Resources for Conducting Multi-State Surveys

Whether you are researching in a developing area of law, or one that is well-settled, you may find that you need to compare and contrast laws in multiple states. Conducting a multi-state survey can be challenging and time consuming, but fortunately there are many tools available to help.

Westlaw offers 50 state surveys, located on the Secondary Sources page. There is one database for state statutes and another for state regulations. Each database is searchable by keyword and contains surveys on a variety of topics. Each survey provides links to the states’ statutes or regulations. Lexis Advance also offers 50 state surveys of statutes and regulations, and has a database dedicated to state tax charts with analysis. Users can search the databases or browse the table of contents. Bloomberg Law offers a State Chart Builder feature on a variety of topics that lets you select which states you want to compare and then displays your selected results. You can find the Chart Builder within each Practice Center. Hein Online offers a National Survey of State Laws that is browseable by topic or searchable by keyword.

There are great free tools available as well. For example, the Uniform Law Commission keeps track of which states have passed or are considering their proposed uniform laws, mentioned on this blog in the post about Digital Assets. Cornell LII offers a Topical Index of State Statutes, which is a compilation of state laws organized by topic, but does not provide comparison charts. Openstates.org is a project developed by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to governmental transparency. Openstates.org features  a searchable database of legislation from all 50 states, voting records, and bill tracking tools. Finally, the National Conference of State Legislatures compiles summaries, analysis, and charts of state laws on a variety of topics.