What if you had this headline in your book: Harry Hero is accused of extortion! Are you an attorney or paralegal? Do you have extensive background in the legal system? If so, this article probably won't help you. But if you're lacking in legal experience and don't really want to spend a great deal of time in a law library floundering through book after book, read on.
I have found over the past ten years I've spent working as a Litigation Paralegal that while you can pay big money for a little time using an online legal research engine [like Westlaw (www.westlaw.com) and Lexis (www.lexisone.com)], you can also benefit your clients by using the 'free' research services offered throughout the web. Here's a brief listing of useful resources:
Free Legal Advice
www.freeadvice.com
FindLaw
www.findlaw.com
CA Law Net
www.calawnet.com
Crimelynx
www.crimelynx.com/research.html
Georgia State University's College of Law's Major Meta-Index
gsulaw.gsu.edu/metaindex
University of Chicago's International Law Research Index
www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/forintlaw.html
University of Colorado's International Law Listing
spot.colorado.edu/~thompsje/intlaw.htm
Cornell University's Legal Information Institute
www.law.cornell.edu
The American Bar Association's Websites
www.abanet.org/home.cfm
www.lawtechnology.org/lawlink/home.html
You can also go to Google.com and type in "Legal System in ___" (fill in the blank with whichever country you need information on) and receive hundreds of listings. I've used this method for England and Spain and come up with easy to read information.
While these are 'reputable' sites, unless you verify that the information copyright dates are recent you might receive bad law. So be aware. However, I have yet to find a university website wrong, especially one that houses a College of Law. And, since we are writing fictional works we can usually get away with using a law they may have been revised or repealed.
Another great source for laws within a certain state is that state's website. For instance, in Tennessee, we have Tennessee Anytime (http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/laws/index.html) that houses our laws and can refer you to many other things, as well.