Where to Access Free Legal Materials in Massachusetts

I. Trial Court Law Libraries.

There are fifteen public Law Libraries located across Massachusetts dedicated to serving judges, lawyers, and members of the public.

Just like any local public Library, The Trial Court Law Libraries are open to everyone. There, you can receive in-person legal referral assistance, borrow books, and use print and electronic resources.

The Trial Court Law Libraries offer three methods to receive reference assistance from a law librarian—

• Visit a Law Library. A listing of Trial Court Law Library locations, directions and phone numbers can be found on pages 1-2.
• E-Mail. Fill out a simple form to send your question to the Trial Court Law Libraries’ reference staff (on weekdays, you can expect an answer within twenty-four hours or less).
• Chat live with a Trial Court Law Library legal reference librarian in real time over the Web.

In addition to their substantial paper-based collections, the Trial Court Law Libraries offer public access to their computer workstations, online services, and networked materials, including in-library only access to Westlaw and Lexis, as well as in-library and remote access to RetrieveLaw (Massachusetts and Federal primary legal materials); HeinOnline (law reviews and other materials); Gale Virtual Reference Library databases (Academic OneFile, General Business File, and General Reference Center Gold); Nolo Books Online; and ProQuest Massachusetts Newsstand. A Library card is required to access the databases. WiFi connectivity is available.

For additional information, visit: http://www.mass.gov/lawlib.

II. State Library of Massachusetts.

There is no Trial Court Law Library for Suffolk County. That is because at the time the Social Law Library was incorporated and mandated to serve as the library for the Commonwealth’s judicial, executive, and legislative branches of government, the legislative intent was that the law collection of the State Library, which is open to all, function as the free law library for Suffolk County.

Among the many legal materials available at the State Library are:

III. Library of the United States Courts in the First Circuit​

Located in the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse, the Library for the First Circuit has an extensive legal collection that may be accessed by members of the general public. The Library offers many printed legal resources, as well as publicly accessible computers and wireless internet. Only government employees are allowed to borrow materials from the Library but the collection is open to the public to use in the library.