A friend of mine was asking me, and I don't know, where you get hornbooks. Do you just get them at the law school bookstore? Or from Amazon? Do you need to wait until you know what textbooks you have?

They'll have them in the bookstore and I'd wait until you at least know what your textbook will be.

Great question ktlulu, I was wondering the same thing. I also need to buy all the commercial outlines I can get my hands on. All this is pretty foreign to me!

Wait until class starts - some hornbooks are tied to certain textbooks, sometimes professors will recommend which ones would be most helpful, and sometimes you'll find that your professor has authored a hornbook (in which case, GET IT!). You can find them in the bookstore, but I often bought them online.

Also find out if your school does some kind of used-book sale. At the end of the semester, some students (who apparently don't need the sell-back money) donate their books, which are then sold the next year to raise money for public interest groups. You can pick up hornbooks (and casebooks) for 50% to 75% off.

I'm very anal about textbooks. I need new ones without other people's highlighting or writing in it.

I can deal with minimal highlighting or writing - I always flip through the used to see if I can find one that's decent. If I can't, I buy new. Hornbooks tend to be relatively writing/highlighting-free since the info is condensed (compared to textbooks).

I agree Corsair...I was thinking originally that I was going to try to find a used one, who cares, but if I am going to do that 6-color highlighting system for the textbook, I want to have a clean, new book so there isn't any confusion.


Question...for anyone who is law school currently, how much did you spend on your first semester law school books? I was thinking it should be less than $500 total with most major study materials as well? Is that unrealistic? I am trying to gage what my book budget will be...

My school budgets textbooks at $2k a year... God I hope I don't actually have to spend that...

If you're getting new text books, you'll spend more than $500, closer to $800 is probably right.

Agree with patentlaw. I spent around 800 the first semester. 4 classes (not counting legal research, since we really didn't have any expensive textbook), each with a main textbook ($100-150) plus a supplement or two (ie Fed. Rules for Civ Pro or the UCC for Contracts class), throw in a hornbook for each class, and you'll easily spend 600-800 for new books.

What are hornbooks?

A treatise that covers a certain area of law. The nutshell books or the Aspen Examples and Explanations are hornbooks.

Hornbooks are one volume treatises written primarily for law students on subjects typically covered by law school courses. Unlike casebooks, which are collections of cases (or parts of cases) chosen to help illustrate and stimulate discussion about legal issues, hornbooks attempt to summarize and explain the law in a specific area.

A lot of students confuse hornbooks with casebooks so that is what I think you are talking about. You need to wait to purchase your casebooks until you get the law school book list from your law school. You can purchase your hornbooks or law school study aids now. The best and cheapest way is to purchase online from other law students. You can save up to half on your books and usually more on the study aids. Here is a good link with study aid recommendations and some first year advice.

http://www.law-school-books.com