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A Members' Guide to Accessing Remote PA Materials
Jenkins Law Library will be closed for the upcoming holiday from Monday, December 25th through Monday, January 1st. However, there are numerous remote resources available that our members can use for research in our absence! See below for some commonly used remote materials that are available 24/7 with your Jenkins membership that may be of assistance during the holiday break (and beyond):
1. Pennsylvania Law Encyclopedia
The Pennsylvania Law Encyclopedia (PLE) contains articles on a variety of legal topics, from actions to workers' compensation. The brief Table of Contents is available on the publisher's website (scroll down; the Table of Contents is located below the Product Details). This title is availble through our LexisNexis Digital Library database.
2. Pennsylvania Suggested Standard Criminal / Civil Jury Instructions
These instructions are published by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute (PBI) and are not freely available online. The instructions are available through our Fastcase database.
Provides access to over 5700 fill-in ready forms on a wide-range of legal topics. Many forms are transactional in nature. Popular topics include bankruptcy, corporations, divorce, incorporation, landlord tenant, name change, paternity, power of attorney, real estate, and wills and estates.
Forms available on Gale Legal Forms include forms drafted by attorneys for a particular legal matter, as well as forms from public records and participating companies and attorneys. Gale Legal Forms do not include references to statutes, regulations, or court rules.
This database contains over 100,000 trial court opinions from across the Commonwealth dating back to 1970. We collect opinions from all 67 counties with new material being loaded every day. Jenkins has indexed this material to allow users to search across multiple fields, including County, Opinion Year, Opinion Date, and Case Name. The database is also full text searchable. Full Text search results may vary. If expected results are not found, use the drop-down menu options to search by other criteria. Covers 1970--present.
5. Jenkins' Court Records & Briefs
Jenkins receives briefs filed with the PA Supreme, PA Superior, and PA Commonwealth Courts. Jenkins retains whatever item(s) the court has sent us. There could be records and briefs for certain cases that Jenkins never received from the court. Jenkins does own records and briefs that are not yet included in the searchable index. Please see our blog post on our court records & briefs database for more information.
6. Trellis Law
Dive into Trellis Law's extensive database to search for civil and criminal court cases, legal documents, and judge analytics from Pennsylvania, as well as 40 other states (as of October 2023), including Delaware, New Jersey and New York. Coverage varies by state & county.
For additional resources and research pointers, have a look at one of our 80+ subject specific research guides!
Wishing you a joyful, healthy, and safe holiday from the Jenkins' team. Happy researching!
