I usually write about a number of Web sites with collections of links for finding resources for researching an area of law. But this month I am going to do a comparison of two sites for finding what you need when you are looking at Washington administrative law.
You could start your search for administrative agency opinions or regulations at the general Web site for Washington: Access Washington at http:// access.wa.gov/. This site would help you to find the state agency you need. If you go to the agency Web site, you might be able to find the regulations or decisions needed. However, as far as I am concerned, this is actually the hard way to find what you need.
Instead, you should start your state agency and regulatory research at the University of Washington Gallagher Law Library's Web site. The Gallagher Law Library has not only done a good job of putting together the links needed, but it links you straight to the part of the agency Web site which contains the information. Thus, the site acts like a metasite - a Web site that functions as a directory to other Web sites with a collection of links on a particular subject.
So start your agency regulatory and administrative case research at http://lib.law.washington.edu/ research/research.html#waadmin. This part of the Web site is linked through the home page selection "Internet Legal Resources, Washington State Legal Resources."
The title of this section of the Web site is "Washington Rules, Regulations, Administrative Decisions, the Governor, and the Agencies." The first two entries are for links to the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) and the Washington Register. Next are links to the Opinions of the Attorney General and the Governors' executive orders. But the real gold is in the links to the Administrative Agency Decisions and Guidance documents.
For instance, if you need to search the Board of Tax Appeals Decisions, you can link straight from Gallagher's Web links and start your search. If you start at Access Washington, you can do a search using the "Ask George" search box at the top of the page for "Board of Tax Appeals Decisions," but the first six results take you to a guide on Tax Appeals. The seventh result will get you to the spot where you can search tax decisions.
But the Gallagher Law Library has a direct link to all tax decisions, via a link to Taxpedia or you can link to the Tax Appeals Board decisions in a searchable database from 1986 to present.
Or, if you need the PERC decisions, you will find a link to the Public Employment Relations Commission via the Gallagher site to recent decisions, open cases and a database of searchable decisions. This is much faster than finding the Web site via the Access Washington site.
