STATUTES and TRANSCRIPTS OF JUDGMENTS
One of the most helpful sites, providing free transcripts and lots of other useful information, is the British and Irish Legal Information Institute.
Acts of Parliament and Statutory Instruments (recent ones anyway) are available at UK Legislation and there is now a more comprehensive database of statutes, available from 20th December 2006, at The UK Statute Law Database.
The Supreme Court offers free transcripts of its judgments - until August 2009 it was The House of Lords where older judgments can be seen. For a more comprehensive archive of Court of Appeal cases and some High Court cases too, go to the Casetrack site - but you may have to pay. Summaries of decisions can be found at the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting - see the section Daily Law Notes.
There is a separate Scottish Courts website.
You can also look at judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. Incidentally, the case of Thompson is Application no 00024724/94 and the case of Venables is Application no 00024888/94
International Law sources can be found at the United Nations site - the ILC homepage, UN Research Guide and a page of links to declarations and resolutions including resolution 3314 giving the definition of "aggression". And this is the Project on International Courts and Tribunals.
Judgments of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (unfair dismissal, sex and race discrimination etc) are available too.
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey site seems quite entertaining and gives a historical perspective.
It is unusual to have access to transcripts of the evidence given in a case as well as the transcript of the judgment, but you can find both at the McLibel site, dealing with the case of McDonald's Corporation v. Steel & Morris where McDonalds successfully sued two members of the public who had distributed a defamatory leaflet about their popular and nourishing hamburgers.
CIVIL PROCEDURE RULES
See the Department for Constitutional Affairs site for the latest versions of the Civil Procedure Rules. The site is regularly updated and contains the rules in pdf, html and Word format. Another way of finding the text of any given rule is Roger Horne's superb YAWS site which quotes some useful case law. If you want to know about the guideline figures for solicitors costs, this isn't in the rules themselves but on the Court Service site.
You could once download the court forms (and some helpful information leaflets) from the Court Service website, but the site has been redesigned and is now a hopeless mess where you have to know which form you want before you can hope to find it - email them to complain about it if you want the site to improve. You can also follow a step by step online guide and issue your claim form at the Court Service site, Money Claim Online.
This is the Courtserve site where you can find a limited selection of court lists, ie the lists of cases to be heard this week.
The Court Service site has a list of vexatious litigants who should not commence court proceedings without permission from the court. See also the excellent Vexatious Litigant site (currently awaiting a new host site so no URL can be given) with lots of amusing vexatious litigant judgments.
OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS, GOVERNMENT SITES
The Health and Safety Executive is a useful source of material about hazards at work. The NHS Litigation Authority offers valuable information directed at healthcare professionals and at the general public, about how litigation against hospitals and clinicians is dealt with. There is some useful guidance on human rights issues affecting patients. Here is the Companies House site where during working hours you can check whether a company exists and obtain very basic information for free (choose the Webcheck option), and pay by credit card for more detailed information.
The Official Documents archive includes the report from the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. See the latest press releases from the government. Look at the House of Commons Library research papers. The Audit Commission is a useful source of information about how public money is spent and which organisations waste it - a website with a similar function is the Joint Reviews site dealing with social services departments.
Parliamentary debates are of interest if you want to see what was said about legislation before it was passed: see the Hansard site. And here is the Hutton Inquiry into the death of Dr Kelly. There is also an extremely valuable site relating to the Inquest into the death of Jean-Charles de Menezes.
On the website for HM Land Registry you can find downloadable leaflets and forms to help you do your own conveyancing or enquire about the owner of a plot of land. The Inland Revenue site gives you information about tax rates, including stamp duty.
This is the HM Prison Service site, where you can find lots of information about how prisons work (the rules about parole, how to visit, how to interpret prison jargon, even links to outside pressure groups), and if you wish to pursue a complaint against the police or find out how to do so, you can go to the IPCC site. Miscarriages of justice are investigated by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. And this is the Crown Prosecution Service, with useful guidance about what factors influence decisions about whether or not to prosecute.
This is the Community Legal Service which is a government-run first port of call for those seeking legal advice. There is advice about how to find a solicitor and how to get Legal Services Commission (formerly Legal Aid) funding for a claim. There are some useful links.
OTHER LEGAL RESOURCES
Looking for free legal advice? See the Community Legal Service site (see above). There is a National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux which through its AdviceGuide site offers excellent basic legal advice on various topics. There are some very helpful factsheets on the Department of Trade and Industry site, and see also their Consumer Direct site. And the Office of Fair Trading site also offers free advice on consumer law though you may find it lacking in detail. The Bar's pro bono unit might be worth contacting if you can't afford legal representation and your case has sufficient merit. The Department for Work and Pensions now has an online advisory centre with detailed guides to benefits and summaries of the decisions of social security commissioners - the site is worth exploring. And the Home office site has useful information about government policy on crime and punishment. It also has links to other Home Office departments such as the Passport Office. If your civil liberties have been infringed, you might find help and advice from Liberty (formerly the National Council for Civil Liberties). The TUC has set up a useful site called Worksmart which gives some guidance about employment law.
A government site offers advice to small businesses. If you have problems with financial services firms who go bust (including insurers) you can see if the Financial Services Compensation Scheme can help. And if you have disputes with government departments or the NHS, you could try the Ombudsman - for local government there is a separate Local Government Ombudsman.
The Law Society site contains a great deal of information and it isn't always easy to find what you want. This is the directory of solicitors and these are the Professional Conduct rules published by the SRA. If you want to complain about a solicitor go to the Consumer Complaints Service at the Law Society.
A directory of barristers is available here. This is the Bar Council site.
If you are interested in the civil rights of disabled people and disability discrimination, visit the Disability Rights Commission site.
The Highway Code is a useful work of reference when you are considering who was to blame in a road accident.
The Delia Venables page has many legal links and a special tour of legal websites throughout the world. A leading legal publisher is Sweet & Maxwell who offer a number of on-line services if you're prepared to subscribe.
You could also consider visiting the newsgroup uk.legal.moderated to discuss legal topics.
BLOGS
Worth a read are The Copper's Blog, The Magistrate's Blog and the Ambulance Emergency Medical Technician's Blog.
COMPLAINING
Need to complain to someone? These are sites where you can complain about the police, solicitors, local government officers, government departments, doctors, local authority members (includes politicians), rogue traders, financial advisors. Some of them might even award compensation.
PERSONAL INJURY COMPENSATION
If you think you have a claim for medical/clinical negligence you could look at the AVMA site.
Need to find a good solicitor? If you want to consult the publishers of the Legal 500 to find a recommended firm virtually anywhere in the world in almost any area of legal work, go to International Centre for Commercial Law. Another good reference work is the Chambers Guide. Here are a few firms of solicitors (not an exhaustive list) who have a good reputation in personal injury claims. Or look at the Accident Line website.
Are you have the victim of a criminal assault? You may be entitled to compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. If you have sustained injury or damage from the actions of an uninsured or untraced motorist, look at the MIB site.
If you have a professional interest in personal injury litigation, take a look at the FOIL website for latest information from the Forum of Insurance Lawyers. The organisation for Plaintiff (now Claimant) lawyers is APIL, but you have to be a member of each organisation if you want to see most of the information on their sites.
JOURNALS AND NEWSPAPERS
For legal periodicals, try the Law Society's Gazette or The Lawyer. Those with an interest in insurance may wish to consult the Insurance Times or Post Magazine online. And of course The Times has regular law reports.
Looking for something on the Web? One of the best of the search-engines is Google: