Attorney and author Kathy Biehl practiced law privately in Houston, Texas for 18½ years before relocating to New York City in 1998. She has taught legal research and writing at the University of Houston Law Center and business law at Rice University. A member of the State Bar of Texas, she earned a B.A. with highest honors from Southern Methodist University and a J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law, where she was a member of Texas Law Review and Order of the Coif. She is co-author of The Lawyer’s Guide to Internet Research (Scarecrow Press, Nov. 2000), with Tara Calishain.
Each edition of Research Roundup will pull together related, practical online services that take outstanding advantage of the convenience and efficiency of the Internet. Research Roundup kicks off with a look at intellectual property databases.
RoundUp#1: Searchable IP Databases
RoundUp#2 : Slip Opinions Listservers
RoundUp#3 : Bill Tracking Resources
RoundUp#4 : Business Filings Databases
RoundUp#5 : Federal/State/Territory Sites with Election Resources
RoundUp#6 : Searchable IP Databases – Updated
There’s no need to wait for the advance sheets to arrive in the mail, if a slip opinion listserver or notification service is available for the jurisdictions you follow. Though traditional fee-based subscription services exist, a number of these list emanate directly from courts, at no cost. This list represents my most recent tally of both types of alert services and will be periodically updated. The fee-based listings include services that are available at no additional charge to paid subscribers of a publication or members of an organization.
This update adds services for all federal Circuit Courts of Appeal and for appellate courts in nine states (California, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania). (Two of these services cover courts in states that were mentioned, for other services, in the previous version of this RoundUp.) If I’ve missed a service (or a new one is launched), please let me know at [email protected].
Note: Even though it is not an e-mail alert (nor entirely fee-based), I have included LEXIS-NEXIS’ Daily Opinion Service with the commercial research databases at the end of the fee-based listings, because it is an Internet equivalent of advance sheets.
Free Slip Opinion Listservers
To receive the Report of Decisions’ official syllabi of opinions the day they are issued, send the message “subscribe liibulletin [your name]” to [email protected]. (Do not use brackets, and replace “[your name]” with the name for the subscription.) You can also sign up using the Web subscription form. This service is provided by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell School of Law. FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Supreme Court opinions with links to the full text of opinions.
First Circuit Court of Appeals
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of First Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions.
Second Circuit Court of Appeals
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Second Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions.
Third Circuit Court of Appeals
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Third Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions.
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Fourth Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions.
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sends out opinions by e-mail as they are released; subscribe at the Court’s site here. FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Fifth Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions.
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Sixth Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions.
Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Seventh Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions.
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Eighth Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Ninth Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions. Calvin House publishes a monthly Ninth Circuit newsletter called Appellate Decisions Noted; subscription information is here.
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Tenth Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions.
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Eleventh Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions.
Federal Circuit Court of Appeals
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Federal Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions. For a summary and analysis of recent patent decisions, send the message “subscribe liibulletin-patent [your name]” to [email protected]. (Do not use brackets, and replace “[your name]” with the name for the subscription.)You can also subscribe using the Web-based subscription form. This is another service of Cornell’s Legal Information Institute.
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of D.C. Circuit opinions with links to the full text of opinions.
Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff & Brandt, L.L.C. sends out descriptions of the previous week’s Supreme Court opinions; subscribe at the firm’s Website.
FindLaw has three California newsletters, which send out daily summaries of Supreme Court and/or Appellate Court opinions with links to the full text of opinions. One newsletter covers only the Supreme Court, the second only the Appellate Courts, and the third both levels.
Illinois Court Reports sends e-mail notification of new opinions.
The Social Law Library alerts mailing list members to state appellate decisions as they are issued. (Although membership is necessary to use the library, it is not to subscribe to this service.) Sign up here.
The Supreme Court sends out notification of changes to its Website, such as posting new slip opinions. Sign up for the service here
FindLaw sends out daily summaries of Court of Appeals opinions with links to the full text of opinions. For an analysis of recent Court of Appeals decisions (which may be two weeks old), send the message “subscribe liibulletin-ny [your name]” to [email protected]. You can also subscribe using the Web-based subscription form. This is another service of Cornell’s Legal Information Institute. The New York Law Journal’s Quick Decision Service sends e-mail summaries of important or interesting decisions that are not in full text in the journal.
