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New York Legal Research

How to Effectively Perform Legal Research in New York

This guide provides an overview into researching the law in New York as well as providing references to materials commonly used by practicing New York attorneys. Where possible, references have been made to print and online sources. As always, before using fee-based online resources such as Westlaw and Lexis, be sure to know your firm's policies on using them.

To access information contained within this guide, click on the appropriate link in the outline below.

IMPORTANT: if you choose to click on the links taking you to Westlaw or Lexis search or information screens, you must "sign off" the database before hitting the Back icon on your browser before returning to this guide. If you neglect to do so, you will remain signed on and accrue charges.

I. SECONDARY SOURCES
A. Encyclopedias
B. Treatise
C. Digest
D. Directories
E. Legal Newspapers and Journals

II. PRIMARY SOURCES
A. State Constitution, Statutes, and Legislative History
B. Regulations/Administrative Code
C. Court Structure and Rules
D. Case Law

III. OTHER SOURCES

 

I. SECONDARY SOURCES

A. Encyclopedias

  1. New York Jurisprudence 2d (KFN 5065 .N48) . This state encyclopedia is available in print and online through Westlaw and Lexis. While this encyclopedia may provide you with some valuable case citations on your research issue, it may not provide the in-depth coverage on the topic as would a treatise.
  2. Carmody-Wait Cyclopedia of New York Practice (KFN 5995 .C342). This is an encyclopedia of criminal procedure and civil practice within the state of New York. This encyclopedia is available in print and online through Westlaw and also includes many helpful legal forms.

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B. Treatises, Hornbooks and other Practice Books

  1. Siegel's New York Practice (KFN 5995 .S562x 1999 and suppl. 2003/2004). This is a comprehensive guide to performing legal research in regards to New York State, New York City, and Indian or Tribal Law in New York. It is available on Westlaw in several individual databases. For more information, click here.
  2. Weinstein, Korn and Miller's New York Practice: CPLR. This is an 11-volume treatise on civil practice in New York. It is available on Lexis. There is also a one-volume condensed version of this comprehensive treatise, entitled Weinstein-Korn-Miller CPLR Manual, also available on Lexis.
  3. Matthew Bender's New York Standard Civil Practice Service Desk Book (KFN 5990 .A195 2004 and supplement). In addition to providing the full text of many acts including the Civil Practice Law and Rules and the Property Actions and Proceedings Law, this reference source provides the practitioner with case notes and other research references. It is a wide-ranging compilation of the latest statutes and rules that apply to civil practice and procedure within the state of New York.
  4. New York Lawyer's Deskbook. Published annually by the New York State Bar Association, this work provides guidance to new and established practicing lawyers on twenty-five areas of law in New York.

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C. Digest

  1. West's New York Digest: Now in it's 4th series, this work is supplemented by pocket parts and pamphlets.

D. Directories

  1. New York Directory of Expert Witnesses and Consultants. Available on Lexis, this is an annually-updated directory. It includes resumes of experts that are based throughout the state of New York, and from across the nation.
  2. West's Legal Directory - New York. Available on Westlaw, this directory includes bios of attorneys and profiles of law firms based in New York. This resource is also available in a free version at Findlaw. The general West Legal Directory is also freely available through Findlaw and provides directory information for states in addition to New York.
  3. Martindale Hubbell Lawyer Locator. Freely available on the Internet, lawyers can be searched by various fields: location/area of practice/industry, firm, corporation, federal government agencies, and law school faculty.
  4. New York Lawyers Directory and Bar Directory. This is a directory of attorneys admitted to the New York Bar, federal and state judges within New York state, and provides contact information for federal, state and local New York City) agencies and departments.
  5. New York Red Book (JK 3430. N47). Provides encyclopedic information regarding the state agencies and departments of the government in New York.
  6. The Green Book: the Official Directory of the City of New York. This is the official phone directory for employees of New York City government agencies and departments.

E. Legal Newspapers and Journals

  1. New York Law Journal . A subscription is needed for full online access to the New York Law Journal. It is also available on Westlaw, with coverage from 1990.
  2. New York State Bar Association Journal. This is available in print, online on Westlaw and is distributed free of charge to all members of the New York State Bar Association Journal. Its web site provides an archive of issues back to 2000 (members access only).
  3. Both Lexis and Westlaw offer individual databases for the academic journals and law reviews published within New York State, as is the case with the New York State Bar Journal mentioned above. Additionally, both databases offer group files where these full-text journals can be searched together. These journals and law reviews can be found within the NY-JLR (New York Journals and Law Reviews) database on Westlaw, and within NYLRV (New York Law Reviews, Combined) file on Lexis.

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II. PRIMARY SOURCES

A. State Constitution, Statutes and Legislative History

1. New York's state constitution is available online through the Senate's web site and through the Assembly's web site in a hyperlinked format. (Click on Laws of New York, scroll down the page to the Miscellaneous section, and click on the CNS hyperlink.) Be sure to also review Albany Law School's New York State Constitution Research Aid.

2. New York's legislature is divided into two houses: the State Assembly and the Senate.

3. How a bill becomes a law within the New York State system is similar to the federal system. (For a diagram on how a bill becomes a law in New York, click here.) New proposed legislation is called a bill. Once the bill has been passed, it is called a "chapter law" or "chapter". A slip laws is a "chapter" that has been printed separately. At the end of a legislative term, these chapter laws are then arranged in chronological order by number and then published in an annual volume, known as session laws. Similar to the federal system, New York's laws are then codified and organized into a subject matter arrangement, known as the Consolidated Laws of New York. For information on where to find the statutory compilations or "codes" of New York, click here.

