Mark E. Poorman is an attorney licensed to practice law by the State Bars of Texas and California and a recent graduate of the University of North Texas, School of Library and Information Sciences with a Masters Degree in Law Librarianship and Legal Informatics. He credits Lynn K. Sanchez, Victoria Corona and Isabel Rivas, the director and staff of the Hon. Robert J. Galvan County Law Library, El Paso, Texas, where he interned with suggesting the need for more sources of legal information in languages other than English.

Introduction

Sources for United States of America Legal information abound. The U.S. Constitution and Statutes are available from the Government Printing Office and annotated versions from West, Lexis and others. Online versions of these publications link to the Code of Federal Regulations, statutes, regulations and case law from all States as well as the Federal Courts. With the increasing number of state and federal statutes, regulations, reported cases, and access to unreported cases, the need for compellation and annotation has lead to many topical publications in formats ranging from advanced sheets, through electronic publications to hardbound books. Even with the recent consolidation in the U.S. legal publishing industry, the number of titles available on any jurisdiction, or legal topic, generally provide adequate coverage for any practice area. Yet, by in large, none of this vast store of legal information is readily available in any language other than English. The purpose of this article is to uncover the hidden sources for U.S. legal information in languages other than English and promote the publication of more readily accessible sources.

Justification

A justification for publishing sources of United States legal information in languages other than English appears appropriate in light of traditional beliefs about the U.S. legal system. The opinion, once held by many, was that English is the language of the U.S. and that all legal information should be published only in English. This view was supported by the theory that the United States is a melting pot in which ethnic and cultural characteristics are submerged and English is the common language, and dominant culture, of the U.S.

Undoubtedly, the early United States legal system was based on English common law and English decisions were the basis for judicial thinking in the newly formed nation. By the mid-twentieth century, statutes and regulations were supplanting the concept of common law. At present, it could be argued that U.S. common law has been subsumed by the massive amount of Code law. Even those who hold that the common law still triumphs will admit that the complex interaction of statutes, regulations and case law creates confusion.

The legal language in the U.S. compounds this confusion. English students of the late eighteenth century were trained in Latin and French, as well as English. English common law used a mixture of these languages which survives in modern U.S. legal language. For example, the term “voir dire” is used in many jurisdictions instead of the English “jury selection.” Black’s Law Dictionary is filled with such terms which remain part of the legal language in the United States even though the French and Latin languages on which they are based are no longer required courses of study, even for a degree in Law. Neither is U.S. legal language consistent with common English as spoken, or written, by non-legally trained U.S. residents. A word may have a precise legal meaning in one context, another legal meaning in a different context, neither of which conforms to the general usage of the word in the United States. Therefore, even a well-educated person whose primary language is English who was raised in the U.S. may have difficulty understanding some sources of legal information. This difficulty with U.S. legal language does not alter the legal requirement that everyone know, and understand, their legal obligations.

Those who have been raised in U.S. households that do not speak English as the primary language are increasing. By far the largest group speak Spanish and account for 28,101,052 of the 46,951,595 who speak a language other than English at home. The second largest group are Chinese speakers, with 2,022,143 living in homes that do not speak English as the primary language. A total of 3,366,132 residents in the United States over 5 years of age admit they do not speak English at all. The number that do not speak English “very well” has grown to 21,320,407. That means over 20,000,000 residents of the U.S. probably are unable to understand English Language sources of U.S. legal information, either in written or verbal form. These statistics become even more troubling when the four largest states are considered, which combined account for just under one third of the U.S. population. California has 31,416,629 residents of which 12,401,756 or 39.5% speak a language other than English at home. This is a 43.9% increase over 1990 in the number of residents who speak a language other than English at home. Of these 6,277,779, admit they do not speak English “very well.” Texas has 19,241,518 residents of which 6,010,753 or 31.2% speak a language other than English at home. This is a 51.4% increase over 1990 in the number of residents who speak a language other than English at home and 2,669,603 admit they do not speak English “very well.” New York has 17,749,110 residents of which 4,962,921 or 28% speak a language other than English at home. This is a 27% increase over 1990 in the number of residents who speak a language other than English at home and 2,310,256 admit they do not speak English “very well.” Florida has 15,043,603 residents of which 3,473,864 or 23.1% speak a language other than English at home. This is a 65.6% increase over 1990 in the number of residents who speak a language other than English at home and 1,554,865 admit they do not speak English “very well.” What is striking is not only the dramatic rise in the number of individuals living in households what do not speak English, but the 47.4% increase from the 1990 census to the 2000 census (Shin, Hyon B and Bruno, Rosalind. 2003).

