The free law library

Why this matters

You do not need a paid database to read the law. Most of what a self-represented employee needs is free. But each free source has gaps, and none of them tells you for certain that a case is still good law. Knowing what each one is for keeps you from trusting the wrong tool.

This is general information, not legal advice.

The primary-source rule

Read the opinion, statute, or rule itself, and check it against the body that issued it. Summaries and blogs can drop a clause, miss an amendment, or repeat a wrong cite. Even official-looking sites carry disclaimers. The eCFR calls itself an unofficial compilation. Google Scholar says its opinions are no substitute for a lawyer. Cornell's Wex says nothing in it is legal advice. Cite what you read in the official text.

Summary table

Case law

CourtListener

CourtListener is run by Free Law Project, a nonprofit. Reading and searching are free. Check the site's help pages (now at wiki.free.law) for current details.

• Search. It supports quoted phrases, AND and OR, a minus sign to exclude terms, proximity searches, field searches such as court_id, wildcards, and date ranges.
• Citation lookup. You can paste a cite or a block of text (up to 64,000 characters, with up to 250 citations per request) and it tells you whether each cite exists. A 404 means the cite is valid but not in CourtListener. It does not prove the case is fake. A 200 means the cite exists. It does not show the case says what you claim. It does not cover statutes.
• Alerts. You can set email alerts. Real-time opinion alerts need a paid tier. Chapter 9 covers alerts.
• API. A free account gives you a token on your profile page. As of October 2026, the overview page lists free limits of 5 requests per minute, 50 per hour, and 125 per day. These change, so reread the page. Never share your token.
• RECAP. This is an archive of federal court filings from PACER. Installing the RECAP browser extension lets you add documents you buy. Before you pay PACER, check whether the document is already there.

CourtListener says it added the full Harvard Caselaw Access Project collection in 2024. Coverage varies by court, so check the data coverage page for yours.

Google Scholar

Choose "Case law" under the search box. Per its help page it covers state appellate and supreme court opinions since 1950, federal courts since 1923, and the U.S. Supreme Court since 1791. "Cited by" lists later works that cite a case, which helps you start a treatment check. But the list includes articles, and it does not flag overruled cases. Each query returns at most 1,000 results.

Justia

Justia is free to read and organizes decisions and codes by court and year. It has no citator and is funded by advertising, so skip the sidebars. Coverage dates differ by court and we could not confirm them, so check the court. If the court's own site has the opinion, cite that.

Cornell LII

LII offers the U.S. Code, the CFR, the Federal Rules, and Wex, a plain-language legal encyclopedia. It is free and donation supported. It is not an official publisher, so check currency against the official source before you quote a section.

Caselaw Access Project

The Harvard project's data is released without restriction, and the Harvard Library Innovation Lab says its own search and API are being wound down, with CourtListener the place to search that content. Treat it as a source of bulk historical data. We could not confirm its end date, though it appears to be around 2020, so do not rely on it for recent cases. We also could not confirm a license, so do not state one.

Statutes and regulations

• GovInfo (govinfo.gov) is run by the Government Publishing Office. Its PDFs carry digital signatures so you can confirm they are official and unaltered. It has the Federal Register, CFR annual editions, and the U.S. Code.
• eCFR (ecfr.gov) is the current, daily-updated text of federal regulations. It describes itself as an unofficial compilation. For a filing, check the text against the official CFR or Federal Register.
• U.S. Code (uscode.house.gov) is the House Office of the Law Revision Counsel's version of federal statutes. It states how current it is.

Federal court filings

As of October 2026, PACER charges $0.10 per page. A single document is capped at $3, and court opinions are always free. If you spend $30 or less in a calendar quarter, the fees are waived. Check the PACER fee page for the current rules. Search carefully, because search results are billed too.

Agency sources

Department of Labor

The Wage and Hour Division's FMLA page links to the regulations at 29 CFR Part 825, Administrator Interpretations, opinion letters, an employee guide, fact sheets, and forms. The employee guide is a legacy PDF, so check its date. Opinion letters and interpretations show the agency's view. Courts do not have to follow them.

EEOC

The EEOC guidance index lists enforcement guidance and technical assistance on the ADA and other laws. Some entries are marked superseding or superseded, so check each document's status and date. Technical assistance says it does not have the force of law. Verify filing deadlines on the EEOC's current time-limits page, not in an older document.

Arbitration rules

AAA publishes its Employment/Workplace Arbitration Rules and fee information on its employment rules page. Amended rules took effect May 1, 2025, per AAA. Confirm the date on the rules PDF you read. JAMS posts its Employment Arbitration Rules and its Minimum Standards of Procedural Fairness. The version listed was effective June 1, 2021. Check your own arbitration clause, because it may name a specific rule version. Chapter 9 covers version questions.

Your state

Each state differs. The two routes are the state judiciary site for opinions and the legislature or revisor site for statutes.

• The Law Library of Congress "Guide to Law Online" has a page for each state and territory. Some links may be stale, so confirm.
• New York is our example. The State Law Reporting Bureau (nycourts.gov/reporter) carries slip opinions and the Official Reports. Slip opinions are marked uncorrected and subject to revision. The Senate site (nysenate.gov/legislation/laws) lists the Consolidated Laws. It makes no statement about official status, so confirm text for a filing.
• Some state sites carry only recent opinions. For older cases use CourtListener or Scholar, then check the state's own site.

Libraries and bar associations

Public and county law libraries often offer free access to commercial databases, sometimes on site only. Ask whether they have a citator. Many bar associations offer members free or low-cost access to a commercial database. Check yours. Most such benefits are for bar members, so a non-lawyer usually cannot use them.

Next: Chapter 3, setting up your case folder.

Sources

• CourtListener API overview
• CourtListener citation lookup API
• CourtListener membership
• Google Scholar help
• Cornell Legal Information Institute
• Caselaw Access Project transition notice
• GovInfo
• eCFR
• U.S. Code (Office of the Law Revision Counsel)
• PACER fees
• DOL Wage and Hour Division, FMLA
• EEOC guidance
• AAA employment rules
• JAMS employment arbitration rules
• New York State Law Reporting Bureau
• New York Senate laws