Legal Research
From abatement to zoning the LA Law Library offers research material on all areas of law.
Our collection covers an abundance of legal topics as diverse as acknowledgment, fish and game, laundries, pipelines, telegraphs and telephones, and warehouses and wharfs. Statutes provide the law and cases supply an in-depth view of how courts and administrative agencies have interpreted legal subjects including bankruptcy, contracts, families and children, property, torts, and wills and trusts.
Use an encyclopedia to understand creditor's rights and remedies, a treatise for detailed description about water law, and a practice guide to learn how to create a corporation.
Extensive
- Thousands of printed resources
- Hundreds of legal topics
Diverse
- California , other states and territories, Federal
- Scholarly review of legal theories
- Helpful commonplace usage
Comprehensive
- Wide range of issues
- Detailed over-view of subject areas
- Practical guidelines and procedures for various topics
Briefs
LA Law Library maintains a broad collection of briefs filed in the California Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal!
A brief is the formal legal argument summarizing a party’s case to a higher (appellate) court. Researchers often use briefs as exemplars for their own appeal or for historical or other research.
LA Law Library is one of four designated depository libraries in California to receive state appellate court briefs. While retaining a large number of briefs in phsyical format, LA Law Library has also digitized a large portion of its briefs collection and made it available online through Google Books and other legal databases.
If you know the docket number for the brief you are trying to find, feel free to request assistance from our Reference team using the form below.
Broad Collection
- The collection includes briefs dating back to California's admission to the Union in 1849
- Includes digitized briefs from roughly 1990 forward
Available Remotely and in the Library
- Get live assistance researching briefs at the Reference Desk by phone at (213) 785-2529 or in person
- Request email copies of briefs by completing the form below including docket number
Brief Request Form:
The Library’s Collection Development team appreciates your suggestions and carefully considers any recommended purchase from our patrons.
As the second-largest public law library in the United States, LA Law Library's print and electronic resources cover almost every conceivable legal topic.
Our collection consists of primary and secondary materials covering federal law, the laws of all 50 states and U.S. territories, and global (foreign and international) law, with an emphasis on California resources. Materials are available in print for easy onsite browsing and borrowing, and in electronic format for quick searching and convenient downloading or emailing. We also offer e-book borrowing through Lexis Digital for library card holders.
The Library focuses its collection on self-help and practice resources. We provide free on-site access to self-help material for those without legal training, practice guides and treatises for attorneys and other in-depth researchers, and the most advanced legal databases to assist both lawyers and those representing themselves in legal matters.
The Library offers not only current materials, but also an extensive historic collection representing a unique and invaluable public resource in the heart of Los Angeles. This collection remains vitally relevant today, for both general research and because present-day legal disputes often involve the law in effect on a certain date in the past. LA Law Library is one of the very few places where this type of research can be done at no cost by the general public, with access to old editions of statutory and regulatory codes and other laws, as well as major treatises.
Extensive Print and Electronic Collection
- Over 1,000,000 volumes in print or other physical format
- Broad and comprehensive database access, free onsite to anyone
Comprehensive Coverage
- Current and historical primary materials for federal law, all 50 states and U.S. Territories, and extensive global law materials
- California and federal Government Documents
Self-Help and Practice Materials
- Litigation and procedural guides with instructions, forms and templates for different legal matters
- Topic-specific publications provide explanations and references to statutory law, court rules, and case law
Search the library catalog to find relevant titles. If you can’t make it in, order any material from the collection through e-delivery for a modest fee.