4. As is often the case with performing legislative history research for a state statute, it is advised to consult a legal research guide written specifically for that state. Some helpful guides are linked directly below (and also see the very bottom of this guide). Please note that any call numbers listed on these guides are relevant only to the libraries at which these guides were created.

IMPORTANT: New or pending legislation may affect your client! For information on identifying very recent statutes and pending legislation, click here. For information on researching historical annotated NY codes, click here.

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B. Regulations/Administrative Code

The official administrative code for New York is entitled the Official Compilation of Codes, Rules & Regulations of the State of New York (KFN 5035 1960 .A22). It is available online through Westlaw and Lexis. Additionally, many state agencies in New York provide their rules and regulations online. Click here for a directory of agency web sites, provided by the New York State Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform.

Various agencies and departments within New York City's government publish their own rules and regulations within the Rules of the City of New York, available on Lexis and Westlaw. The current rules can be found as part of the New York City Administrative Procedure Act, and encompasses seventy-two titles. The New York City Administrative Code can be found online on Lexis and Westlaw. Any proposed changes to the rules are required to be published within the City Record. New rules are also published within the City Record, which has a monthly index. If you cannot find the information you are looking for within the Administrative Code or the City Record, it may be best to contact the individual agency or department for further information.

IMPORTANT: You must update New York regulations to ensure you are aware of the most current regulations in force - click here for instructions on updating and information on accessing the regulations databases and files on Westlaw and Lexis.

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C. Court Structure and Rules

e. Federal Courts: New York State sits within the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The counties of New York and the Bronx are located within the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court and Bankruptcy Courts for the Southern District. The counties of Kings, Queen and Richmond, sit within the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court and Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District. There is also a District Court for the Northern District of New York (click here for a map of the counties included within the Northern District), as well as a District Court for the Western District of New York.

  1. Court rules for the state and federal courts within New York can be easily found in print, via the McKinney's New York Rules of Court (KFN 5992.A195x 2005). They can easily be found online through Lexis and Westlaw.

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D. Case Law

  1. Online Publication of State Court Decisions:

Opinions from the New York State Court of Appeals rendered since 1992 are available online for free the Cornell Legal Information Institute. The Court of Appeals also makes its decisions available on its web site on the same day that they are released to the general public, as well as provides an archive of its opinions from 2004 forward, in slip-opinion format. Further publication of court cases (and briefs) can be found in the following Westlaw and Lexis databases.

  1. Print Reports of State Court Decisions: According to the Bluebook, Table 1, the preferred citation is to the Northeastern Reporter or Northeastern Reporter Second Series, for decisions of the Court of Appeals from 1847 to present. However, you should always consult the local court rules for citation rules. (See Practitioners Notes B5.1.3 on page 9 of the 18th edition of the Bluebook. See Bluepages table BT.2 for additional information on citations and local rules for federal courts in NY.) To determine the holdings of the Harvard Law School Library's print reporters for New York, click here.

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III. OTHER SOURCES

A. New York State Bar Association: This association is the largest voluntary statewide organization of lawyers in New York, and is also the official association of lawyers for the state. Its web site provides a wealth of information about the organization as well as membership requirements for continuing legal education. (Additional information regarding CLEs is available through the New York Courts' web site and publications.) The NYSBA has many special interest sections by area of practice including antitrust, business law, and tax, etc. For those lawyers who are young and have been newly admitted to the New York Bar, it has a Young Lawyers Section.

B. Association of the Bar of the City of New York: Similar to the state bar association, membership within the Bar of the City of New York is voluntary. Among other things, its web site also provides information regarding continuing legal education.

C. Professional Conduct Rules: The New York State Bar Association adheres to the Lawyer's Code of Professional Responsibility. To view a copy of this important code, click here. Additionally, judges within New York state must adhere to the Code of Judicial Conduct (pdf).

D. Forms and Form Books

  1. Your form or legal association may already have a database of forms to use. However, some official forms are also available on the New York Court's web site, both in PDF and OmniForm formats (the latter can be completed electronically).
  2. McKinney's Forms (West), available online on Westlaw, through the McKinney Forms Multibase, and in print.
  3. Bender's Forms for Civil Practice, available on Lexis and in print.

E. Research Handbooks

  1. A. Manz., W., Gibson's New York Legal Research Guide, 3rd. ed. (2004) (Reference KFN 5074 .G53 2004)

F. Research Guides on the Internet: Many other law schools have prepared research guides designed to help practitioners or students navigate their way through New York's legal system. They may prove especially helpful if you need to conduct a legislative history of a New York state law.

  1. New York State Legal Research (Syracuse University Law School) (pdf)
  2. New York State Legislative History (Syracuse University Law School) (pdf)
  3. The Legislative History of a New York State Law (New York State Law Library)
  4. New York Legislative History (University of Buffalo) (pdf)
  5. Compiling Legislative Histories for New York State in the Law Library (Pace Law School)
  6. New York State Legislative Research (St. John's University School of Law) (pdf)
  7. New York Research Resources (Georgetown Law Library)
  8. New York Legal Research Sites (Law Library Association of Greater New York)
  9. Guide to Law Online - New York (Library of Congress)

 

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One Last Reminder:

Lastly, do not forget to consult with your law firm's librarian or with the reference staff of the Harvard Law Library Langdell Reference Desk if you have any questions during your legal research. You can reach us by email or by phone, at 617-495-4516. Please be sure to identify yourself as an HLS student when contacting us.