In addition to over twenty million United States residents with insufficient linguistic skills to understand most legal information written in English, a growing number of foreign individuals and small businesses are involved in activities that are regulated by U.S. laws. A significant percentage of these individuals and businesses are from countries in which English is not the primary language. While multinational corporations have the resources to hire multi-lingual U.S. attorneys to protect their interests, and consult before launching new business ventures, individuals and small foreign companies seldom have the financial resources to hire United States attorneys to look into all aspects of their business and personal affairs that may run foul of U.S. laws. In practical terms, the economic impact of tens of millions of individuals and businesses which are incapable of reading and complying with U.S. legal obligations is staggering. Courts and administrative agencies are struggling under the burden created by a vast increase in non-English speaking clients.

Major Sources of U.S. Legal Information in Non-English Formats Published in the United States

At first, a researcher is tempted to assume that there are no major sources of non-English language United States Law. There are no comprehensive translations of primary legal sources, although some regulations, statutes and case law are quoted in pamphlets put out by a few regulatory agencies. That is to say, no U.S. primary legal sources are published in this country in languages other than English. There are also no translations of the major secondary legal sources. In fact, the paper sources of legal information in languages other than English printed and sold in this country are very limited. It is only on the Internet that the vast majority of non-English language legal information can be found, and most is free.

On the Internet, some attempts have been made at webographies with links to agency publications. An ambitious project has been undertaken by the San Diego County Public Law Library (2004) to amass such a webography of California and Federal law for its pro per (pro se for the rest of the country) education program. When published, this production will provide an excellent source of legal information for the huge Spanish speaking, and reading, population in California. The draft version of this document has been successfully used to help teach this segment of the San Diego population how to represent themselves in court.

A different approach to the same problem is Maryland’s Peoples Law Library a self-help site supported by 28 non-profit legal service providers in partnership with the courts. This amazing source of pro se legal information is translated into Chinese, Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Korean, Russian, and Tagalog. It further provides links to freetranslation.com, by Free2Professional Translation, and to the Department of Justice’s translations of Federal Protections against National Origin Discrimination in fifteen languages (PLL, 2005). The reading level is around the fifth or sixth grade and the translations were provided by court translators and a state law librarian. Therefore, the translations will be as close as possible to the English and on a similar reading level (MLAN, 2004). The coverage is limited mainly to Maryland law.

Legal Aid organizations are often in the forefront of providing information in languages other than English. Another example is LegalAid-GA.ORG which has a page titled Foreign Languages (2002) providing a total of nine language translations including Chinese, Español, Français, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese translations of several topic areas, although not all topics were translated into all languages. Similar projects from other legal aid organizations are in various stages of development.

California has a large Spanish reading population. The California Courts Self-Help Center (2005) has translated its extensive website into Spanish, http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/espanol/, and appears to be working on translations into other languages, http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp.The topics include finding legal help, family law, small claims court, protection from abuse, elder law, automotive information, criminal law, taxes, civil rights, wills, estates and several other topics. Much of the information is written in a question and answer format. Most court forms are still in English, although limited use of Spanish has been adopted in some courts, and the summons carries a Spanish translation of most of the preprinted form. While the forms may be in English, the explanations of how to use the forms have often been translated into Spanish. Taken as a whole, this site may provide the most legal information in Spanish of any site on the Internet.

Another site providing legal information in several languages including Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Russian, is run by the California Department of Social Services (2005). This department provides a listing of translated forms and information http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/pdf/DSSFormsList.pdf many of which are available over the Web at http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/cdssweb/FormsandPu_274.htm.

The principal source of United States Federal Law is through the Government Printing Office (GPO, 2005) which has a collection of U.S. legal information in Spanish, most of which can be accessed through FIRSTGOV en Español. These webpage links provide access to information from the U.S. Postal Service, Immigration Service, FAFSA (Student Aid), and even a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint form. The How to order booklets in Spanish page provides additional links that tell how to obtain Spanish Language information on such diverse legal topics as ADA compliance, Identity Theft, Discrimination, along with many non-legal issues particularly in health and child rearing. Recién Llegados (Newcomers) has general driving, immigration, working or owning a business, taxes, educational and tourist information. Negocios provides information for business, from the Small Business Administration (SBA) to starting a business, Bankruptcy, Copyright, investment, borrowing, reporting tip income, doing business with the Government Services Administration (GSA), Consumer Protection, mediation, mail fraud, and a host of topics including NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). This page even provides links to some state resources in Spanish. Clearly not every topic is covered and much of the GPO’s information is not available in Spanish, but for the most comprehensive list of titles, this is the place to start for Federal legal information. Additionally, links from this site may be a good place to start to see what information a state has published in Spanish.

