A looseleaf service is a type of publication used in legal research

Legal research

Legal research is "the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making. In its broadest sense, legal research includes each step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of the facts of a problem and concludes with the application and...

 which brings together both primary

Primary authority

A primary authority is a document that establishes the law on a particular issue, such as a case decision or legislative act. The search for applicable primary authority is an important part of the process of legal research....

 and secondary

Secondary authority

In law, a secondary authority is an authority purporting to explain the meaning or applicability of the actual verbatim texts of primary authorities .Some secondary authority materials are written and published by governments to explain the laws in simple,...

 source materials on a specific field or topic in law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

. For this reason they are sometimes called "subject-matter services".

Looseleaf services are most commonly used for research in areas of law which change rapidly due to regulatory

Regulation

Regulation is administrative legislation that constitutes or constrains rights and allocates responsibilities. It can be distinguished from primary legislation on the one hand and judge-made law on the other...

 and administrative

Administrative law

Administrative law is the body of law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda. Administrative law is considered a branch of public law...

 developments (such as tax law

Tax law

Tax law is the codified system of laws that describes government levies on economic transactions, commonly called taxes.-Major issues:Primary taxation issues facing the governments world over include;* taxes on income and wealth...

, environmental law

Environmental law

Environmental law is a complex and interlocking body of treaties, conventions, statutes, regulations, and common law that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment, toward the purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity...

, financial regulation

Financial regulation

Financial regulation is a form of regulation or supervision, which subjects financial institutions to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, aiming to maintain the integrity of the financial system...

, and labor law). Looseleaf services are typically contained in ring binder

Ring binder

Ring binders are folders in which punched pieces of paper may be held by means of clamps running through the holes in the paper...

s to keep them updated, because they are published fairly frequently (at minimum monthly, sometimes weekly or bi-weekly) in order to keep the information therein current. Most law libraries

Law library

A law library is a library designed to assist law students, attorneys, judges, and their law clerks and anyone else who finds it necessary to correctly determine the state of the law....

 have a subscription to several of these services, and many of the more popular services are available electronically as well.

Interfiled looseleaf services

In an interfiled looseleaf service, individual pages can be removed and replaced with more recent printings, eliminating the need for pocket parts or similar supplements. Most of the looseleaf services offered by Commerce Clearing House are of the interfiled type.

Newsletter-style looseleaf services

Newsletter-type looseleaf services are published as topical newsletter

Newsletter

A newsletter is a regularly distributed publication generally about one main topic that is of interest to its subscribers. Newspapers and leaflets are types of newsletters. Additionally, newsletters delivered electronically via email have gained rapid acceptance for the same reasons email in...

s, which are then filed by law librarians under the appropriate topic headings for future reference.

One of the best-known looseleaf services, United States Law Week, is of this type. Most of the looseleaf services published by Bureau of National Affairs

Bureau of National Affairs

The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. — known as BNA — is an independent, privately owned publisher of specialized online and print news and information for professionals in business and government, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, USA...

 are newsletter-style.

External links

• Brief explanation of looseleaf services from Georgetown University Law Center
  Georgetown University Law Center
  Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C.. Established in 1870, the Law Center offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees in law...
  
  
• More comprehensive explanation from Boston College Law School
  Boston College Law School
  Boston College Law School is one of the six professional graduate schools at Boston College. Located approximately 1.5 miles from the main Boston College campus in Chestnut Hill, Boston College Law School is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts.With approximately 800 students and...