Re: another question

Posted by poor lawyer (24.88.34.92) on August 15, 2002 at 01:14:51:

In Reply to: Re: another question posted by Why Chat on August 14, 2002 at 18:58:20:

Lexis and Westlaw are the premiere legal research databases. Not only do they have fast servers and extensive databases, they have many useful tools for finding what you are looking for.

For example, if I am reading a court decision, with one click of a button I can have a list of all other court decisions, law review articles, and treatises that cited the case I'm looking at, and I can access those with another single click of the mouse. That way I can see what the other courts have to say about it.

They also include the "headnotes" of cases, and they are all cross linked. Headnotes are an outline of the holdings in each case and are given a number to reference to a particular subject. For example, if I have a headnote that talks about consideration for a contract, I can click that headnote number and search the headnotes under that subject.

However, lexis and westlaw are VERY EXPENSIVE, especially for multi-jurisdiction subscriptions. My firms westlaw account is heavily discounted, but still costs us over $300 a month for the three attorneys. Getting an item outside of a subscription plan can cost $50 to $100 just for access and another $.05 per line downloaded.

There are less expensive legal databases that are also pretty good, but that have limitations when compared to lexis and westlaw. Loislaw is pretty popular, but it doesn't have the search and crossrefernce capabilities of the big two. However, I think it can be had for around $10 a month if I'm not mistaken.

Also, most states post their statutes online. Some are easier to use than others. And most courts will post their most recent decisions online as well (mid 1990s and up). Again, the search and crossreference capabilities are much more limited.

If anybody is serious about conducting legal research and isn't familiar with the process, I would suggest purchasing a book (online or from a law school bookstore) that teaches how to do legal research. Every state supreme court and every law school has an extensive law library covering almost all the law in the country. Most county courts have more limited libraries dealing only with that states laws and applicable federal law. Court libraries are generally open to the public, but law school libraries may place restrictions on who can use them.

Also of great resource are American Jurisprudence (Am.Jur.) and Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S.). These are comprehensive, multivolume legal encyclopedias covering pretty much all legal topics, with multitudes of citations and footnotes. Its much easier to understand the law with the use of these. There are also state specific enyclopedias that can be very handy as well.

poor lawyer, esq.

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