While Spanish has by far the most information sources, the General Services Administration (GSA) has translations of some titles into 25 additional languages accessible from Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC, 2005). The topics are limited and the list is in English. Chinese, the second largest identified group of non-English speaking U.S. residents in the 2000 census, has thirteen titles, most of which contain some legal information. Other language groups fare less well with less legal information and fewer topics covered.

Another Spanish language Federal Government website is provided by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS, 2005). This site links to several pages of information in Spanish, as well as translations of some publications. The information on this site may not qualify as a major source of U.S. legal information to some; however, the Tax Bar might disagree.

Two of the best state law resources in Spanish are in Texas. The Texas Attorney General’s website (Abbott, 2005) has many pages translated into Spanish. In addition, some of the Attorney General’s publications are in Spanish including all news releases. Texas Online, the official Texas Government site, also has several of its pages translated into Spanish, http://www.texas.gov/home.jsp?language=esp (2005). While not as extensively translated as the Attorney General’s website, it does provide many interesting links. One of the links allows the user to renew a Texas driver’s license, or ID card, online in Spanish. Most of the Spanish language links go no further than describing or providing an annotation and link to an English language web page that contains the actual information. This allows a Spanish reader the opportunity to find the page giving the information and a translation of important terms appearing on that site into Spanish. For example, Para Niños (Kid’s Corner) contains nine links to informational sites, of which only the last, El Senado de Texas Para Niños (Texas State Kids) is in Spanish.

For paper sources, Sphinx Publishing from Sourcebooks, Inc. has Spanish publications on credit issues, victims’ rights, wills, real property leases, immigration, social security and divorce (Sourcebook, 2005). This eclipses the sources available from other publishers. The major legal information publishers have little available except for multi-lingual legal dictionaries. Both West and Lexis have a library of Spanish language information on Puerto Rican law. Puerto Rico produced its statutes and regulations and conducted its law courts in Spanish. For example, West has a Puerto Rico Supreme Court Reporter series on a CD called Compuclerk Biblioteca Legal de Puerto Rico, PREMISE ed, which has court decisions back to 1898, statutes, session laws, and regulations from 21 agencies (Thompson-West, 2005). JTS online (2005) also provides a wealth of Puerto Rican legal information.

In attempting to locate sources of legal information in languages other than English only federal and state legal information was considered, as municipal and county legal information would generally be of too limited a scope for general interest. However, some city and county subdivisions have produced wonderful sources of legal information in languages other than English. While some of the sources provide purely local information, others explain state and federal programs that may be of wide interest. Many of these are short pamphlets intended for targeted audiences and produced by employees of local governmental bodies. In many cases, these pamphlets provide simple, practical explanations of legal topics or governmental programs. A worthwhile project for a library intern would be the compilation of these sources from county and municipal governmental bodies across a state into a topically organized annotated publication for that states libraries and non-English speaking populations.

A nearly untapped source of U.S. legal information in languages other than English exists at the local agency level. Agency workers managing federal, state, county and city programs have translated and written numerous pamphlets designed to educate a segment of the population about their services or programs. Within these pamphlets is a wealth of practical legal information. Other pamphlets are designed to warn of the consequences of violating of the law. An annotated topical bibliography of these pamphlets, together with a copy of each pamphlet, would undoubtedly add significantly to the authoritative literature available in languages other than English. However, if any compilations of these pamphlets exist, they are not well publicized.

Increasingly Bar associations are publishing legal information in languages other than English. While they still cannot be considered a major source of non-English U.S. legal information, this situation is likely to change in the future. It is also anticipated that more governmental entities will provide translations of their web pages in the future. Whether this will encourage the publication of more paper resources in languages other than English is yet to be determined.

