The Law and Legal Help

Updated April 2022

Legal Assistance & Research

  • Greater Boston Legal Services
    • Provides free legal assistance to low income families and individuals residing in Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington, Belmont, Woburn, and Winchester.
  • Massachusetts Legal Resource Finder
    • Find contact information for legal aid offices, government agencies, lawyer referral services, and court programs that may be able to help you for free or at low cost. Also includes links to free legal information and self-help materials.
  • Massachusetts Courts Self-Help
    • Find information on how the Massachusetts Court System operates, how to find a lawyer, and how to locate other services that might be available to you.
  • Middlesex Law Library
    • Trial Court Library for Middlesex County. Offers help with legal research, books and materials to borrow, free public wifi, and online databases for no charge, including Westlaw and Lexis.
  • Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries
    • There are 15 Trial Court Law Libraries located across Massachusetts to serve the courts, attorneys and the public. Just like local public libraries, the law libraries are open to everyone. You can receive legal reference assistance, borrow books, and use print and electronic resources.
  • Massachusetts Court System
    • ​​​​​​​Find a courthouse, search basic case information and scheduled court dates or recently published opinions.

State Laws

Federal Laws

  • United States Code
    • ​​​​​​​The Code contains the general and permanent laws of the United States, organized into titles based on subject matter. 
  • National Archives
    • ​​​​​​​The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) presents the official and complete text of agency regulations in an organized fashion in a single publication. It is divided into 50 titles covering broad subject areas of Federal regulations, and it is updated by amendments appearing in the daily Federal Register. Used together, these two publications establish the latest version of any given rule.
  • govinfo
    • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​A service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO), which is a Federal agency in the legislative branch. govinfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government, including the CFR, Federal Register, Congressional Record, Congressional bills, Presidential documents, and more.