Attorneys

Law Library Databases

BYU Law School alumni have remote access to two electronic resources through the Law Library: HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library and the LexisNexis Digital Library.

HeinOnline Alumni Access: Alumni can access HeinOnline’s extensive library of over 2,800 law journals. Use the HeinOnline Alumni Access link at the bottom of the Law Library’s home page under “Helpful Links” and log in with your NetID and password.

LexisNexis Digital Library Attorney Access: Alumni and members of the Utah Bar can sign up for an account to checkout e-book versions of legal treatises and volumes of the Utah Code Annotated. For more information and a complete list of titles, go to https://dev.lawlibrary.byu.edu/information/digital-library-attorney-access/. 

Fastcase

All attorneys who have bar membership in the United States have free access to Fastcase. Check your bar association’s website for details.

Westlaw

The Law Library has two computer terminals near the reference desk with public Westlaw access. They are available for use by anyone when the library is open to the public. Researchers must limit their sessions to 30 minutes when someone else is waiting. You are welcome to return to the library to use the terminals.

Reference Services

Graduates are always welcome to contact Reference Services or law librarians with research questions! Contact information is available at https://dev.lawlibrary.byu.edu/information/ask-a-librarian/.

Law Library Checkout Privileges and Scanning Services

Law School graduates and Utah Bar members may sign up for a Community User account. Open the Community User Agreement.

Note: All accounts are established through the Lee Library. Please complete and email your user agreement to Melanie Coleman before visiting the Law Library. She will inform you once your application is approved and the Lee Library is ready to finalize your account setup.

In addition, we can provide scans of pages from materials and email them to you. Send the title, author, and page range, along with a link to the book in our library catalog, to Melanie Coleman. Please allow 24 hours for turnaround. Requests are not processed over the weekend. Requests received after 3 p.m. on Friday are processed the following Monday. Requests that violate copyright law will not be processed.

Law Firms in Utah

We provide a scan-and-send service for law firms in the State of Utah free of charge. The Library will also lend print materials free of charge. However, the law firm must provide a UPS or FedEx account number to cover shipping costs.

Out-of-State Law Firms

We provide the scan-and-send service for out-of-state law firms for a fee of $5.00 for up to 50 pages. Print materials will only be lent if a request is submitted through WorldShare/Illiad and an ILL number is generated.

Harold B. Lee (Main Campus) Library Privileges

Circulation privileges at the Harold B. Lee Library are available for “friends of the library” donors. For larger donations you can get remote access to some databases. For more information, see https://lib.byu.edu/services/friends-of-the-library/.

BYU Email Addresses

In addition, BYU alumni have access to a permanent @byu.net email address that can be forwarded to the email service provider of your choice. For information go to https://alumni.byu.edu/email-forwarding.

BYU Law Library subscribes to HeinOnline’s extensive library of over 2,800 academic legal journals for all BYU Law alumni anywhere in the world. Alumni can log into HeinOnline with their BYU NetID and password. Click here to access HeinOnline.

HeinOnline’s collections of other materials, including historical state legislation and case reporters, government documents, and other materials, can be accessed on campus at the BYU Law Library.

Reference services are available to help direct attorneys resources that may aid in their research. Be advised that library policy prohibits reference employees from doing research for patrons.

The physical Reference Desk is located on the main floor of the Library, and reference services are also offered virtually. Reference services are provided by both full-time law library faculty members and part-time law student reference assistants. If you have an advanced legal research need and require a full-time librarian’s assistance, you should make an appointment to guarantee their availability by emailing reference@law.byu.edu. Simply state in the email that you would like an appointment with a librarian, what your research need is and a few times (between 9am and 5pm Monday through Friday) that would work for you to have the appointment.

For reference hours, see here. 

The following are methods for contacting the reference employees virtually:

Email

You may email us your reference question or schedule an appointment at reference@law.byu.edu. We will attempt to answer reference questions within two business days. The more details you provide about the legal resource you need, the better we will be able to answer your question.

Call

To receive reference services by talking with a reference employee over the phone, call 801-422-6658. If a reference employee does not answer, feel free to leave a voicemail because it is checked regularly.

Utah Bar members may sign up for a Community User account. Open the Community User Agreement.

Note: All accounts are established through the Lee Library. Please complete and email your user agreement to Melanie Coleman before visiting the Law Library. She will inform you once your application is approved and the Lee Library is ready to finalize your account setup.

