Finding and Compiling Multistate Surveys
1. Introduction
Multistate surveys provide information on how different states address or propose to address a particular matter of interest in their legal systems. Some surveys merely provide citations to relevant legal authority (statutes, regulations, pending legislation, etc.) from various states, while others include summaries and/or full text material as well. Multistate surveys can be very useful for state-by-state comparisons. This guide lists different sources you can use to see if a multistate survey already exists on a topic of interest. It also lists some websites that can be helpful when compiling your own multistate survey from scratch or expanding on one that has already been created.
2. Preexisting Multistate Surveys
Listed below are both print and electronic sources that are specifically designed to find preexisting multistate surveys on different topics. In addition to the sources listed below, standard secondary sources like legal encyclopedias, treatises, and law journal articles often provide multistate perspectives on the topics they discuss and can be good sources for citations to relevant authority from different states. For more information on how to find relevant information in these types of sources, consult the USC Law Library guides Starting Points to Begin Your Legal Research and How to Find Law Journal Articles.
- National Survey of State Laws, edited by Richard A. Leiter (Thomson, 6th ed.) (2008) (Ready Reference, KF 386 N28 2008)
This reference book provides 50-state surveys on a wide range of commonly researched and controversial legal topics in the United States. These topics fall into one of eight general legal categories:
- Business and Consumer Law
- Criminal Law
- Education Law
- Employment Law
- Family Law
- Miscellaneous Civil Law (e.g., Civil Rights, Civil Statutes of Limitations, Legal Ages, Right to Die, Wills)
- Real Estate Law
- Tax Law
The information is presented in a chart format that allows for easy state-to-state comparisons. The charts summarize the relevant law for each state as well as provide citations so that you can easily look up the relevant statutory code provisions. It is always advisable to check the relevant code sections since this book only provides summaries of the law and may not reflect the most current version of a particular state's law (given that the book is only current through June 1, 2007).
- Subject Compilations of State Laws, by Cheryl Rae Nyberg et al. (Ready Reference, KF 1 F67)
This series of bibliographies identifies and describes multistate surveys that have been published since the 1960s in various types of sources, including books, articles, government documents, and websites. The series now includes over 20 volumes, with new volumes being added on an annual basis. The volumes are not cumulative however so you need to consult each one if you want to find surveys on a certain topic from all time periods since the 1960s
The entries in each volume are arranged alphabetically by subject and then by author and/or title. To help you find the correct topic to look under, you can review the list of main subject headings located at the beginning of each volume. Remember that these bibliographies of multistate surveys only describe the surveys listed and indicate where they are published. After you identify a potentially useful survey from one of these bibliographies, you need to use other finding aids (i.e., library catalogs, law journal indexes, etc.) to actually locate the source containing that survey.
- National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) 50-State Legislative Tracking Web Resources
This website provides links to 50-state compilations or surveys covering issues of concern to state legislatures. Some of the surveys list pending legislation in the various states while others list actual statutes that have been enacted. Surveys are arranged first by broad topic (e.g., Criminal Justice, Education, Ethics, Labor & Employment) and then alphabetically by survey name. Next to the name of each survey is an indication of the type of information included for that topic (e.g., statutes, legislation, etc.) as well as the format of that compilation (database, chart, table, etc.). The screen below is from an NCSL legislation database that you could use to find information on proposed legislation in various states on the topics of child care and early childhood education.
- Findlaw - State Laws: Browse by Topic
This website provides 50-state surveys on a variety of legal topics of interest to the public at large. The main topics included on this website are shown on the screen shot below. For each topic, you can link to an overview or summary of the relevant law(s) from each state. Statutory citations for each state's laws are also included and in some instances, you can link from the citations to the full text of the statutes.
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- Martindale-Hubbell Law Digests
The Martindale-Hubbell Law Digests summarize and describe the major statutory laws for all 50 states. Each digest covers one state and is broken up into different broad categories (e.g., Civil Actions, Criminal Law, Employment). These categories are further broken down into more specific topics (e.g., Limitation of Actions, Bail, Workers' Compensation Law). Each digest begins with a table of contents that you can use to see which topics and subtopics are included.
The Law Digests can be accessed through the Search Legal Topics page on the Martindale.com website. The site can be used for free, though you must register first to gain access to the information. After you register, you can gain access to a state digest by merely typing in "law digest" followed by the state you are interested in (e.g., "law digest California"). When you select that digest and click on the "View the full text of this article" link, a PDF version of the digest will open up for you.