Public and Private Libraries holding Substantial Collections of Non-English Language U.S. Legal Sources

In reality, there are no libraries in the United States holding substantial collections of U.S. legal information in languages other than English. There are a number of libraries, such as the Hon. Robert J. Galvan County Law Library, in El Paso Texas, that try to collect titles that will help their non-English reading populations. Collection development for most county law libraries has generally centered upon the needs of the judges and attorney users. Only recently have the non-attorney patrons reached numbers of approximate equality with legal professionals in many county law libraries (Sanchez, 2004). However, sources for legal information in languages other than English are not easy to find.

Partly to blame for the meager, or non-existent, collections of legal information in languages other than English in most of U.S. law libraries are domestic publishing companies. An examination of the online catalogs of the largest law libraries show that, with the exception of legal dictionaries, few titles are collected in other languages. The exceptions are Multilanguage copies of some treaties and Puerto Rican legal materials. Even libraries with vast collections of foreign language materials seldom have catalog listings for works on U.S. legal topics in languages other than English.

The San Diego County Public Law Library is one institution attempting to form a substantial collection of U.S. legal materials in Spanish. The library provides a web page in Spanish describing the library and its services. The San Diego County Public Law Library has a number of legal sources in Spanish, including a collection of video tapes. This library has a pro per (pro se for the rest of the country) program which has a number of Spanish speaking attendees. An outgrowth of the program is the development of a compilation of web sites which contain California legal information and authorized forms, translated into Spanish. While still in development, this document is being used to help in educational programs (2004).

The Los Angeles County Law Library is another library trying to develop a collection of sources of U.S. law in languages other than English. Their collection includes seven publications by Sphinx Publishing in Spanish, Title Fifteen of the California Code of Regulations for the Department of Corrections, in Spanish, and The Constitution of the United States of America in twelve languages. Their library also contains additional non-English titles (Stahlberg, 2004).

As mentioned earlier, Maryland’s Peoples Law Library is a self-help website supported by 28 non-profit legal service providers in partnership with the courts. This project, and the library it created, show what can be done with vision and the backing of organizations that understand the need for U.S. legal information to be translated into languages other than English.

Scholarly works on United States law in languages other than English are much harder to find than works intended for a general audience. Many law school libraries are likely to have more sources then they acknowledge, or than you can find by searching their catalog. Many comparative law titles published overseas will have comparisons to United States law, and scholarly coverage of U.S. legal topics. However, catalogers may fail to note this fact if the work compares the laws of several countries. The same cataloging problems arise with translated works of U.S. legal scholars. Therefore, any law library with a substantial collection of foreign language titles is likely to have several titles that deal with various aspects of U.S. law (Louis-Jacques, 2004). The University of Chicago D’Angelo Law Library is one of the libraries with personnel that recognize their collection contains these works and the difficulty associated with finding them.

In conclusion, there are several libraries having substantial foreign language law collections but few that have more than a handful of titles that appear in their catalog as dealing with U.S. law in foreign languages. Because of an apparent lack of financial incentive, the major U.S. publishers of legal information do not appear interested in undertaking the publication of anything beyond legal dictionaries. However, the Internet is, if not teeming with sources, at least beginning to provide such sources. Law libraries, and public libraries with legal collections, need to consider printing copies of web documents for their patrons and making webographies of sites for their non-English reading patrons.

Help For Librarians and Legal Researchers

The scarcity of United States legal sources in languages other than English presents both challenges and opportunities for librarians who want to meet the needs of their non-English reading patrons. The suggestions made here are intended to assist the reference librarian in locating legal information appropriate to patron’s needs. These suggestions should also help in formulating a collection development policy aimed at increasing non-English sources of U.S. legal information for whatever language is being considered.

The term non-English reader does not imply that the patron speaks little or no English, but rather that the patron is uncomfortable in reading U.S. legal information in English. Verbal language skills are often acquired in settings devoid of education in the written language, just as written language skills are often acquired in schools without adequate conversational fluency. For most persons who grew up in a home in which English was seldom spoken, even formal education in English language may be inadequate to understand the combination of English, French and Latin terms defined in ways that often confound non-legally trained individuals fluent in these languages. The justification provided earlier dealt with spoken language fluency. Spoken and written English fluency should correlate closely for those fully educated in the United States. Those who immigrated later in life, and have not sought further formal education in the United States, may have developed excellent verbal skills without the necessary fluency in written U.S. legal language.

