Advice, U.S., Wisconsin, Reference

Portage County Courthouse
With listings for agencies located there.

Copyright and Fair Use
Current information on copyright and fair use cases, laws, and information produced by Stanford University Libraries. Also links to historical overviews of copyright law and practice.

Crash Course in Wills and Trusts
A good overview of issues involved in wills, trusts, and estates, by an attorney/financial planner.

Divorce On-line
Divorce Page
Amazing collection of original material and links to resources to help those going through a divorce or loss of a relationship. Includes: legal, custody, support groups, books, and more.

FreeAdvice
Provides a basic overview of nearly every major legal issue from a consumer point-of-view, either by list or in searchable format. Additional offerings include a long list of legal links for federal and state resources and associations. As of July 10, 1998, the Lawyer Directory Service was just getting started.

National Consumer Law Center
Though this site contains mostly advertising aimed toward attorneys, two sections are of note for the layperson. “Free Consumer Information” gives an overview of many topics of concern, such as leasing vs. buying a car and reverse mortgages, and provides citations for articles and brochures containing additional information for each topic. “Links” provides links to over 25 consumer-oriented web sites.

Nolo Press
This site is for the layperson, and though it is a promotion tool for Nolo Press, it contains general advice of interest, such as a step-by-step review of the child custody process. In addition, this site provides a legal encyclopedia and current news and features.

Internet Legal Resource Guide's Legal Form Archive
Free access to sample legal forms for personal or business use. Note: individual states may require state-specific forms.

Wisconsin Circuit Court Forms
A searchable site with many Wisconsin Court forms that can be downloaded.

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Federal Register (FR)
Code of Federal Regulations and Federal Register documents in searchable form. CFR can be searched by specific cite or keyword, and limited to several different years. FR can be searched by specific cite or page, keyword, and type of document (final rules, proposed rules, notices, etc.), and limited to years 1995-1998. Both sites explain search options clearly and offer text or PDF files--PDF files require Adobe Acrobat software.

United States Code
The full text of the US Code, searchable by keyword or by citation.

Cornell Law School Legal Research Institute
Many informative links, including subject resources, foreign and international resources, an address and email directory for law school professors and staff, and Legal Information Institute’s Eye on the Courts, which offers full text of court cases covered in the media.

Federal Court Finder
Quick location guide for Federal Court districts and cases, provided by Emory University School of Law.

FindLaw
An award-winning site for legal information. Over thirty different practice areas are covered, as well as legal firms, federal and state case law, legal forms, legal organizations, news, employment and CLE opportunities, and more. FindLaw is a part of LawCrawler, a law-oriented search engine powered by Google.

IBM Patent Server
MicroPatent
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
All are excellent sources for patent searches, are easy to use, require fees for full-text patent delivery. Micropatent covers the last 34 years of patents, IBM’s site covers the last 26 years (with 23 years of images), and the USPTO covers the last 22 years. The USPTO, however, offers over 20 different search criteria, and ranks searches two different ways, whereas IBM offers only 6 major search criteria (inventor, assignee, agent, title, etc.) The USPTO also offers information about trademarks, and has application forms for patents and trademarks (Adobe Acrobat is necessary), and other pertinent information. MicroPatent is significantly more expensive and complicated to use, but it does cover more years for patents, and also maintains a trademark search service containing trademarks from 1884 to present.

Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Locator
Find information about a lawyer or a firm, searchable by name, region, or type of law. West's Legal Directory is a similar site.

Municipal Codes on the Web
City law from over 400 cities, brought together in one site by Seattle Public Library.

StateLaw
Legal finder for statutes, court decisions, and other state legal information, with direct links to sites of interest.

Wisconsin

State Bar of Wisconsin
The State Bar of Wisconsin offers a vast array of resources for lawyers and non-lawyers. For lawyers only, offerings include information about the State Bar membership, organization, and CLE opportunities. For lawyers and non-lawyers, the site offers searchable access to State and Federal court decisions; court rules for Wisconsin courts (by County), the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and Federal courts; downloadable legal forms; and an internal search engine. A separate site, Legal Explorer offers resources for the public focusing on Bar publications and lawyer referral.

Tenant Resource Center
Lots of questions and answers about tenants rights and responsibilities.

Wisconsin Administrative Code
A partial and unofficial source for the Wisconsin Administrative Code, including the index. Adobe Acrobat required to view the files.

Wisconsin Court System
The official site for Wisconsin Courts, including Supreme Court and Circuit Court information, as well as a link to the online version of the Wisconsin Blue Book. For a more recent version of the Wisconsin Blue Book , check your local public library for a print copy. For Circuit Court forms, including those for parental rights, see the Circuit Court Forms Search page.

Wisconsin State Law Library
Law links from the Wisconsin State Law Library include a variety of legal forms and legal prodecure checklists.
Search the library's holdings, or ask a reference question. The Wisconsin State Law Library is open to the public and is a resource for all Wisconsin citizens.

Wisconsin State Statutes
Unofficial full-text version of the state statutes, complete with a search engine to identify relevant terms. Adobe Acrobat required to view the forms.

UW Law School
Includes an online tour of the law school, employment links, links to community law organizations affiliated with the law school (including resource centers for Family Law, Elder Law, Continuing Education, and LawPal), and a well-organized site for additional law-related links from the Law Library.

NOTE: Not all public libraries have Adobe Acrobat downloading and viewing capabilities. Please call the location you intend to visit first to ensure this is an option. If you don’t already have Adobe Acrobat on your own computer, you can download it for free from Adobe’s web site, where you can also find installation instructions.