[1] Finding relevant legal information can be challenging and may involve the use of electronic research tools as well as printed books and materials.
Such sources include statutes, government regulations, case law and the text of the state and federal constitutions.
State trial courts produce the lowest percentage of published cases.
The Supreme Court of the United States, for example, provides the text of recent opinions on its website.
The major classification for finding law cases is the West American Digest System.
Keyword searches in databases may also be a challenge, because people may describe legal concepts in varying ways.
"Issue spotting" is a skill that lawyers home in law school and throughout their careers as they gain experience.
Citators track resources, written at a later point in time, which cite back to a particular case.
Legal researchers may also need the briefs and other background materials connected with a case, which are included in docket records.
They are called 'annotated codes' because they include summaries of cases which interpret the meaning of the statute.
They may also include references to journal articles, legal encyclopedias and other research materials.
The challenge with the executive branch is to track down the rules and regulations of federal and state administrative agencies.
Because of this "publication pattern" in order to find out if there has been a change with respect to a particular regulation a print CFR user has to go through a two-step process of checking 1) the List of Sections Affected (LSA) and 2) the latest issue of the Federal Register for the current month.
The United States Government Printing Office has an e-CFR pilot project is underway to provide a version of the CFR without having to refer to a separate publication for updates.
This intertwined grouping of regulations, statutes, and cases is often best deciphered using secondary sources such as books and journal articles.
Many major legal research materials may be found online, through both free services, such as Law Library Resource Xchange, PACER (law), and Google Scholar, and commercial services for Computer-assisted legal research.
Not all law journals provide their text on the web, and some content may be placed behind a paywall.