Library Homepage: Legal Resources for Healthcare: Primary Sources

Healthcare professionals are usually governed by laws and regulations at the state level. Also, there are practice standards for members of health professional associations, that may be both state and national. In addition, there are unions with their own standards.

EXAMPLE

In Florida, there is a state law called the Florida Nurse Practice Act that outlines competencies needed for nurses practicing in Florida and their Scope of Practice. Every state has a similar Act. To make it easier to find the act for any state the regulatory body NCSBN has made them readily available from their website. See below for the link.

State Laws

Findlaw
Start here for state-specific laws across dozens of popular legal topics. Includes user-friendly summaries of laws, citations and links to relevant sections of official online statutes and state codes.Browse a state law collection by state or by legal topic, or visit the official online version of your state's laws.
National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL)
All official State Legislative websites in one. Pick a state and search on statutes AND your keyword
National Council of the State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN)
Nursing regulatory body that provides access to nursing regulations by state and nursing licensure examinations such as the NCLEX.
USA.gov
List of Official State Legislative Sites on which to search for a state and then its laws, codes and regulations.

Case Law: State Court Opinions

Findlaw
Use the link for Legal Professionals and then choose Research: Cases and Codes, and chosoe State to search across case law.
Google Scholar
Use the case law search tool for state and federal written cases. 1. chose Case Law. 2. chose level of court and state.

EXAMPLE: Google Scholar: choose Alabama, all state and federal courts who write opinions, then search on hospital to return all Alabama full-text cases or opinions on that topic. Use the limiter on the left column on the search results page to limit the search to a certain year.

National Center for State Courts (NCSC)
Lists State Court websites. Not useful for searching State Appeal Courts. Useful inks to resources about and for the court of that state.

Legal Resources for Healthcare

Federal Laws

Case Law: Federal Court Opinions

State Laws

Case Law: State Court Opinions