The best place to start in looking for litigation forms is either your office’s in-house form book or a collection of forms devoted solely to your jurisdiction.
Issue-specific sets can also be helpful.
If you are uncertain as to whether this kind of resource exists for your area of law, don’t hesitate to contact one of the UT Law Librarians and we will help you figure it out.
For states other than Tennessee, you can start by exploring what might be available on Lexis or Westlaw. On Lexis, Browse Sources By Jurisdiction [your state] --> Category --> More --> Forms. On Westlaw: Forms --> Forms by State --> [your state]. As always, when using Lexis and Westlaw, be mindful of your firm’s billing program and whether you can browse sources without incurring charges.
Other ways to find forms often start with the state’s law library websites. Try starting with the flagship university’s law school library. Be persistent – what you need may not jump out at you right away. For example, if you start at the University of Georgia’s law library website, you’ll eventually get what you need by clicking the “Research Resources” link. From there, the Research Guides tab will lead you to a “Forms” research guide that describes many different forms resources available that specifically pertain to Georgia.
And, as always, don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and call the reference desk at an academic law library. Just explain that you are seeking recommendations for legal forms for your particular jurisdiction as you are new to the state. Most librarians will be more than happy to help.
There are many federal litigation form sets that you can access either in print or online. Some of the leading sets include:
You may find yourself in a situation where you just can’t seem to locate appropriate litigation forms from your jurisdiction. When that happens, you might want to seek out a more broad-based form set. Many times these sets, which are quite extensive, will have forms that fit your factual and legal issues, but may require lots of tweaking to meet your jurisdiction’s specific requirements. Most of these form sets include both litigation and transactional forms. Some of the more well-known general form sets include:
There are also many subject-specific books and online databases that contain forms. Such as:
Lexis’s Intellectual Property Litigation: Forms and Precedents
If you don’t have access to Lexis or Westlaw, or a large law library, or if you just want to do your best to save money, you do have some options for finding litigation forms online for free. Google could be your friend: try searching for Tennessee memorandum in support of motion for summary judgment filetype:pdf and you’ll get lots of results.[1]
You may also be able to find free sample filings from Tennessee or elsewhere when law firms, attorneys, and advocacy organizations make some sample filings available, as a way to show the quality of their work or just to be helpful. Also, some court web pages may have links to sample pleadings, and there may even be unexpected places to look, such as your local public library. Here are a few useful sites:
[1] Note: just searching for Tennessee Motion for Summary Judgment will get you lots of cases from Tennessee that discuss motions for summary judgment, as well as links to rules about summary judgment, but very few sample documents that you can actually use: be careful with document titles, and if you don’t get what you are looking for the first time, be flexible and persistent.