One of the first things you need to understand, if you are attempting to learn “the law” regarding a particular subject, is that our “law” is actually made up different types of law. For example, when most of us think about “the law,” one of the first things that comes to mind are the laws passed by our state legislature. Legislatures pass statues, and all of the statutes of a particular legislature are referred to collectively as that state’s “statutory laws.” Thus, one type of law is statutory law. In Massachusetts, we refer to statutory law, laws passed by our legislature, as Massachusetts General Laws.

Massachusetts’ legislature has enacted statutes for everything under the sun, and this statutory law is accessible online (click on the “Resources” tab above and select “General Resources” to find a link). Reading the actual, relevant, Massachusetts’ statutes regarding the particular subject you are researching is always a good place to start, when trying to learn about any area of the law (obviously, assuming you reside in the state of Massachusetts, and assuming Massachusetts’, rather than federal, law is applicable). However, do not think that once you’ve read the relevant statutory law on a subject that you now understand it, no matter how simplistically it may have been written. Remember, it is the legislative branch of government that enacts laws, but it is the judiciary that interprets them.

This brings me to another “type” of law that you must consider, if you are to really learn “the law” on a particular subject, and this is “case law.” You read a statute to learn what the law says, but you turn to case law to learn what the law really means, and what do statutory laws mean? Statutory laws mean whatever the judiciary says they mean. This is why one can never assume he or she understands a law, after only reading the statute. To truly understand what a law means, one must learn how judges have interpreted it.

Case law is made up of the reported decisions of appellate courts and other courts which make new interpretations of the law, establishing precedents that can be quoted and relied upon by lawyers, litigants, defendants, and plaintiffs. As the justices of these court make new rulings on a particular law or statute, new precedents can be set, and often are. Case law changes over time. This means that to truly learn what the current law is, on a particular subject, one must review the most current appellate cases that deal with that particular subject, to see how it was interpreted.

Of course, you may immediately be saying to yourself, how am I supposed to do that, when there are literally thousands and thousands of cases? How on earth am I supposed to find all of the cases that deal with my particular subject? The answer is Westlaw or Lexis Nexis. Both Westlaw and Lexis Nexis are computer-based service software companies that specialize in placing all reported cases into their vast systems, so that one can easily sort through hundreds of thousands of legal cases, with the click of a mouse. If you need to do legal research and need to review case law on a particular subject, these two companies provide your best alternative.

This is probably a good time for me to point out (before I get any flack from other such companies) that Westlaw and Lexis Nexis are not the only companies that provide such a service. There are others and some of these other options work well; however, to my knowledge, Westlaw and Lexis Nexis are the most comprehensive and have been around the longest. Westlaw and Lexis Nexis are both taught to law students, while in law school, and there’s a reason for this.

The problem with both Westlaw and Lexis Nexis is that they are both very expensive. What can you do if you simply cannot afford to use these services? Although these services are expensive, there is good news, if you live in the state of Massachusetts. If you visit your nearest Massachusetts’ Trial Court Library, usually found in the Superior Court house of your county, you will find both Westlaw and Lexis Nexis available to the public, for free. If you ask nicely, the law librarians will usually even show you the basics of using these services. Once you’ve retrieved relevant cases, you can then email these cases to yourself in PDF or some other format, for reading later.