Research

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The Law Library holds over 1,600 titles and 10,000 volumes in print and electronic subscriptions, including

  • Federal and all state codes, statutes, administrative regulations, and court and selected agency decisions;
  • Federal, California, and local court rules;
  • Online legal databases Westlaw Edge, Lexis+, CEB OnLaw, Fastcase, ebooks from the National Consumer Law Center and the LexisNexis Digital Library, and self-help titles by Nolo in the Legal Information Reference Center;
  • Legal newspapers, periodicals, and law journals in Westlaw and Lexis+;
  • Ordinances and municipal codes for Visalia and surrounding cities, Tulare County and surrounding counties;
  • California and federal practice and research tools including digests, encyclopedias, form books, Shepard’s, Continuing Education of the Bar, and Rutter Group titles;
  • Select legal resources on the Internet;
  • Legal treatises, practice guides, dictionaries and directories, general reference material, and Nolo books in print in the Diane E. Mathis Self-Help Legal Collection.

Staff serves as research facilitators available to help you find resources in our collection, legal databases, and community sources to enable your research or to locate information addressing your legal concern. Telephone and email reference services are limited to short, specific questions. Librarians are not attorneys and we take great care to avoid the unauthorized practice of law. Staff cannot help fill out forms, provide legal advice, or explain the meaning of the material.

We are a reference library only and material does not circulate outside the law library.

The Council of California County Law Librarians offers a list of free video classes with guidance on where to start and what resources to check as you research your legal issue and Riverside County Law Library offers their Legal Research for Everyone videos.  The American Association of Law Libraries also provides its resource on How to Research a Legal Problem: A Guide for Non-Lawyers.  And from the Harvard Law School Library, here's a step-by-step guide to help a beginning researcher.