Book Reviews

Washington Legal Researcher’s Deskbook

3d. By Penny A. Hazelton and others. Seattle, Wash.: Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library, 2002. 300 pp. $65.00

Review by Judy Davis
Resource Sharing Librarian, Gallagher Law Library, University of Washington

The reference staff of the Gallagher Law Library, University of Washington School of Law has written a comprehensive guide to doing legal research in Washington in the Washington Legal Researcher’s Deskbook 3d. This edition, published in 2002, includes updates of previous chapters and some new material, adding chapters on local government law, historical and archival sources for Washington law, and Indian law in Washington. Also new is the inclusion of initiatives in the chapter on legislative history.

The Deskbook is a handy reference tool which can guide you through general information on using a law library, direct you to specific texts, and explain complex research such as completing a legislative history, all tailored to the state of Washington. For example, the chapter on administrative decisions and materials gives an overview of all the state agencies and their published decisions. Links to web resources are provided when available. In addition, the file names from commercial databases which provide these decisions is given. Annotated citations to texts mentioned inform a researcher’s decision about using or obtaining a given resource. Notations are made as to whether legal forms are included in a work, too. This level of detail is one of the work’s strengths as it often points one directly to resources.

This in-depth guide to the particularities of legal research in Washington has an easy-to- follow format. Labeled tabs guide you to the section you want to use. The general table of contents is supplemented by expanded contents pages detailing each chapter. An acronyms and abbreviations appendix defines terms and includes a helpful note that the online version has links to the websites of the various agencies, organizations, and documents listed. A full index completes the work.

For anyone who needs to find the law in Washington, this new edition of the Washington Legal Researcher’s Deskbook makes an excellent addition to one’s reference shelf. Whether you need statutes, case law, regulations, administrative decisions, practice materials, Indian law, or guidance on how and where to look, you’ll likely find it here. For more information go to the Gallagher Law Library homepage at http://lib.law.washington.edu and click on the link for the Washington Legal Researcher’s Deskbook 3d under “Publications” or “Law Library News.”