Research Support for Boston College Law School's Center for Experiential Learning

Massachuesetts Rules of Court can be found on BloombergLaw, LexisAdvance and Westlaw.

• BloombergLaw: Select All Legal Content, restrict to Jurisdiction = Mass., choose Court Rules.
• LexisAdvance: Select Statutes and Legislation as content type (yes, court rules are included with the statutory code), Massachusetts as jurisdiction and All Practice Areas. Search using "ALM Mass. R. Civ. P. 26" as an example; this will retrieve the court rules and you can access the table of contents
• Westlaw: Select State materials, choose Massachusetts; rules of court appear in category Statutes and Court Rules
• Free web access to Mass. rules of court.

Access the Massachusetts statutory code here:

• Westlaw: Massachusetts General Laws Annotated.  Contains text of statutory code with references to caselaw, secondary sources, forms.
• LexisAdvance: Annotated Laws of Massachusetts. Contains text of statutory code with references to caselaw, secondary sources, forms.
• Mass. General Court website. Unofficial site with  text of statutes only.   
• BloombergLaw: Massachusetts General Laws Contains text of statutes only; no annotations.
• Print copies:
• Mass. General Laws Annotated ("The green set") KFM2430 1958 .A42;
• Annotated Laws of Massachusetts ("The black set") KFM2430 1932.A2;
• Official edition: General Laws of Massachusetts ("The paperback set") KFM2430 .A24                                         

Boston College Law School faculty and students have access to the new MCLE OnlinePass, a database of all MCLE content.  Handbooks, course books, and audio or video coverage of MCLE sessions are searchable using the MCLE OnlinePass. Access the database using the Law Library's database list.  Note: if you are attempting to log in when you are off-campus, you will be prompted for your BC credentials.

All BC law students have access to the entire Massachusetts Practice Series in both print and electronic format.  The Law Library maintains 2 print sets of Mass. Practice; one set is kept on Permanent Reserve at the Information Desk.  The second print copy is on the Library's fourth floor in the Massachusetts collection; the call number is  KFM2480 .M3.

Westlaw includes the Massachusetts Practice Series so students and faculty have access to the entire set using their Westlaw credentials.  Are you a frequent user of Mass. Practice?  Set up this title to be a "favorite" on Westlaw.  Need help adding a favorite resource?  Check the Westlaw instructions.  Stop by the Law Library's Information Desk to get help from a law librarian if you have questions.

Docket research is the process of searching the record of pending litigation on either the state or federal level.  Federal court dockets are more readily retrieved than are state dockets. 

For more information, check this research guide on docket search:

• How to Find Court Dockets and Court Filings 

For an overview of criminal law research, check this research guide:

• Criminal Law Research