- National Center for State Courts (NCSC) State Profiles
This website provides state surveys/profiles on topics pertaining to the courts and litigation. The screen below lists the main topics covered on this site (see the red headings under InfoCenters) and shows the links to the specific surveys pertaining to the first of these topics, "Access and Fairness." In some cases, links are provided to the actual relevant statutes while in other cases, the site merely links to summary statements of the relevant laws and rules. Many of the profiles on this site provide listings of websites for specific courts or court-related entities or programs in each state (e.g., "Supreme Court Committees and Commissions," "Parental Education Programs," etc.).
- Uniform Laws Annotated (Open Reserve, KF165.A5 U51)
This multivolume print publication can help you find out which states have adopted the various uniform laws drafted and promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (also called the Uniform Law Commission). There is a slim softbound index located at the end of this print set to help you determine which volumes contain which uniform laws. After consulting the appropriate bound volume, make sure you also check the pocket part in the back of that volume to obtain the most current information regarding the act in which you are interested.
- Uniform Law Commission - Final Acts and Legislation
This web page also provides information as to which states have adopted the various uniform laws of the Uniform Law Commission. If you have a particular uniform act in mind (e.g., Uniform Adoption Act), merely select that act from the first pull down menu (as shown below) and click on the Search button. You will then see the bill tracking information for this act, which lists the states that have recently introduced legislation to adopt the law. If you then link to the "Legislative Factsheet" for the act, you can see which states have already adopted this uniform law.
If you are merely interested in a particular state, you can choose that state from the second pull down menu shown below. Note however that a specific state search will only search the bill tracking information and therefore not tell you if that state has already adopted one or more of the uniform laws.
3. Compiling Your Own Multistate Surveys
If you are not able to find a preexisting survey that exists on a topic of interest or you are only able to find information for a limited number of jurisdictions and need to expand your research, you can search one or more statutory code databases to compile your own multistate survey. Listed below are some websites that can help you to create your own compilation.
- LexisNexis Academic (available on the USC Campus)
The Federal & State Codes search page on LexisNexis Academic (which is contained in the "Search - Legal" folder) allows you to simultaneously search the text of all 50 state statutory codes and constitutions by key word(s). Make sure the "State Codes, Constitutions, Court Rules &
ALS . . ." source is chosen in the "Sources" box.
There are two searching methods on LexisNexis:
- Terms and Connectors:
This is the searching method in which you place connectors between your terms and phrases to show the desired relationships between them in the code sections. The AND connector between terms and phrases indicates that both must be in the section, while the OR connector indicates that only one of them needs to be in the section. To look for sections in which your terms or phrases appear in close proximity to each other, use one of the "within" connectors instead of the AND connector:
w/n (within n words of, e.g. w/10, w/20)
w/s (within the same sentence)
w/p (within the same paragraph)
Example:
- employment or job w/s age discrimination
This search will look for code sections in which either the word employment or job appears within the same sentence as the phrase age discrimination.
You can truncate terms with an exclamation mark (!) to pull up different versions of a particular word.
Example:
- discriminat! w/p age
This search will look for code sections in which either discriminate, discriminates, discrimination, or discriminating appears in the same paragraph as the word age.
When you obtain your search results, you have the option of sorting your sections by relevancy, which will take into account how frequently your terms are mentioned.
You can click on the link just below the search box to learn more about LexisNexis connectors and commands.
- employment or job w/s age discrimination
- Natural Language:
This is the more basic searching method in which you merely enter your relevant terms (without connectors, commands, or special symbols) and LexisNexis retrieves the most "relevant" sections (based largely on the frequency in which your terms appear in the sections), ranked in order of relevancy.
It is recommended that you place quotation marks around exact phrases when doing a Natural Language search. You may also want to include major synonyms and alternative forms of a word in the Natural Language mode.
Example:
- "sexual harassment" sex gender discrimination
- Terms and Connectors:
- Using Legal Web Portals
There are a number of legal portals that provide links to the major legal websites for each state. These portals provide an efficient means of accessing code or legislative websites for a number of different states and therefore, can be useful when compiling your own multistate survey. Keep in mind that each state code website has its own searching tool(s) but many allow you to search by keyword and some provide subject indexes as well. Below are just two of the more widely used legal web portals with links for all 50 states
- Findlaw - State Resources
When you click on a particular state from this legal portal, you will be able to access links to the statutory and regulatory (administrative) codes as well as the bill tracking and agency websites for that state. For most states, the codes and bill information websites can be found through the "Primary Materials - Cases, Codes, and Regulations" link and the state agency websites can be found through the "State Government Information" link (as shown below).
- Washlaw
This legal portal from the Washburn University School of Law also provides links to the major code, legislative, and agency websites for each state. When you click on a particular state, you will find the links for the statutes and legislative information under the "Legislative Branch" main heading and the links for the administrative code (regulations) and the agency websites under the "Agencies" heading (as shown below).
