Research Resources

Basic Benefits Training Schedule and Registration: 2024-2025 Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. (MCLE) present a series of trainings every year for legal, social, health services, and community advocates who assist low- and moderate-income…

Links to various Legal Advocacy Guides on a range of poverty law topics. These Guides are generally available as downloadable PDFs.  If they are also available in "e-book" form, this will be noted and a direct link to the e-book provided. 2024 SNAP Advocacy Guide …

The National Center for Law and Economic Justice’s Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys guides legal aid and public interest lawyers through all stages of federal litigation. Previously coordinated by the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, this Revised 2024 Edition provides the most…

From the introduction to the manual: "The manual includes general rules of SJC writing style, tables of abbreviations, guidelines for case citation, and rules of punctuation and capitalization followed in preparing the official reports. There are sections explaining the method of forming case…

It is very easy to submit otherwise unpublished decisions to Westlaw for inclusion in the West caselaw decision databases.  See the Thompson Reuters Submission Guidelines for Court Opinions.

The following are some helpful links for tracing Massachusetts and Federal Legislative History: Guide to Tracing a Massachusetts Law:  The State Library of Massachusetts has developed this on-line resource guide to tracing the legislative history of Massachusetts laws. It contains many…

This interactive web site compiles community-level information from various available data sources for all 351 Massachusetts cities and towns, and visualizes that data in graphics and charts so it's easy to understand, print out and bring to a community discussion.  Click "go to…

Operated by the University of Michigan: "Find data produced by governments IGOs, NGOs, and the private sector on a wide variety of topics including demographic data on local communities, other countries, public opinion polls, criminal justice, incarceration and jails."

Federal procedures, codes and court rules. Federal Rules of Evidence Federal Rules of Civil Procedure U.S. Code Collection United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit) Rulebook Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure First Circuit Local Rules First Circuit Internal Operating…

Links to where to find birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates in every state.

Links to Massachusetts primary law and court rules, compiled by the Massachusetts Trial Court Library. Includes Constitution Acts and Resolves Code of Mass. Regulations (CMR) Mass General Laws (Legislature's website) Selected Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court…

The article provides an overview of the legislative process in Massachusetts.  It includes sections on: the Massachusetts legislative process and timelines sources of legislative history reconstructing a bill's legislative history where to find Committee and legislative…

Links to medical definitions and medical information: https://medlineplus.gov/ National Library of Medicine (NIH)  https://www.cdc.gov/ Centers for Disease Control.   Complements  Medline Plus. Has an up-to-date compilation of late-breaking news from medicine, without a spin, just…

The following are links to glossaries of legal terms in a variety of languages: Spanish (MA Trial Court, Office of Court Interpreter Services) Spanish  (NJ Office of the Trial Court) Vietnamese  (Washington, Office of the Administrator for the Courts) Cantonese …

This blog post explains how to get copies of briefs filed in Massachusetts court cases.  In particular, the post explains that: "in the last six years, many SJC and Appeals Court briefs have been made available on the State court website, shortly before they…

Sample record requests and successful efforts to get an agency to give information in a more timely manner The law states that records shall be produced for inspection "without unreasonable delay," and also that within 10 days' receipt of request, the record keeper must comply with the…

Resources to help you conduct legal research.  General legal: Boston College Law School Research Guides:   series of research guides on a variety of topics, prepared by Boston College Law School. Guides include, among others, Finding Cases, Using Law Reviews, Using Statutes,…