Tap any paragraph to write a margin note. Your notes collect in the Desk below the text and file under cases with @. The side-by-side margin rail opens on a larger screen.

How it works

Read the law. Make it yours.

Marginalia is one desk for all of U.S. law — search it, read the real text, write in the margin, and your notes turn into a citation-backed draft. Here's the whole thing in five steps.

Start reading the law Everything, for $5/mo.
01 Search

Ask in plain words

Type a phrase like “debt collection” or a citation like 15 U.S.C. 1692. Marginalia searches every U.S. law at once — the Constitution, the U.S. Code, regulations, all of it. Not ready to search? Pick a codebook up top and just browse.

Try a search
The Marginalia home page with the search bar and codebook navigation highlighted
02 Results

See what the law actually says

Results come straight from the source text, grouped by where they live. Tabs and side filters let you narrow by source or court level until you're looking at exactly the right rule — no summary standing in between.

Open search
Search results for “debt collection” with source tabs and filter rail highlighted
03 Read & annotate

Read it — and write in the margin

Read the law. Consider how it applies to your situation. Write earnestly and factually. Don't try to conform the law to meet your needs. Just keep it simple. This is what it says... This is why it applies... Use @YourCaseName to save your note to that case file,

Start reading
A law section open for reading with the margin-note panel spotlighted
04 My Cases

Your notes become a draft

Every margin note collects in My Cases. Drag them into the order that reads right and you've got a citation-backed rough draft pleading — in your own words. Your argument, with the law to back it.

See My Cases
The My Cases page assembling margin notes into a document
05 Compare

Hold sources side by side

Compare puts the same question against several sources at once, with matching terms highlighted across columns. Your Desk keeps working notes within reach the whole time.

Open Compare
The Compare view with several source columns and the Desk panel
And when you want the odds

Court Outcomes

The law tells you what your rights are. Court Outcomes tells you what usually happens — win, settle, and dismissal rates by claim type and federal court, and reversal rates for state appeals. Descriptive statistics from millions of closed cases. Never a prediction about yours.

Explore Court Outcomes
The Court Outcomes index of federal claim types with a case-type data page layered in — base rates in one view

That's the whole desk.

No theories, no spin — the actual law, and the tools to work with it. It's not legal advice. It's your right to read the law and argue your own case.

★   the supreme law of the land   ★
Don't Tread on Me
E Pluribus Unum — out of many, one

"If you don't know your rights, you don't have any."

Marginalia · a citizen's law index
A research desk, not legal advice. Always read the cited source before relying on a summary.
Questions or an issue? support@self-law.org
disclaimerMarginalia is a research index, not a law firm. Nothing on this site is legal, tax, or financial advice and no attorney–client relationship is formed by using it. Statutes, regulations, and case law change; summaries, search results, AI output, and member posts may be incomplete, out of date, or wrong. Any interpretation drawn from material on this site should be validated by a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction before you act on it.