WestlawNext Legal Research System -Is It The Next Great Thing?

Welcome to : WestlawNext Legal Research System: Thomson Reuters.  The first presentation this morning was a Thomson West extravaganza, with live cello music, top brass presenters, and a light show, which I attended with She Who Must Be Obeyed in a packed conference room. It may be cold outside, but the heat is on inside. Thomson West reps bristled that Next is some kind of answer to the proliferation of free legal research sites online; notably, Google Scholar, which makes plain, unvarnished case research free and ubiquitous. However, West is leveraging its 100 years of case analysis, and its large group of databases to make legal research over all of its materials, a one stop dashboard easy process. The interface is clean, and West promises that its proprietary algorithms will bring the most relevant results from ALL of its materials to one location. Add in the ability to save projects in easy to use folders, and the service may become a compelling add on to the free stuff online. Pricing will be a premium over regular Westlaw. However, you will have to talk to your local rep to get a quote for your firm. Is it worth a try? Absolutely, if the quality of the results meets the hype. Do you need it? Perhaps not. But, would you rather drive to work in a Yugo or a Cadillac?

Comments

[John L. Davidson]

the killer Google app is Google Books

with the Supreme
Court and most other courts having buried their heads in the sands of the past, old works now must be cited and they are free on Google Books

the diligent will find that the common law was more robust and useful than they thought