A wide range of legal materials may be accessed via the Internet. The key to using the Internet successfully is to locate and save the addresses of Web sites that specifically provide the information needed.

The Michigan Court of Appeals web site, http://courtofappeals.mijud.net/resources/opinions.htm, contains published and unpublished opinions (including Michigan Supreme Court opinions) released since July 1996. Users can search for opinions by docket number, by field (release date, opinion author, case type, etc.), or by searching textually for keywords or phrases.

The Michigan Court of Appeals web site also includes the Appellate Digest on its web site, http://courtofappeals.mijud.net/Digest/DigestLaunchPage.jsp. The Court previously published this digest in notebook form. The Michigan Appellate Digest summarizes and indexes all published Michigan Supreme Court and Court of Appeals decisions released since 1992. The Digest summarizes each case by the issue addressed and indexes issue summaries by subject, statute and rule. Issue searches may be conducted by general topic area or by phrase within a topic area. In addition, the Digest can be searched by case name, case number, or by date of opinion release.

The Michigan Tax Tribunal posts its decisions at. http://www.cis.state.mi.us/ham/tax/sr_recdec.asp To obtain a decision not posted to the web site, contact: Michigan Tax Tribunal, 1033 S. Washington Avenue, P.O. Box 30232, Lansing, MI 48909. The request must be written and include the following information: name of the parties, docket number and date of the decision. Members of the public must pay .25 cents per page for copies.

Michigan Court of Claims opinions are available by written request. To obtain a decision, contact: Court of Claims, 313 West Kalamazoo Street, P.O. Box 40771, Lansing, MI 48933. The request must include names of the parties and docket number. Members of the public must pay .50 cents per page up to ten pages and .20 cents per page for each additional page.

Michigan Legislation and Michigan Compiled Laws

The Michigan Legislature Web site http://www.michiganlegislature.org is a free service of the Legislative Internet Technology Team in cooperation with the Michigan Legislative Council, the Michigan House of Representatives, and the Michigan Senate. This site contains House and Senate Bills dating back to 1997. It also contains House Fiscal Agency Analyses, Senate Legislative Analyses, Public Act Tables, and the Michigan Compiled Laws. Each piece of legislation is catalogued so users can search legislation by general or detailed categories. Users can also search for a bill to track its status.

Michigan Administrative Code

The State Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules maintains a Web site that contains the Michigan Administrative Code at http://www.michigan.gov/cis/0,1607,7-154-10576_35738---,00.html An administrative rule is an agency's written regulation, statement, standard, policy, ruling, or instruction that has the effect of law. ORR's site allows the user to search the administrative code by Department or by the actual code number.