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Legal Research for Non-Law Users: Primary Sources a.k.a. "The Law"

This guide offers an introduction to legal research resources that might be of use to non-lawyers who visit or otherwise access the UIC Law Library.

Primary Sources

This page introduces some federal and Illinois resources that provide access to cases and statutes, both in print and online.

Note that there are a variety of sources of law not discussed on this page, like city ordinances and regulations.

UIC Law Library

Contact Info:
(312) 427-2737 ext. 729 (Reference)
(312) 427-2737 ext. 710 (Circulation)

law-library[at]uic.edu

Links:
UIC Law Library Webpage
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Cases

Case law is bulk of what attorneys read when they are conducting research. These are opinions written by judges that either interpret statutory law (see below) or are common law.

Cases are organized into a variety of reporters. Reporters may cover a geographical region or be specific to a state, and there are both official and unofficial reporters. The United States Supreme Court has its own reporters. Additionally, reporters are organized by level of court: trial, appeals, and court of last resort. This is a simplification, so if you have questions about reporters or court hierarchy, contact a law librarian.

***An excellent free resource for case research online is Google Scholar using the case law search. You can limit to specific jurisdictions and key word search as you otherwise would in a search engine. What's missing from Scholar are many of the robust annotations and secondary material that is available in some paid resources and in print.

Federal

  • Federal courts are organized into regional circuits (appeals courts), which in turn are divided into districts (trial court). While there are many online resources to find cases, Google Scholar, as noted above, is the simplest way to find them.
  • Our collection of print reporters is on the 9th floor and cover a large number of the the south shelves. If you would like to read or research cases in print, we encourage you to contact a law librarian to discuss the process.

Illinois - Note that while Illinois continues to have its cases printed in unofficial reporters, official publication has been online since mid-2011

  • Find official Illinois opinions since mid-2011 here: Illinois Courts Opinions and Orders As with federal opinions, Illinois opinions can be found on Google Scholar. Older opinions may only be available in print.
  • Illinois reporters are located on the 9th floor around the KFI1245 call number range.

Statutes

Statutes are laws written by legislatures, like the U.S. Congress or the Illinois General Assembly. They are generally collected in codes that are arranged by topic, though they are also published in the order of their enactment, i.e. chronologically. The below links are to the codified versions.

Federal - United States Code

Illinois - Illinois Compiled Statutes

  • Online - ILGA.gov (note that this version of the Illinois statutes may include sections that have not yet gone into effect)
  • In print - KFI1230. A451 (6th and 9th floors)