Major legal research databases can be prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, many free and low-cost resources for conducting legal research are available. This guide will help you locate them.
We will mainly focus on resources for researching federal law and Washington State law. Some resources for researching the law in other states and countries are mentioned as well.
Remember to evaluate every source that you consult to determine whether it is current, accurate, and authoritative. This is particularly important when relying on free and low-cost resources.
Fastcase is a low-cost legal research database. It was recently acquired by vLex. If you are a member of the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA), then you can access the vLex Fastcase database for free through your WSBA membership. For more information, see WSBA: vLex Fastcase. If you are an SU Law student, staff, or faculty member, you can access Fastcase and vLex for free using the links below.
You can access additional legal research databases, including Westlaw and CoCounsel, for free through the King County Law Library (see link below).
