November 5, 2015
Quick and Easy Legal Research at Your Fingertips!
Written by – Nancy Ray, Teaching Instructor, Department of Finance
One of the greatest features the Internet has to offer is the ability to access much state and federal law for free. Before the Internet was available, students, practitioners, and members of the public had to pay handsome sums of money for access to books, cases, and regulations. If you lived in an area that did not have a law library, or had a public library without legal sources, you could not access these materials for free. The same resources that use to cost thousands of dollars a year are now widely available at no cost.
For example, the ability to research North Carolina appellate court cases and statutes used to require the purchase of sets of hardback appellate volumes for the NC Court Appeals and NC Supreme Court, as well as the ongoing purchase of a 20+ volume set of the North Carolina General Statutes. One might also have purchased a set of legal encyclopedias geared toward our state’s law in order to have access to a working index. The situation was not much better if an attorney entered into an agreement with Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw, electronic services that provide access to cases, statutes, law reviews, and other research materials. Although ECU faculty can access these resources as part of the university’s research services, they are quite expensive. Thanks to the Internet, anyone who has an interest in the law can acquire knowledge quickly and conveniently.
Let’s say that you would like to have your class review North Carolina’s law regarding punitive damages. Punitive damages are monetary damages awarded in a civil case. They are meant to punish the defendant in the case and to send a message to other defendants engaging in similar bad conduct. How might you find some free, quick law on point? Start with the North Carolina General Assembly’s statute search feature at http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/statutes/Statutes.asp and search for the phrase “punitive damages.” You can refine this phrase by adding other features, such as the word “limitation,” or you might choose to return chapters instead of sections to get a broader overview of where punitive damages law might be found. It will be fairly easy for you to locate Chapter 1D, which deals with punitive damages, and to read through the various provisions of law dealing with this issue.
Perhaps you would like to read a few recent cases dealing with punitive damages. If so, don’t worry about paying outlandish Lexis or Westlaw fees or finding a library that has case reporters. Cases after 1998 will be available at the North Carolina court system’s statewide home page at https://appellate.nccourts.org/opinions/ and can be easily searched by using key words and phrases. If you’d like your students to read a new and controversial opinion by the United States Supreme Court, in order to spark a class discussion, access to those opinions is as easy as clicking on http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/opinions.aspx and scrolling through the opinions to find the one that you want.
Thanks to the Internet, incorporating the law into classroom activity is now possible in a way that previously was unthinkable. Enjoy these free resources!