There is often a wide gap in the educational background between U.S. residents who are non-English readers and foreigners doing business in the U.S. who are non-English readers. Many foreign and immigrant non-English readers are well educated, looking to establish businesses, or trade with businesses in the U.S. These individuals need relatively sophisticated business, tax, estate and corporate legal information, in a language they understand. The reading level of the information sources may be quite difficult, as long as the information is in a language the patron is comfortable with. The other type of patron is generally not well educated, from a low-income background with a specific legal problem. Many of these individuals cannot afford an attorney and do not have the educational skills to read complicated legal information in any language. Generally, these individuals need simplified legal information, and instructions on how to fill in forms, so that they can attempt to handle their own legal matters. Finding U.S. legal information in languages other than English, appropriate for the needs of the patron, presents a challenge for someone unfamiliar with the language.

Methods of Finding and Assessing Legal Sources

Attorneys, community leaders, and your patrons will often have found sources of legal information that are easily overlooked by those unfamiliar with the language. Many of these individuals would be happy to assist you in collection development. They are better able to judge the intended audience and reading difficulty level of the information, and provide this information to the librarian. If practical, the sources of information you recommend to your patrons should first be reviewed by a member of the ethnic group for accuracy and suitability.

With sources of legal information in a language the librarian is unfamiliar with, the quality of the information may be difficult to determine. In many cases, major linguistic groups will have sufficient representation among the library staff, or the parent institution’s staff, for the librarian to ask an opinion from a reliable source. In other cases, an attorney or professor conversant with the language may be willing to provide an opinion of the accuracy of the information. However, in many cases the librarian will be unable to request an opinion form a reliable source. In such cases, the following suggestions may be of assistance, particularly to the non-legally trained librarian. If the source is a book or article, it is likely that this is a translation of a book or article available in English and by reading the English version, the information in the translation can be accurately assessed. Mirror webpages in a language understood by the librarian are the best assurance of the quality of information on the Internet. If one site is very good it is likely the translation will be also. Government sites .gov or .us, should be accurate, as should most educational sites, .edu. State bar association sites are good sources of information and some of the information sources may be translated into the language you are looking for. Attorney and law firm sites, usually .com, when they provide information as opposed to advertising, are often excellent sources of accurate legal information. There are numerous organizations, .org that provide information, but the quality of the information should be judged with suspicion. Some organizations publish false information; others present a bias view of the law, while many other organizations do an excellent job of presenting the law. Because most organizations will have a site in English, the accuracy of the information can usually be assessed from a mirror or similar web page in English. When all else fails, call a local or national organization that promotes the ethic or linguistic group’s interests and ask for recommendations.

For most languages, there exist bi-lingual legal dictionaries. While some are published in the United States, for many languages these dictionaries are only available from overseas. In choosing the best dictionary, local attorneys who are fluent in the language may be your best source for recommendations. Many of these bi-lingual dictionaries appear to be written solely for legal professionals while others use terms that are more common. An attorney will also be able to determine if the definitions are based on the legal system of the publishing country. While these dictionaries would be helpful to those familiar with that countries legal system, they may no be appropriate for the majority of your patrons. For example, a dictionary published in Spain may contain definitions based on Spanish law or European Community law, both of which will be unfamiliar to most members of U.S. Spanish communities. Some dictionaries also provide additional information in some limited subject areas which may be of assistance to your patrons. While a bi-lingual or multi-lingual dictionary is a small item, it is one of the most readily available sources and should be acquired for each linguistic group represented by your patrons.

Scholarly works on U.S. law in languages other than English are much harder to find than works intended for a general audience. As previously mentioned, many comparative law titles published overseas will have comparisons to United States law, and scholarly coverage of U.S. legal topics. Because library catalogs may fail to note this fact if the work compares the laws of several countries, Mark Holman, from the University of Texas Jamail Center for Legal Research Tarlton Law Library, suggests using advanced keyword searches with Boolean operators and string together: the language, United States, and the legal topic or source of law. The language should limit the results to the most likely titles (2004).

One method of finding United States legal information in any language online is to use the Yahoo! advanced search engine. After entering the search terms go to the bottom of the page and mouse click on the language you wish to have the information presented in. This will bring up sites written in that language or provide a translate this page service as a green link. The translate this page service is still in its infancy and should improve over time. The links to pages written in the language will help reduce the time it takes to find a source in the appropriate language. Another method of locating legal information in Spanish on the Internet is by using the search terms Español Ley (or Espanol Ley).

