Laws, regulations & cases

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Laws, cases & regulations

New Jersey Administrative Code (regulations) is now online.
Probate, Morris County: see Surrogate's office
Need a notary? Federal laws & regulations

U.S. Constitution: Includes text, history, explanation of legal points and major constitutional cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States.
United States Code: Full-text searchable version the U.S. Code. Prior years (1988-present) also online. In order to ensure that a particular section of the law is still in force, search latest changes using Thomas .
Bills, statutes & supporting reports: Thomas (93rd Congress [1973] to present), uploaded by the Library of Congress, for the purpose of making federal legislative information freely available to the public via the Internet. Thomas offers information on current bills, recently passed laws, House and Senate voting records, selected full-text committee reports, and the Congressional Record.
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation (1774-1875), American Memory Collection, Library of Congress. Full-text U.S. Congressional documents and debates, including the Journals of the Continental Congress.
Regulations.gov: Search all current regulations by keyword, agency, or type of document. Quickest way to identify all proposed regulations open for public comment.
Code of Federal Regulations: This CFR is provided by the U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library. Search by topic, keyword or title/section number. 1997-present.
Federal Register: Provided by GPO Access, this full-text database is keyword searchable. Coverage runs from 1994-present, updated daily.

Federal case law
The official U.S. Supreme Court Web site offers history, rules and current information. Findlaw offers the most comprehensive collection of Supreme Court opinions, dating back to 1893. Cornell Law School concentrates on recent decisions (1990-present). Older decisions (1937-1975) are also accessible from FEDWORLD/FLITE. These sites contain full-text decisions and are keyword searchable. The Federal Judiciary Homepage provides links to all district and bankruptcy courts providing online access to case law. Beginning dates vary. Federal cases heard in New Jersey are also available online. Decisions from the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals begin May, 1994; decisions from the U.S. District Court for theDistrict of New Jersey begin October, 1998.

Federal court rules, procedures & forms covering New Jersey:

New Jersey laws & regulations
The New Jersey State Legislative Home Page provides access to the NJ Statutes (full-text, keyword searchable) and current bills (retrievable by bill number, subject or legislator). Status reports are updated regularly and related legislative documents are noted. If you need case annotations, legislative history notes or prior laws, we offer West's versions, in paper and online (WestLaw, in-house access only).

State regulations are codified in the New Jersey Administrative Code (NJAC) (free access requires registration). The online NJAC is updated quarterly. Regulations are updated with the New Jersey Register, also available from the NJAC site. Our library owns print copies of the NJAC (looseleaf format, updated weekly) complete with case annotations and history and New Jersey Register. Regulations are also available online via Westlaw.

Did you know? You can now get live broadcasts of NJ selected Legislative proceedings?

New Jersey Cases
New Jersey Supreme, Appellate and Tax Court Reports are maintained online by Rutgers Law School-Camden. Full-text decisions are arranged in date order and are searchable by docket number and keyword. Beginning dates vary: Supreme Court (March, 1994), Appellate Division and Tax Court (September, 1995). The Administrative Law Decisions database begins October, 1997. School Law Decisions from the Commissioner of Education, State Board of Education, School Ethics Commission and State Board of Examiners are uploaded beginnning 1997.

New Jersey court information

The New Jersey Judiciary home page provides links to judicial (trial), administrative (civil, criminal) and special (tax, municipal) courts. Family Division connects you to information regarding Child Placement Review, Supervised Visitation Program and Domestic Violence. NJ's Child Support Guidelines, including financial worksheet is available full-text from the Internet. Morris County's Surrogate Court probates wills and handles estate matters. You can also find answers to frequently asked questions regarding:

small claims court
landlord-tenant claims
how to file a complaint against an attorney or judge
NJ Court Rules
NJ Sentencing Guidelines
Statewide Violations Schedule (fees & fines)
NJMC Direct, pay your NJ parking and traffic tickets online.

State legal resources
State laws, regulations, courts, cases and bar associations can be located with FindLaw. The amount and type of information varies widely from state to state. Information regarding court systems and legal procedures (probate, small claims, etc.) can also be obtained directly from the state's home page. Some popular legal subjects (minimum wage) are available in state-wide survey format.

Subject collections
The largest collections of Web-based legal information are maintained by FindLaw and Cornell University's Legal Information Institute. Search for topical information by menu or keyword.