The Supreme Court notifies list members when new opinions have been issued.
The Court of Criminal Appeals is starting a mailing list for distributing decisions on the day of release. To sign up, send e-mail to [email protected].
TBALink Opinion-Flash, a service of the Tennessee Bar Association, distributes the latest appellate decisions by e-mail to anyone (not merely bar members) who subscribes at http://tba.org/op-flash.html.
The Court of Appeals of the Fifth Judicial District will e-mail you your choice of civil, criminal, published or all opinions. Look for the vNotices! icon at the site.
Fee-Based Slip Opinion Services
| Ninth Circuit | California | Colorado | Connecticut | Georgia |
| Illinois | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota |
| Missouri | New Jersey | North Carolina | Ohio | Pennsylvania |
| Texas | Virginia | LEXIS-NEXIS | Loislaw.com |
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
JuriSearch subscribers receive Ninth Circuit opinions the day after their release. A 30-day trial is available
A law.com/ca (formerly Cal Law) subscription includes daily opinions by e-mail. A 30-day trial is available.
The Colorado State Bar e-mails summaries of Supreme Court and Court of Appeals decisions to bar members; sign up here.
The Connecticut State Bar offers a “case e-lert” to bar members who pay an annual subscription rate for the service (which begins at $200).
E-mail notification of newly issued Georgia appellate decisions comes with a paid subscription to law.com/ga (formerly Daily Report Online). A 30-day trial is available
The Illinois State Bar Association e-mails digests of Supreme and Appellate Court decisions, with links to full text, to bar members; sign up here.
Members of the Maryland State Bar Association may sign up for Electronic Bar Briefs, which are synopses of Court of Appeals and Court of Special Appeals decisions in selected practice areas.
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly‘s Daily E-Mail alert includes notice of Supreme Court and Court of Appeals slip opinions. A three-issue trial is available.
The Michigan Bar Association’s daily e-Journal includes summaries of state and federal court decisions (as well as other news of legal interest). Association members may sign up for the e-Journal here.
Michigan Lawyers Weekly subscribers may sign up to receive Supreme Court and Court of Appeals slip opinions by e-mail. A three-issue trial is available.
The State Bar of Minnesota offers its members four free mailing lists, covering state or federal civil or criminal decisions. Sign up here
Missouri Lawyers Weekly subscribers may sign up to receive Supreme Court and Court of Appeals slip opinions by e-mail. A three-issue trial is available
New Jersey Law Journal (the New Jersey page of law.com) offers an e-mail service summarizing state, federal and administrative decisions. The Web page does not give pricing, but instructs readers to phone the journal for information.
North Carolina Lawyers Weekly subscribers may sign up to receive Supreme Court and Court of Appeals slip opinions by e-mail. A three-issue trial is available.
Ohio Lawyers Weekly subscribers may sign up to receive Supreme Court slip opinions by e-mail. A three-issue trial is available.
A subscription to law.com/pa (formerly the Pennsylvania Intelligencer) includes a tracking service that can be customized to deliver state court opinions. A 30-day trial subscription is available.
Texas Lawyer subscribers may receive daily e-mail alerts of the latest opinions, through law.com’s Texas page. A 30-day trial is available.
Virginia Lawyers Weekly subscribers may sign up to receive Supreme Court and Court of Appeals slip opinions by e-mail. A three-issue trial is available.
The Daily Opinion Service allows visitors to retrieve summaries of slip opinions (from all state courts and federal district courts, the Circuit Courts of Appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court and some specialized courts) that have been issued within the previous two weeks – including the current day, if it is during the work week. There is no charge to run searches or view summaries of core terms in the opinions. To read an opinion, you must have a Web subscription to LEXIS-NEXIS or purchase the document by credit card.
Loislaw.com subscribers may set up the LOIS LawWatch feature to e-mail new caselaw (and other developments) in areas selected by the user. (Alternatively, this feature saves the updates on the user’s personal Loislaw.com start page.)
©Kathy Biehl 2000. All Rights Reserved.