Cost Effective Lexis & Westlaw and Alternatives to Lexis & Westlaw Prof. Bouvier’s Legal Writing Class, Spring 2012 22

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/guides/cost/chart

Also NOTES likes WLNext

Field searching as well if click on advanced search

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/ehandout/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

http://www.fastcase.com/whatisfastcase/coverage/ Fed App 1925-, Ohio 1950 -, Ohio unreported 2000-

frequently cited by other decisions in your search results but do not contain all of your search terms

Federal court coverage good Federal court coverage good. Ohio reported App back to 1913, selected unreported 2005 forward.

Primary & Secondary – Specific Subjects 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 Openjurist has the federal appellate back to 1882

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 1923- Ohio 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/ehandout/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 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 – History 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) Transactional (Per Search) All Federal Cases $19.05 Ohio State and Federal Cases $23.08 Sixth Circuit Cases $8.60 All Ohio Cases 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. Search costs $150 retail, firm pays $25 Full Retail (minority of firms) Allocation –allocate across all usage, billable and nonbillable. Partial – Nonbillable costs taken out, costs spread over billable charges Discount- Charge the client the discount rate Do not bill clients for research cost (overhead)

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