Legal Services of New Jersey links basic information on popular legal topics (employment, school law, personal injury, etc.) from a variety of state, federal and professional legal sources. This can be a good starting point for research.

Forms

FindLaw's Court Forms page connects you to federal and state forms you can download from the Web. Federal forms include appellate, district and bankruptcy courts. State forms vary, most are for civil cases.
New Jersey, selected civil, probate, arbitation, mediation, small claims forms
New Jersey Pro Se Forms, selected civil matters (name change, suing for amount of money under $15,000.00, family court forms, etc.) Includes information on how to appeal a decision of a Municipal Court and how to appeals in higher NJ courts.
NJ Court Rules, appendices contain dozens of forms and worksheets inncluding Child Support, wage execution, and court transcript request.

Our library has several New Jersey legal practice forms on CDROM and WestLaw which may be printed in the library.

Attorneys
If you want background information on a particular lawyer, use Martindale-Hubbell's Lawyers.com or West's Legal Directory. These databases tell you the age of the attorney, law school attended, current affiliations (law firm, teaching appointments, professional memberships), practice specialties and contact information. New Jersey Monthly listed our state's peer-nominated "Super Lawyers" in its May, 2005 issue (special advertising section). "Top Lawyers" were also published in March 2003.

Disciplinary actions

Disciplinary hearings, New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics...alphabetical list begins 1990; includes specifics about the incident
Decisions of the NJ Supreme Court Disciplinary Review Board, Sept. 1998-present
NJ Bartender maintains a statewide attorney ethics complaint roster.
If you need similar information for other states, start with that state's bar association.

Legal aid
The following organizations offer free or low-cost legal assistance:

Morris County Bar Assn. Lawyer Referral Service...referrals are free; half hour consultation with attorney $50.00 (not income/age dependent).
Legal Services of New Jersey & Morris County office...statewide legal assistance programs for low income residents (includes services formerly provided by the Legal Aid Society of Morris County)
Pro bono services, NJ State Bar Association
Rutgers's Law School legal clinics...service provided by law students and faculty (Newark campus)
Free Legal Service Providers in NJ, U.S. Dept. of Justice

Seniors are encouraged to call the Morris County Department of Aging (973) 285-6848 to inquire about additional legal assistance services.

Law libraries & research centers
The Morris County Law Library (Courthouse Building in Morristown), Rutgers University Law School Library (Newark, NJ) and New Jersey State Law Library (Trenton) offer extensive collections of state and federal laws, federal/regional reporters, digests, treatises, attorney practice books and legal periodicals. The State Library maintains a collection of NJ legislative history documents. Selected documents from 1998 to the present are avaliable online; many others can be supplied through interlibrary loan. The State Library also operates a fee-based LEXIS and Westlaw research service (609 292-6230). All of these libraries are open to the public.

MCL owns the following federal and state legal resources:.

WestLaw, online federal case law(US Supreme Court, Circuit Courts & District Courts) and New Jersey case law, statutes & regUlations. .
United States Code Annotated (federal laws--current edition only)
Statutes at Large/U.S.Code Congressional and Admin. News (laws in their original form--1954 to present)
Code of Federal Regulations (rules administered by Federal agencies--current edition only)
Federal Register (proposed and newly passed agency rules/regulations--1964 to present)
U.S. Supreme Court Reports (decisions of the Court--1827-1854; 1956-present)
Supreme Court Digest (indexes cases by subject and party)
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New Jersey Statutes Annotated (state laws--current edition only)
Laws of New Jersey (laws in their original form--1709 to present)
New Jersey Administrative Code (State agency rules and regulations--current edition only)
New Jersey Register (proposed and newly passed agency rules/regulations--1969 to present)
New Jersey Equity Reports (Court of Chancery & Court of Errors & Appeals--1830-1948)
New Jersey Law Reports (Supreme Court & Court of Errors and Appeals--1862-1948)
New Jersey Miscellaneous Reports (Court of Errors and Appeals, Courtof Chancery, Prerogative and Supreme Courts--1923-1949)
New Jersey Reports (State Supreme Court decisions--1948 topresent)
New Jersey Superior Court Reports (State Appellate decisions--1948 topresent)
West's New Jersey Digest (indexes by subject and party--1st & 2ndseries)

We also collect legal dictionaries, encyclopedias, scholarly treatises and popular books on a variety of topics including family, real estate, environmental and probate law.