Free Legal Resources Part 2
So, after my last post, you may be thinking that free legal resources are only found in random places and only fit random situations. Today I bring you the good news that you were wrong.
There are actually two great legal resources that can be found on the internet and are absolutely free. That is unless you count your taxes. Then they are only free if you don’t pay taxes. But, for those of you who pay your taxes, you might as well get something good out of it, right?
So here are two online resources that may be quite helpful should you ever have a legal question or run into a legal problem:
1. State and federal codes online.
So, by codes, I don’t mean that the state and federal government are sending our secret spy codes online. I mean ‘code’ as in ‘laws’. And most states have published their state’s laws online where you can browse and/or search them. For those in Utah, at http://le.utah.gov/Documents/code_const.htm, you can find links to either browse through the sections of the Utah State Code or you can do a search by keyword. For example, you can find that the phrase ‘ice cream’ is found twice in the Utah Code whereas the words ‘Jello’ and ‘Jell-o’ are nowhere to be found. For federal laws, you can find a TON of resources all over the internet, but they can be tough to sort through and find what you want. If you want to browse federal laws, then I would suggest Cornell Law schools website at http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/.
2. State court websites.
Most state court systems have a lot of information available to litigants. For example, on Utah’s state court website, you can find information such as: Utah court rules, Utah Court forms, Utah jury duty information, information about traffic violations, and even access to some appellate court decisions, and more. Though some of these resources are limited in scope and are only available relative to certain areas of the law, they can be very helpful, and they are absolutely free. You can even find things from a legal dictionary to forms to help you change your legal name.
So, if you ever find yourself with a legal question or facing a legal problem, don’t hesitate to look into it yourself first. Search for available resources and educate yourself. You may find the answer(s) you are looking for and you will put yourself in a better position for determining whether you need to hire an attorney.
‘Til next time.
Steve