Searching for government agency information in languages other than English can be frustrating if no links from a well-known site appear. The researcher must consider the likelihood that an agency would have developed information in a language other than English and formulate a strategy to determine if it is available. For example, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service would be expected to have information printed in the language of the immigrant groups. While not apparent from the first several web pages, eventually you can locate the Immigration Handbooks and Manuals page and links to A Guide to Naturalization in English, Spanish, Tagalog, Chinese and Vietnamese. This site also has an interesting page called Translation Information which states in part:

Automatic translation services are being offered on the Internet by some non-government Websites. While most of these charge a fee, some offer this service for free. Below we provide links to a few sites that offer free Website translation services. Note that these automatic services are done electronically. Therefore, the translation may not be exact.

The DHS does not endorse any of these services, their products, their advertisers or sponsors and cannot guarantee the accuracy of any translations you may obtain from these sites (USCIS, 2004).

Electronic Translation Services

A wealth of digital translation services have developed over the past few years. Some are only recommended for short phrases, while others can translate pages of text. Generally, the free online versions are more limited in what they can do, but for communicating the essence of the information they work reasonably well (USCIS, 2004).

Some digital translation systems can be purchased and are exceptionally powerful and accurate for most forms of translation. Most of these systems acknowledge that they are not sophisticated enough for legal translation. However, as the technology improves these systems will become more important for accurate translation. In the mean time, the use of one or more of these translation systems should be considered in libraries with large patron groups that are non-English readers. Faced with the option of no translation versus a poor translation the patron may well make an informed decision to accept the poor translation. In addition, such systems may be effective in translating many of the less technical legal documents found at government agency web sites. For most uses, copyright and licensing agreements should not prevent a single user from obtaining a translation into another language for the patron’s private use. This opinion could change if a translation were disseminated to a large number of patrons, or if the library made copies available for purchase. Similar copyright and licensing issues would arise if the information once translated were placed on a web site. However, much of the information will be from government agencies or organizations who will not claim a copyright to the information.

Conclusions

Finding United States legal information in a language other than English is difficult because of the lack of printed paper sources. While web sources are continually being developed, they often provide only basic legal information. This situation should continue to change as more agencies and organizations translate more information. Digital translation services are improving and may provide an acceptable option when nothing can be found in the language required. What is needed are more compilations of the information sources available, so that answers can be more easily found to the legal questions of patrons who are non-English readers.

References

Abbott, G. (2005). Attorney General of Texas Greg Abbott. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://www.oag.state.tx.us/index_span.shtml

The California Courts Self-Help Center. (2005). Centro de ayuda de las coutes de California. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/espanol/ and http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp

California Department of Social Services. (2005). Forms and publications translations. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/pdf/DSSFormsList.pdf and http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/cdssweb/FormsandPu_274.htm

Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC). (2005). General information in other languages. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/multilanguage/multilang.htm

Garner, Bryan A. (2004). Black’s Law Dictionary (8^th ed.). St. Paul, Minn: West.

Government Printing Office (GPO).(2005). FIRSTGOV en Español. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://www.firstgov.gov/Espanol/index.shtml

Holman, M. (2004). Sources of U.S. Law in Languages Other Than English. Unpublished e-mail.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS). (2005). El IRS en Español. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://www.irs.gov/espanol/index.html

JTS Online. (2005). JTS online: Novedades. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://www.pub-jts.com/online/

LegalAid-GA.ORG(2002). Foreign Languages. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://tinyurl.com/4d5zf

Louis-Jacques, L. (2004). Unpublished raw data.

The Maryland Legal Assistance Network (MLAN).(2004). Unpublished raw data.

The Peoples Law Library (PLL).(2005). Maryland’s Peoples Law Library. Retrieved on March 8, 2005 from http://www.peoples-law.info/Home/PublicWeb

San Diego County Public Law Library. (2004). Unpublished raw data.

Sanchez, L. (2004). Unpublished raw data.

Shin, Hyon B and Bruno, Rosalind. (2003). Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2000. Census 2000 Brief. Issued October 2003. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-29.pdf

Sourcebooks, Inc.(2005). You are browsing the libros Espanol category. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://www.sourcebooks.com/content/catalog/catalog.asp?catID=c69

Stahlberg, R.(2004). Sources of U.S. Law in Languages Other Than English. Unpublished e-mail.

Texas Online.(2005). TEXAS A SU ALCANCE. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://www.texas.gov/home.jsp?language=esp

Thompson-West.(2005). Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://west.thomson.com/store/searchresults.asp?ProductType=Products&Jurisdiction=PR

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). (2004). Translation Information. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://uscis.gov/graphics/translate.htm