Revolution or evolution in legal research?
Jinfo Blog

27th January 2010

By Michele Bate

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The New York Times reported this week that Westlaw and LexisNexis are both introducing sweeping changes to their legal search services, in a bid to make it easier and faster for users to find the information they need. (http://digbig.com/5bbabe) Westlaw and LexisNexis are reacting to competition provided by lower priced and sometimes free rival services available via the Web. Google, for example, announced in November that its Scholar search engine now contains over 80 years’ worth of US case law – all available for free. The legal research service Fastcase is preparing to launch an iPhone application that will enable users to research cases and statutes on the move, again for free. (http://digbig.com/5bbabs) By “google-izing legal research”, Westlaw and LexisNexis also want to attract younger lawyers, who are used to slick Web services and simple search engine-type interfaces. The legal research market is a lucrative one – The New York Times estimates that Westlaw and LexisNexis each bring in more than US$1 billion a year for their respective parent companies, Thomson Reuters and Reed Elsevier. The ABA Journal has provided on its website a “sneak preview” of the new-look services from Westlaw, LexisNexis and Bloomberg. (http://digbig.com/5bbabf) The revamp of Westlaw, which has been five years in the making, will be launched on 1 February as WestlawNext. The new service will allow users to type in general requests as they would in a search engine. The search system will use algorithms to find other documents related to a case. LexisNexis intends to publicly roll out its revamped search interface later this year but has not specified a launch date. It describes its new service as “radically different”. Users can type in a simple query, in natural language and filter queries by various parameters. Results will be culled from legal websites identified by Lexis in addition to its own proprietary content. There will also be a suite of collaboration tools. Bloomberg plans to launch a revamped legal search product – Bloomberg Law – later this year. According to ABA Journal, it is most likely to appeal to large law firms. Both the New York Times and ABA Journal articles consistently refer to “lawyers” using Westlaw and LexisNexis – it is to these “end users” that the new services are clearly aimed. There is no mention of information professionals. It is to be hoped that when bringing in natural language searching, the legal research providers do not ditch sophisticated search options such as robust indexing and Boolean operators that often enable experienced researchers to save end users’ time. It is also of potential concern that if LexisNexis, for example, is returning results from legal websites in addition to its proprietary content, it will be more difficult to assess the credibility of sources. In these cost aware times, with proliferating free and cheap legal databases available, do we need LexisNexis and Westlaw? The two firms stress their broad access to legal documents, experience in the market and legal analysis as reasons to use their services. The New York Times article quoted Don Cruse, an Austin, Texas based lawyer and blog author who said: “You can get a pretty good percentage of the results you get out of Westlaw or Lexis by using the free tools.” That may be acceptable if you just want a flavour of what information is out there but when conducting due diligence, for instance, it is vital to be as sure as possible that you have not missed anything. Thomson Reuters announcement about WestlawNext: http://digbig.com/5bbaxq LexisNexis announcement about Lexis for Microsoft Office: http://digbig.com/5bbaxr

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