Westlaw Patron Access is a version of Westlaw open to the public. It is available on two of the three computers that are currently open to the public near the Reference Desk. Westlaw Patron Access allows access to all federal and state cases and statutes, KeyCite, ALR, and AmJur (plus many different parts of the AmJur series, like Forms and Causes of Action).

Use of the Patron Access terminal is limited to 30 minutes when someone else is waiting.

Patrons who visit the Law Library in person can access some Law Library electronic resources, such as Westlaw, depending on our contract with the database vendor. Public access to many main campus (Lee Library) databases is also available to visitors in the Law Library. For questions about access to specific databases, please contact Reference Services. Remote (from home) access to Law Library databases is not available to visitors, although some databases are available remotely to Utah attorneys and BYU Law alumni. For information about access to HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library for BYU Law alumni, click here. For information about access to the LexisNexis Digital Library (Lexis treatises such as Nimmer on Copyright, the Utah Code Annotated, and more) for Utah attorneys and BYU Law alumni, click here.

LexisNexis Digital Library Attorney Access Policy

The BYU Law Library provides access to the LexisNexis Digital Library through its Attorney Access program to the following individuals:

• BYU Law School alumni
• Members of the Utah State Bar
• Paralegals working for members of the Utah State Bar

The LexisNexis Digital Library contains ebook versions of the following Utah legal titles:

• Utah Code Annotated
• Utah Court Rules Annotated
• Utah Civil Practice

Ebook versions of well-regarded legal treatises published by Lexis including Nimmer on Copyright, Collier on Bankruptcy, and Business Organizations with Tax Planning are also available in the Digital Library. View the complete list of titles.

Interested patrons may apply for Attorney Access by filling out the form below and agreeing to comply with the terms and conditions of this policy. Processing the form and establishing access may take up to two weeks. Upon enrollment in the program, participation in Attorney Access lasts for one year provided the patron complies with the terms of use.

Participants in Attorney Access may check out up to two ebooks in the LexisNexis Digital Library at one time. The check-out period is seven days and may be renewed if the title has not been requested by another patron. The BYU Law Library reserves the right to recall an ebook and/or terminate the patron’s check-out early and without notice. The BYU Law Library cannot guarantee access to titles in the LexisNexis Digital Library. The BYU Law Library reserves the right to terminate the Attorney Access program or the patron’s participation in the program at any time and for any reason. Patrons agree with to comply with all applicable copyright laws and the terms of use of the LexisNexis Digital Library.

Questions? Email Iantha Haight at haighti@law.byu.edu.

Open the Google Form

The BYU Law Library keeps previous versions of the Utah Code in print, so we have built up quite an extensive collection of historical Utah Codes. We have from 1855 to the present. We also have all the Utah Session Laws (all Utah laws compiled in chronological order).

The historical Utah Codes can be accessed by anyone that comes into the BYU Law Library, with some of the historical Utah Codes being in the Reserve Room on the main floor and some of them being on the first floor in the state materials collection. 

If you are not able to come into the BYU Law Library, you may contact the University of Utah’s law library because they have a grant to scan several decades worth of historical Utah Code Annotated, mainly from the year 1943 through 1995. They are published here as they are completed: https://dc.law.utah.edu/uca/.

The Utah Court Briefs collection contains public record briefs submitted to the Utah Supreme Court and Utah Court of Appeals and supplied to the University of Utah and BYU Law Libraries by the Courts for the purposes of legal scholarship and academic research. The Law Libraries offer this collection as a public service encouraged by the Utah Courts. For additional information, please contact the Repository Administrator at hunterlawlibrary@byu.edu.

Researchers unfamiliar with legal procedure may learn more via the US Courts, Utah Courts, and other internet resources. These sites also provide additional information:

• Utah Self Help Resources (for parties representing themselves)
• Utah Rules of Appellate Procedure
• Federal Rules of Practice and Procedure

The judicial opinions (case decisions) based on the briefs in this Digital Commons collection may often be found at the Utah Courts website or by using the Google Scholar case law search. Basic legal research information is available through the BYU Law Library’s libguides, as well as the BYU and UofU Law Libraries’ onsite print and electronic resources (click the library links for details about library programs, resources, reference hours, and directions). Reference assistance is available for visitors to both libraries.

Members of the public are welcome to use the library and its resources on the second (main) floor of the library. Materials can be retrieved from the first and third floors, but tables, study rooms, Zoom booths, and carrels on these floors are restricted to current law students, faculty, and staff.

Step 1: Find the book listed in our law library website’s search (“the catalog”).  

