Cost Effective Lexis & Westlaw and
Alternatives to Lexis & Westlaw
22
Prof. Bouvier’s Legal
Writing Class,
Spring 2012
Low Cost Databases
Stripped down versions of
Lexis/WL




Casemaker –Free w/ free student
OSBA membership
Fastcase – Free w/ Cleve Metro
bar membership.
Versus Law – Free to Law
students
Bloomberg Law – Firms buy it.
Stripped Down Versions of Lexis/WL
What does Lexis/Westlaw have these do not?
 Editorial features – headnotes, annotations
 Practice Books (except Bloomberg)
 Law Review articles (except Bloomberg)
 Better search mechanisms and coverage
Stripped Down Versions of Lexis and
Westlaw





Casemaker – best coverage for Ohio.
Fastcase – Natural Language, Visual Charts
Bloomberg – Search capability, best citator,
expansive content
VersusLaw – Cheapest, worst coverage
https://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/guide
s/cost/chart
Terms and Connectors Searching



Must use when narrowing in WestlawNext
Makes searches more precise
Some databases do not have natural
language
Terms and Connectors How To

Step One- TERMS – from your issue
statement/assignment of error

Step Two– SYNONYMS

Step Three – add connectors
Terms

Issue statement – Whether purchaser of bar
can avoid purchase agreement due to
impossibility of performance when purchaser
was unable to obtain a liquor license?

contract and "frustration of purpose" or
(imposs! /3 perform!) and “liquor permit” or
“liquor license”
Connectors

See
https://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/ehan
dout/secondary
Fastcase App
• Free Iphone/Ipad App
• Lawstack is another free Iphone/Ipad
• More http://libguides.law.ucla.edu/content.php?pid
=112286&sid=845586
Primary & Secondary – Specific
Subjects



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BNA
CCH
See Law Databases page for links.
NOT low cost, but not charged back to
clients
Have primary and secondary sources,
current awareness
BNA Libraries

eg. Labor and Employment Law Library,
Intellectual Property Library, Tax and
Accounting Resource Center
CCH Intelliconnect

Topics Covered:
Antitrust
Banking
Corporate Governance
Health Care and Medicaid/Medicare
Labor & Employment, Pensions
Securities
CCH



Boolean searching, w/n etc.
All in One Search Box
Known for their fifty state charts
Benefits of Low Cost Databases Over
Free Internet





Better Search Mechanisms
Coverage
May be more current
Trustworthiness
Aggregated Info – One stop shopping
What’s on the Free Web




All US Supreme Court Cases
Reported Federal Appellate from 1882
Some Unreported Fed App, Fed District
State cases: reported – 1950. unreported early-mid nineties
What’s on the Free Web, cont’d

Statutes & Regulations- federal and states
Municipal Ordinances
Law Review Articles
Forms
Dockets, Briefs & Pleadings

LOTS more!




Start with a Good Internet Portal

From the Library Home Page – Legal
Research on the Web

Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII)

ALSO

Findlaw
Case law



Google Scholar – state reported 1950-, fed
circuit/ district 1923Ohio Supreme Court
Legal Research on the Web - Cases

Search = “birth certificate” marriage
transsexual OR transgender OR “sex
change”

Why don’t we get the Nash case?
Google Advanced Operators



AROUND –ex. constitution AROUND(5)
"home rule“
~ searches for synonyms and related words
ex. ~constitutionality - searches for
constitutional, unconstitutional, etc.
* placeholder for a word. Ex. sexual * abuse
picks up “sexual misconduct abuse”, “sexual
child abuse”, etc.
Google Operators
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
AND (default)
OR (capitalized)
“”Quotes for phrase.
- to remove words or phrases.
~ searches synonyms
* wildcard to replace word(s) (to * or * )
No truncation
sue AROUND(3) brown
Fields: intitle:, site:, inurl:
define: finds definitions
Jureeka

Firefox/Chrome add-on

Retrieve by citation toolbar

Fed, Ohio Official Reports, Ohio Web Cites,
ORC, OAC

On web documents (html), Jureeka links
legal citations
Web Sites to Know



Thomas.gov – Federal Legislative History
FDSys - Fed’l Govt.
PACER – Federal Court dockets
Finding Dockets, Pleadings,
Motions



LLRX or Resources for Online Court
Dockets to find dockets
Some dockets have full text documents ex.
Ohio – Montgomery & Summit Counties,
federal
PACER – Federal Court dockets
Ehandout

https://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/ehan
dout/alternatives2012
Cost Effective Use of Lexis and
Westlaw
Flat Rate Plans
Still care about cost effectiveness because:



Client charged
Item maybe outside of plan
Greater Usage = Greater Cost for Flat Rate
Plan next year
Reference Attorney Phone Nos.



