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Legal Research Crack
Yesterday began w/a Lexis Nexis "training session," provided by a Lexis representative during out LegResWri class. You can't be a law student if you don't know Lexis, can you? For half an hour everyone oohed and ahhed over the magic of Lexis, and the whole time the Lexis rep just kept encouraging us to "use it, abuse it, really get to know and love Lexis—when you get to your law firm, you'll be glad you did." What she didn't say is that Lexis will also be glad we became addicted to its services—completely reliant on them, in fact, because by then we will have forgotten how to use their book equivalents—because that means more money for Lexis. So, basically, GW forced every one of its first year students to let Lexis spend 30 minutes helping them take their first dose of legal research crack.
Why does Lexis get this captive audience to shill its goods? I think other corporations should get in on this, don't you? I mean, I think, to be fair, Starbucks should get at least 10 minutes to encourage us to "drink lots of coffee in law school—when you get to your firm you'll be glad you did because then you'll be ready to stay awake and productive from the early morning to the late late night." Perhaps in the spring some boring black business suit makers could come to our contracts classes to model their boring black business suits and encourage us to wear them to interviews because "when you get to your law firm, you'll be glad you did!"
For the record: Electronic, online legal research rocks. The fact that Lexis makes a profit from it is just plain wrong. Of course I will use Lexis, and of course I will resent Lexis. I will also advocate for a publicly-funded, not-for-profit legal research database that will put Lexis (and West) out of business. We need online legal research; we don't need people making money from it.
So the next time the Lexis or Westlaw rep comes around offering you points or goodies or training, remember that the only reason they're trying to buy your love is so that they can make a fortune off of you over the course of your legal career. If you're a solo practitioner or part of a small firm, be prepared to spend $300/day, $455/week, or $715/month for the full Lexis access you enjoy in law school. Or you can plan to pay-as-you-go at $9 per document/case you access. What a bargain!
Posted September 25, 2003 07:23 AM | law school
Loyola wouldn't let Lexis or Westlaw have us as a captive audience until second semester. Then we, too, were required to attend. First semester research class was filled with references to how most firms can't afford Lexis, they still use the old ways, etc. Our instructor's firm is one of them...
I have noticed that Lexis doesn't give the 'reward points' it used to. I finished last year with 800 points, but no way did I go to their site 80 times, as I would have to today...maybe it's just my imagination.
Posted by: greg at September 25, 2003 11:33 PM
I posted something very similar here at this link:
http://myshingle.com/article.pl?sid=03/10/03/2341208 and I will cross link to your post as well. Since you are a GW student, I'll let you know what galls me in particular - I applied for a legal research/writing gig at GW and wrote about how I would try to teach alternative research methods, pointing out that not all law students will be able to afford LEXIS or Westlaw when they graduate. Based on the above post from the Loyola student, it seems that Loyola has the right idea about all of this.
Posted by: Carolyn Elefant at October 3, 2003 08:18 PM
Have you tried the currently-available online research tools? Findlaw is good, and most states have their own opinions/statutes online and searchable to some degree. But yes, a non-profit and cheap public online service would be very cool. I mean, how often do you need to search for more than a set of cases or a few statutes?
Posted by: Mike at October 4, 2003 02:23 PM
Your comment that Lexis should not be in business for profit is very comical and illustrates your lack of business experience. Try running your law firm as a not for profit and see how long you stay in business. I would also advice you to take a Not for Profit class while in law school because you will discover that not for profit does not always mean “not for profit”
Here is a task for you…Try doing the same stuff in the books that you do so quickly online...When you are billing out at $150 per hour and it takes you five minutes to check a citation online v. doing the same thing in the books and you opt to use the books - you should be sued for malpractice! Here's the break down from someone who practices law:
150 divided by 2 (assuming you can do it in .50 hour) is 75 dollars, correct? It cost 4.75 to Shepardize your case online and that will not take you 5 minutes!
Call a Lexis Sales person or any other publisher and ask them how much a small plan cost for a 3 attorney firm. It’s about $750. a month for unlimited usage (as long as you stay in cases and statutes)..Your professors worked for very large law firms whereas billing also represented what the firm charged the client NOT what Lexis charged the firm!
You really should research your facts before you post stupid statements about something you know little or nothing about. Try to Google it next time – its free (opps but someone will profit from it – I promise!)
Posted by: Charlie at June 20, 2005 02:26 AM
