crime and the case is still ongoing, you would need to look at the docket. In some cases, the docket may be sealed. In order to obtain information, you may need to go through newspaper sources to find out details about the crime.

What is a docket? "A log containing the complete history of each case in the form of brief chronological entries summarizing the court proceedings." Each case has a unique docket number.

What are court filings? All the papers filed with the court. Examples might be pleadings, motions, briefs, affidavits, and exhibits.

Dockets and court filings are typically maintained by the clerk where the court case has jurisdiction. At times these records are available online, but it varies by state and typically there is a fee per page.

Source: Library of Congress, Dockets and Court Filings