Cost Effective Lexis & Westlaw
and
Alternatives to Lexis & Westlaw
Sue Altmeyer
c 2012
Topics Covered





The Cost of Lexis & Westlaw
Frugal Lexis and Westlaw Use
Low cost databases
Free Internet Sources
Library Sources (briefly)
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
Billing and the Recession

Clients refusing to pay
research costs

2011 survey, Law
Technology News, 73% of
firms surveyed charged
clients for legal research,
down from 97% in 2008.
Percentage of online LexisNexis and Westlaw
charges recovered (American Lawyer Law
Librarian Survey
2011
2010
2009
40% or less
14%
15%
15%
41 to 60%
38%
28%
28%
61 to 80%
28%
39%
36%
81 to 100%
14%
15%
15%
Not applicable
5%
3%
6%
WestlawNext and LexisAdvance

Flat rate plan

When view a document, charged if that
document is off-plan (will get warning).
Lexis Advance

For Solos - $175/month, $315 for two lawyer
firm (all primary sources, plus selected
secondary)
A bargain – typically $3000 or more

Ohio only for solos - $50/month

WestlawNext

For a solo practitioner: $300/month for ONE
STATE’s primary sources, keycite and some
second sources.

(estimate from our rep)
Citators

Shepard’s® - No additional fee. Included in
fee for viewing document.

Keycite - Free if the firm subscribes to Keycite.
WestlawNext - Cost Recovery
=charging back to client
–
–


Transactional: $60 per search PLUS charge for
items clicked on OR
Hourly charge for browsing and clicking on
documents plus communication charge
PLUS document delivery
Cost chart –Tools tab
Lexis Cost Recovery

$60 for search (or as determined by firm)

Plus cost of documents clicked on
How to Save Money on
LexisAdvance and WestlawNext
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

(also applies to Classic systems)
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 and LexisAdvance– Charged once.
Then access free for one year.
History
–
–
WestlawNext - charges again after 2 am next day
LexisAdvanced –charges again after 24 hours,
but if saved document to folder, access free via
History for 90 days
Cost Effective WLNext/Lexis
Advance




Show the most detail in WLNext
Lexis – show best paragraph (default) or
Lexis overview
Sort by relevance
Filter your results
Show Less or More Detail
More Searching hints

Table of Contents – free to browse and
search on both services.
Use Table of Contents instead of Book
Browse on WLNext (OK to use Next Arrow
on LexisAdvance)
Alerts
Use Find

(applies to Classic systems too)



Keycite/Shepards

Brief Check or LexisNexis for Microsoft Office
to Shepardize; Westcheck to Keycite

(saves for both classic and next generation
systems)
Some additional Keycite hints for
WestlawNext

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
Cost Effective Printing

Westlaw decide per line or per document

Print from browser

Copy with Reference

Get and Print, Find and Print

Saves for both Classic and Next Generation
Systems
Copy with reference
Reference Attorney Phone Nos.



800 45 LEXIS
1-800-REF-ATTY (733-2889) (Westlaw)
1-800-850-9378 for law students (Westlaw)
Actual cost, next gen vs. classic

Next generation systems: Flat rate, a charge
for clicking on each document outside of plan
plus document delivery for Westlaw.

Classic: Flat rate. If go off plan, pay per
search (transactional) or hourly. Charges do
not depend on how many results clicked on.
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”
Do Law Firms Charge Retail Rates?

Lexis and Westlaw give discounts – often firms
not pay retail

But Lexis/Westlaw costs include nonbillable
items (eg. preparing CLE lectures) – Firm wants
to recover all

Minority of firms charge retail (popular on west
coast)
Ethics and Billing

Unethical to bill more than paying

Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5

ABA Formal Formal Opinion 93-379
Pa. Ethics Op. 2006-30 (2006)
Illinois Bar Association Opinion 85-9
(1/17/86)


Billing Methods
• Full Retail
• Allocation –contract cost allocated across all
usage, billable and nonbillable.
• Partial –costs spread over billable charges only
• Discount- Charge the client what actually pay for
their research.
• Client defined discount rates – based on usage
for that client.
• Do not bill clients for research cost – goes into
overhead costs. May increase hourly fee.
Billing Methods

Allocation and Discount =most popular.
Easy to do with Lexis and WL

Client defined rate becoming more popular
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
Low Cost Databases
Stripped down versions of
Lexis/WL




Casemaker –Free w/ free student
OSBA membership
Fastcase – Free w/ Cleve Metro
bar membership. Free App.
Versus Law – Free to Law
students
Bloomberg Law – Library licenses
for student use.
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 , dockets
VersusLaw – Cheapest, worst coverage
https://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/guide
s/cost/chart
Fastcase App

Free Iphone/Ipad and ANDROID App
Don’t need to be a bar member or purchaser
of Fastcase

More -http://guides.law.csuohio.edu/apps

Blog post

Why Should I Use Bloomberg Law?
Primary & Secondary – Specific
Subjects






BNA
CCH Intelliconnect
RIA Checkpoint
See Electronic Resources page for links.
NOT low cost, but not charged back to
clients
Have primary and secondary sources,
current awareness
BNA Current Awareness



Articles, cases
May contain past 12 years
ex. U.S. Law Week/Supreme Court Today
BNA Libraries



Cases, statutes, regs
Practice books
ex. ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on
Professional Conduct, Labor and
Employment Law Library , Tax and
Accounting Resource Center - more
CCH Intelliconnect
• Both Primary and Secondary Sources
• Topics Covered:
Banking
Corporate Governance
Health Care and Medicaid/Medicare *
Labor & Employment, Pensions*
Securities
• * = in the law school’s plan
CCH




Boolean searching, w/n etc.
Indexes
Current awareness emails – Sign up
Instructions
Known for their fifty state charts and tools
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!




Internet Portals





From the Library Home Page – Legal
Research on the Web
Public Records & People Finders
Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII)
ALSO
Other Portals
Use LEGAL Search Engines




Cornell University Legal Research Engine
LexisWeb
FindLaw LawCrawler
Justia
Case law



Google Scholar – state reported 1950-, fed
circuit/ district 1923Ohio Supreme Court
Legal Research on the Web - Cases
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
Web Sites to Know




Thomas.gov – Federal Legislative History will
be replace by Congress.gov
FDSys - Fed’l Govt.
PACER – Federal Court dockets
Some dockets have full text documents ex.
Ohio – Montgomery & Summit Counties,
PACER federal dockets
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
Library Resources


C|M|LAW - Lexis Academic
County Law Libraries – may charge fee to
use computer. Lexis, Westlaw or both
In Class Exercises




Use ELECTRONIC SOURCES
Do not use Lexis or Westlaw
http://www.matternassoc.com/news.asp?par
am=2&publication=27&pubnumber=188
http://deweybstrategic.blogspot.com/2012/11
/today-aba-journal-publishedarticle.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_m
edium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Dew
eyBStrategic+%28Dewey+B+Strategic%29

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_skills/
2012/11/in-new-trend-law-firms-eat-cost-oflegal-research.html