Step 2: Write down or take a picture of the collection name, the call number, and any further information listed. Example: 

In the picture above, the collection name is “Law Library Main Collection,” the call number is “K 3258 .D874 2010”, and the further information is that it is available on the 3rd floor. The main collection is–you guessed it–our main collection and what most of our shelves are a part of. 

Step 3: Check the map (link here) to see more or less where it will be and then go scouting. The ends of the shelves have labels to say which call numbers are down that aisle and they are all alphabetically and then numerically in order.

Step 4: You either successfully found the book (yay!), or you may need to ask Reference Services for help. You can call (801) 422-6658, email reference@law.byu.edu, or visit the physical Reference Desk on the second floor (which is the main floor of the law library) for help. A link to the book on our website is always helpful to share with them. For reference hours, see here. 

Note: Most call numbers for law library books begin with KF, which is the category for “law.” So any call number in the main collection before KF is in the northwest corner of the 3rd floor of the law library. Anything after KF tends to be on the 1st floor (the basement floor) of the law library. 

For other collection names besides “Law Library Main Collection,” the green information will tell you which floor it is on. You may also want to ask Reference Services for help on finding where that collection may be located.

NOTE: We are undergoing renovation in some library areas. Please contact Circulation/ILL to request any item that is unavailable.

First Floor (basement)

Second Floor (main)

Third Floor

Materials located in the Rare Book Room are available to patrons from 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday. Patrons, including BYU faculty, should contact the Reference Desk for help accessing materials from the Rare Book Room. A librarian will locate the book and bring it to the patron in the Law Library Reserve Room next to the Circulation Desk. Patrons are not permitted to remove any items from the Rare Book Room from the Reserve Room. The book will be checked out to the patron during use. Patrons must return all materials from the Rare Book Room to the circulation clerk when finished.

The BYU Law Digital Repository contains open access copies of the scholarly works of Law School faculty, annual reports and other official publications, and the online archives of the various legal journals published at BYU Law.

Open-access consortia seek to make high-quality academic work available throughout the world at minimal cost to students, academics and scholars of all levels. The full archives of the BYU Law Review, BYU Journal of Public Law, BYU Education and Law Journal, and BYU International Law & Management Review are available through the Law Review Commons. Other publications such as the Clark Memorandum, Advocate (and annual reports), Life in the Law and the scholarly works published by Law School Faculty are all accessible to researchers through the more-expansive Law Commons. The Digital Commons network includes works from all areas of scholarly and academic inquiry, and contains millions of individual articles produced at hundreds of universities.

The Library has installed a limited number of legal research computers near reference for general public access. Resources such as Westlaw Patron Access and HeinOnline are available, as well as selected CCH and ProQuest Databases. Please ask a reference librarian for assistance in using these resources.

Please be aware that we no longer have public-access printers, so results need to be saved to email or a USB drive.

The Law Library does not have any printers available for public patrons. The Law Library provides document scanners, which allow the option of saving a document as a PDF to save and print at home, for use by the BYU Law school community and for use by public patrons who are scanning library materials. If you need an on campus printing option, BYU has several Print Centers or Printer Kiosks across campus. 

The Y App can help you find the closest pharos printer. The Print and Mail website provides more information about these options. 

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The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The person using the equipment is liable for any infringement.

Please note that scanning all or even a substantial portion of a book in order to avoid purchasing a copy is not a Fair Use (see § 107(4)).

Scanned PDFs may be saved to USB flash drives, uploaded to cloud-based systems like your own Google Drive, Box, or Dropbox account, or emailed using web-based accounts such as Yahoo or Gmail.

Scanner Locations

The Law Library currently has:

• two KIC Bookeye open-face scanners (the newer one near the Reference Desk and the older one in the Reserve Room);
• four flatbed book scanners (2 near the Reference Desk on the 2nd floor, 1 in the Reserve Room, and 1 on the 3rd floor near the Rex E. Lee room); and
• two multi-page feed scanners (1 near the wall that at the end of the table has the reference co-op printer and another on the 3rd floor near the Rex E. Lee room).

Employees at the Circulation and Reference are trained and ready to assist anyone in the BYU Law community who needs help with scanning and anyone from the public who needs help scanning library materials.

Microform

Copies of documents on microform can be made as digital scans on the public computer in the Microform area (first floor). Patrons may email those scans on that computer to themselves.

The law library does not offer printing services for BYU students that are not affiliated with the law school or public patrons. Please visit the Lee Library or Cougar Creations for your printing needs.

BYU Law provides Co-Op printers for BYU Law students. To learn more about the cost, how to install it and use it, see the BYU Law page on Co-Op printing.