Google Challenges Westlaw and Lexis With “Google Scholar”

Google continues to expand the universe around it—this time it has rolled out “Scholar” a free search engine for case law and articles.  Scholar has the ability to search for specific cases or by topic.  Once a case is identified, you can then explore “cited by” and “related articles” links.  You can also explore articles or opinions related to your case or topic.  Scholar exposes the profit foundation for Westlaw and Lexis and threatens to relegate these companies into nothing more than a way to make sure case is current (a la Shepard’s or Keycite).  That day may be years away while Scholar is fine-tuned to produce results to compete with these services, however, it certainly appears that day is at least on the horizon.  The only question now is how long will it take to get here.

Legal Research on the Cheap Part 2: Loislaw

Last week I posted a number of online locations for free access to Utah law.  I’m not the only tightwad when it comes to legal research: Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, a national firm with more than 675 attorneys, recently issued a firm-wide directive that all non-billable legal research should be done on Loislaw, a Wolters Kluwer/CCH publication available on purportedly lower-cost flat-rate basis.  For many firms, including Locke Lord, the long-time standard has been to do all legal research on either Lexis or Westlaw charged at a per transaction or time-rate basis often resulting in higher costs.  In its firm memo (published in its entirety by ATL here), Locke Lord directs that only billable legal research be conducted on Westlaw or Lexis (with an appropriate billing number) and where possible Loislaw should be used for billable research.

The bottom line is that although Lexis and Westlaw cannot always be replaced for certain legal research, it can be for some, if not most, legal research at a lower cost either with Loislaw or free online resources.  Not mentioned by Locke Lord or ATL, however, is the need to remain efficient.  There is no sense in stepping over a dollar to pick up a penny.  If the alternative legal research (free or otherwise) is too cumbersome, inefficient, or does not have the resources sufficient to permit accurate and thorough research then it threatens to waste an attorney’s time while on the billable clock.  The result would likely be more billable time spent researching which would eviscerate any cost savings.  And that is the bottom line.