Free websites to find legal forms.

1. Internet Legal Research for
Professor Mika’s Legal Drafting
Class
April 21, 2015

2. FREE WEB V.
LEXIS/WESTLAW
It’s Free!
May have more info on current topics
Be careful of reliability/currency
Lexis/Westlaw = better search
mechanisms
Large sets of formbooks on
Lexis/Westlaw

6. CONSIDERATIONS FOR
INTERNET FORMS
Who publishes the site? A legal publisher?
Bar association?
Does the site sell forms?
Who wrote the form?
Use with caution, tailor to your facts

7. EVALUATING WEB SITES
Credibility: author; possible bias, accuracy.
Currency /Updating, Coverage
Writing Quality
Ease of use
Stability

8. RELIABILITY OF
INTERNET SOURCES
Reliable – yes, no or maybe?
Court or government agency website
Law firm website
Lobbying organization’s website
Law school website
Free site published by Lexis (Lexis
Communities) or Westlaw (Findlaw)

10. Who are they? Are they lawyers?

12. No Choice of
Jurisdiction
A partial
document,
based on
above facts
It won’t let you
cut and paste
or save

14. 2 MINUTE HOTDOCS
VIDEO
http://www.hotdocs.com/

18. You CAN cut
and paste! But…

24. It won’t let you
cut and paste
or save

27. “Business
Contracts” and
Court Forms Free.
Others cost $.

28. Most Ks from SEC Filings.
“The CORI K-Base is made
available for educational,
academic and public use.”

29. SEC EDGAR
sample SEC filings
documents attached: management
contracts, executive compensation plans,
articles of incorporation, by-laws, material
contracts, voting trust agreements See
Item 601, Regulation S-K.
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml

34. resolve. Contract review in minutes.
Coming Soon. Resolve is a next-generation tool that
automatically identifies missing clauses, potentially risky
clause language, and business terms in any agreement.

36. DOCUMENT ASSEMBLY
TOOLS
HotDocs
TheFormTool – Basic Version is FREE!
FillAnyPDF - No longer free, but as
low as $1/month. Electronic signature.

37. The Form Tool
• Microsoft Word
add-on
• Create fillable
forms out of
contracts you
drafted
• Make a table of
information to be
filled in and link to
points in the
documents
• Pay version has
more features

38. STATUTORY FORMS
American Law Sources On-Line (ALSO)
Ohio Revised Code

40. GALE LEGAL FORMS
Via Cleveland Public Library
Use Cleveland Public Library card number to
log in

42. Free with OSBA
Membership

43. SITES FOR PRO SES
Franklin County Law Library -
frequently requested forms are
prepared by the library.
Cleveland Law Library’s FAQs ex.
Living Wills/Durable Power Of Attorney

45. SHARED DOCUMENT
SITES
DocStoc – not all docs are free!
Scribd
Docracy
Law Help Interactive Resource Center (A2J Auth
- Free HotDocs templates available for
non-commercial use only.

48. documents submitted by
nonlawyers and lawyers

50. SEC EDGAR
sample SEC filings
documents attached: management
contracts, executive compensation plans,
articles of incorporation, by-laws, material
contracts, voting trust agreements See
Item 601, Regulation S-K.
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml

52. SEC EDGAR FULL TEXT
SEARCH FEATURES
Fields for company name, SIC code, date,
form type (but not exhibit type)
Natural language or Boolean
Phrase (“”), AND, OR, NOT, truncation (*,
communicat* ), proximity operator (general
NEAR1 motors )
Past 4 years

53. TRY IT
Find an executive compensation plan which
provides for use of an automobile

54. "executive compensation
agreement“
NEAR10 exhibit AND
automobile

55. MORE SOPHISTICATED SEC
FILING DATABASES
Lexis and Westlaw
Mergentonline – Available via
University Library, Cleveland Public
Bloomberg Law Edgar Search
SECInfo.com

56. GOVERNMENT AGENCY
FORMS
Forms.gov
USA Fed Forms.com (many fillable)
State of Ohio - Agency Forms

57. COURT DOCKETS
PACER – Federal Court dockets
Find state courts on the web – Google
– Cuyahoga County docket
Bloomberg Law Dockets

59. DOCKETS - OHIO
Ohio – full text of documents on
Summit and Montgomery County &
others. Search by document type on
Summit county docket.
Full text on Cuyahoga County since
3/2014

60. COURT DOCKETS
May search a case opinion database
first, find case, then go on docket

61. PACER
10 cents a page
Money savers:
Justia Federal District Court Dockets
FreeCourtDockets.com
Recap
Free PACER Training site -
http://www.pacer.gov/announcements/gener
al/train.html

62. WHAT’S ON THE FREE
WEB
•All US Supreme Court Cases
•Reported Federal Appellate from 1882
•Some Unreported Fed App, Fed District
•State cases: reported – 1950. unreported -
early-mid nineties

63. WHAT’S ON THE FREE
WEB, CONT’D
•Statutes & Regulations- federal and states
•Municipal Ordinances
•Law Review Articles, Law Firm Newsletters
•Forms
•Dockets, Briefs & Pleadings
LOTS more!

64. FREE CASE LAW
Google Scholar
Ohio Supreme Court
More: Free Electronic Legal Research
- Case Law

65. FASTCASE APP
Free Iphone/Ipad
and ANDROID App
Don’t need to be a
bar member or
purchaser of
Fastcase

66. RAVEL LAW

67. GOOGLE ADVANCED
OPERATORS
AROUND –ex. constitution AROUND(5)
"home rule“
~ searches for synonyms and related words
ex. ~constitutionality - searches for
constitutional, unconstitutional, etc.
* placeholder for a word. Ex. sexual * abuse
picks up “sexual misconduct abuse”, “sexual
child abuse”, etc.

68. GOOGLE OPERATORS
AND (de fault)
OR (capitaliz e d)
“”Quotes for phrase.
- to remove words or phrases.
~ searches synonyms
* wildcard to replace word(s) (to * or * )
No truncation
sue AROUND(3) brown
Fields: intitle:, site:, inurl:
define: finds definitions

69. USE LEGAL SEARCH
ENGINES
LexisWeb
Justia