Legal Research:
Librarians cannot provide legal advice. In addition, law students are not licensed attorneys and cannot provide legal advice. The College of Law does offer free brief legal advice through their Pro Bono Initiative Clinics. The free brief advice legal clinics are staffed by volunteer law students and volunteer on-site supervising attorneys. The clinics are open to any low-income Utahn on a first-come first-served basis.
Librarians are available to answer questions about tools and resources that may be helpful when researching a particular topic. To receive help, contact the reference desk during regular business hours at reference@law.utah.edu or 801-581-6184. Law students are not permitted to perform legal research for the general public. Students can only provide research services under the supervision of an attorney. The Career Development Office provides assistance to attorneys looking for law students to do research. Visit our A-Z Legal Database List for more resources.
CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY LIBRARY RESOURCES
Lexis (Nexis Uni):
Nexis Uni is an affiliate database to LexisNexis and contains select databases found in Lexis, including all federal and state case law, regulations, statutes and many legal journals. Nexis Uni also contains over 15,000 news and business sources. Nexis Uni available to all library users through the public computer terminals in the library or through personal laptops connected to the Internet through the University’s UGuest wireless internet. It is available at any campus library, not just the law library.
Reference:
Reference service is available to assist with questions about the collection, to help find specific legal materials, or to set up a research strategy. The reference librarians cannot give legal advice or interpretations of the law; please consult an attorney who is engaged in the practice of law for such help. Much legal research can be done electronically. Reference librarians are available to give help and instruct in the use of online sources. Help is also available in areas requiring extra research skills such as legislative histories, administrative law, and international law. To contact the reference desk, call 801-581-6184 or email reference@law.utah.edu.
Representing Yourself in Court:
The library maintains a collection of self-help books, a majority of which are published by well-known self-help publishing company Nolo Press. These books cover a variety of topics including Bankruptcy, Business Formation, Divorce, Employment Law, Estate Planning, Immigration and Landlord/Tenant. These books are located in the Reading Room on level 1, in the shelves along the wall closest to the entrance.
The Utah Courts maintain a Self-Help Center on their web site. The Self-Help Center provides free legal help to people who do not have a lawyer. This site also contains links to self-help resources including forms and explanations of the law on a variety of different legal topics.
The College of Law’s Pro Bono Initiative operates several free brief advice sites year-round that are staffed by volunteer law students and supervising attorneys. Subjects include: American Indian Law; Community Law; Debtor’s Law; Expungement Law; Family Law; Medical Law; Rainbow Law; Street Law; Veterans Law; and Wills for Heroes.
The law library is developing legal education videos on various topics to help you learn about the law. Current topics include eviction and criminal procedure.
The law library has created a research guide for those who are representing themselves in court. Information on self-help resources and legal materials such as federal and Utah state law sources are covered in this guide.