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Civil appellate, criminal appellate, and criminal trial lawyer at 704 North Thompson Street, #157, Conroe, Texas 77301-2578, (936) 494-1393.

Monday, April 2, 2012

For Northern Metro Houston Legal Researchers

Legal research materials are generally priced for prosperous lawyers, and for people who are not prosperous or not lawyers, they can be hard to come by. Law libraries can help. There is a law library fund for every county in Texas. Every law school has to have a law library, and general public libraries and college libraries often have legal materials. A great deal of my life in the law has been lived north of downtown Houston, Texas, and my knowledge of how to get cost-effective access to these materials is an important part of my professional skills.
There are two fine law libraries in downtown Houston: Harris County Texas Law Library and the Fred Parks Law Library at my alma mater South Texas College of Law.  If you need to get family law materials, go to South Texas: the materials there are much less likely to be damaged, missing or out-of-place because the public uses the materials there so much less than the ones at the County Law Library. Also be aware, it costs money to park near either library, even if you go to South Texas on a Saturday. The County is now closed on Saturday.
I believe that there are some legal materials--state statues, some cases and law reviews-- at University Center in The Woodlands, but it's not a real law library (That's not to say its not a good general college library. It is.).
Going further north, the little jewel hidden in the piney woods is the Montgomery County Texas Law Library. It has been good for all the time that I have known about it, but under the dynamic leadership of Pris Streightoff, ably supported by Miss Casey, it gets better and better. Open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. through 5 p.m. every day that the County is working, it's right across the street from the courthouse (Under ordinary circumstances. park in the parking structure behind the building the library is in.). Between their printed materials and their computer access they have just about everything a legal researcher would ever need (The only exceptions I know about are that they lack an up-to-date Bluebook and Texas Rules of Form.). Ms. Streighthoff was telling me about all the things that they have on HeinOnline: United States Codes and nearly every law review you ever heard of, congressional legislative histories and much, much more. They'll have WiFi soon.

1 comment:

  1. Since the posting, the WiFi's up. Ask Miss Casey (her first name) for the ID and password, etc.

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