800 45 LEXIS
1-800-REF-ATTY (733-2889) (Westlaw)
1-800-850-9378 for law students (Westlaw)
Cost-Saving Tips for Lexis/WL

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CALI Lesson – Cost of Legal Reseach
Cost Effective Legal Research C|M|LAW
Library Guide
Lexis – Conducting Efficient Research
tutorial
Westlaw - Cost Effective Research »
Powerpoint
WestlawNext and LexisAdvance

Flat rate plan

When view a document, charged if that
document is off-plan (will get warning).
WestlawNext - Cost Recovery
=charging back to client
 $60 per search
 PLUS charge for items clicked on
(Transactional OR Hourly)
 PLUS document delivery
 Cost chart –Tools tab
Lexis Cost Recovery

$60 for search (or as determined by firm)

Plus cost of documents clicked on
WestlawNext/LexisAdvance
Strategy (if bill to client)

Broad search and narrow down different
ways (similar to classic)

More importantly, limit NUMBER of
documents clicked on
Folders & History

Save document in folder –
–
–

WestlawNext – Access free for one year.
LexisAdvance – Access free ninety days.
History
–
–
WestlawNext - charges again after 2 am next day
LexisAdvanced –charges again after 24 hours
Cost Effective WLNext/Lexis
Advance



Show the most detail (available in WLNext
only)
Sort by relevance
Filter your results
Show Less or More Detail
More Searching hints



Use Table of Contents instead of Book
Browse on WLNext (OK to use Next Arrow
on LexisAdvance)
Alerts
Use Find
Classic Lexis and Westlaw

Select Transactional (charge per search) or
Hourly

Can be additional cost for printing/
downloading

Westlaw - additional communications charge
Figures are from a Local Law Firm, 2008 – “retail rates”
2010 Westlaw Law Firm Retail
Rates
File/Services
Hourly
(Per Minute)
All Federal Cases
$19.05
Ohio State and
Federal Cases
Sixth Circuit
Cases
All Ohio Cases
$23.08
Transactional
(Per Search)
$8.60
$8.60
Get a
Document/Find
14.00 (primary),
$24.00 (secondary)
Keycite
$6.25
Do Law Firms Charge Clients
Retail Rates?

Firms often not pay retail – Lexis/WL
discounts.

Few firms charge retail

May be unethical to charge more than
actually pay.
BEFORE you search

Ask librarian/managing partner about price
plan.

Use print or lower cost databases

Plan your search before you go online

Call the Reference Attorneys
Cost Effective Searching-Lexis &
Classic WL

Narrowest Source

Broad Search, then Focus/Locate

Table of Contents

Book Browse on LEXIS (not Westlaw)

History (L) or Research Trail (W) – (next day)
Will charge for another search
Use Locate instead
Does not charge for another search
Does not charge for another search
Charges a “find”
Does not charge
Classic Searching, Cont’d

Alerts

Shepards or Keycite for Research instead of
a search


Search by Topic/Headnote (L); KeyNumber/
Keysearch (W)
Get a Document (L), Find (W)

50 state surveys
But can’t do alert on a Focus search
Cost Effective Printing

Westlaw decide per line or per document

Print from browser

Copy with Reference

Get and Print, Find and Print
Copy with Cite
Copy with reference
Keycite/Shepards

Brief Check or LexisNexis for Microsoft Office
to Shepardize; Westcheck to Keycite
Some additional Keycite hints

Case itself lists the most negative case

Whether billed for keycite in addition to find
depends on your plan

Limit Citing References, use headnotes,
depth of treatment

keycite or kc: If need keycite, not text of case