AltLaw is a new legal search site, still in beta version. Here’s a description from the site:
The law is meant to belong to the people, but it can be surprisingly hard to find. Case reports, a major part of the laws of the United States, are hard to get at, and even when on the Internet, rarely searchable. To get full access you generally need either a library of law reports, or an expensive subscription to an online database, which can cost hundreds of dollars per hour.
AltLaw is a small effort to change that—to make the common law a bit more common. AltLaw provides the first free, full-text searchable database of Supreme Court and Federal Appellate case reports. It is a resource for attorneys, legal scholars, and the general public.
AltLaw Features
- Full text search of the last decade or so of federal appellate and Supreme Court opinions.
- Advanced search options (proximity searching, Boolean, concentration, wildcards, etc.)
- Fast and free
- Updated daily (not yet, work in progress)
AltLaw Limits
- Coverage, for most Circuits, limited to about the last 10 to 15 years.
- West Reporter Citations (i.e., 23 F.3d 178) not yet available (work in progress)
- As of yet, no state law or district court cases.
AltLaw is a joint project of Columbia Law School’s Program on Law and Technology, and the Silicon Flatirons Program at the University of Colorado Law School.
