Legal Resources for Healthcare

This guide will direct you to primary and secondary legal sources both inside and outside of the library that will help you answer the questions of

• “What is the law on….”  OR  "What are the standards for...."  OR  "What peer-reviewed articles are there..."

The legal profession uses its own terminologies and standards and the health professional will need to learn them for doing research. 

• Terms like primary source & secondary source materials, case law, bills, statutes, regulations, codes, personal injury, medical malpractice, expert witness, tort law, labor relations, human rights, unions, legal case (not case study) and copyright are just some of the health professional overlaps with the law.
• Primary legal sources are 'official' and refer to laws, codes, and regulations
• Secondary legal sources include articles about the law, mention the law or interpret the law. 

The Virtual Library DOES NOT contain primary sources but you can find them by using the Primary Sources page in this guide.

The Virtual Library DOES contain secondary sources, including a variety of full-text secondary sources in the form of journal articles, books and multimedia

Another place to find secondary legal sources is through state-centered public legal education and professional or government organizations.

• The websites are easy to navigate and provide the local geographic perspective. These secondary source repositories are great places to start your search. Many of them are listed in this guide

First, see what is in the library because that content is free and available. Then go to the websites listed in this guide or head  to your local courthouse law library or academic law school library.