Finding the right legal research tools can be an overwhelming task for law firms.
In this post, we'll explore the 5 best legal research platforms that provide comprehensive databases, smart search features, and tailor-made solutions to power up your firm's research capabilities.
From Westlaw and LexisNexis to exciting new AI-assisted tools like Casetext and Ravel Law, we'll cover everything you need to know to select the perfect research suite for your practice areas and budget.Whether you need to streamline case assessment, build ironclad arguments, or stay on top of new developments, these top-rated platforms have you covered.
Introduction to the Powerhouse of Legal Research Tools
Legal research is the foundation of any successful law practice. Having access to up-to-date laws, case law, statutes, regulations, and more allows lawyers to build strong legal arguments and provide sound counsel to their clients. However, sorting through the multitude of legal research options to find the best tools can be daunting.
In this brief overview, we'll explore top legal research tools that savvy law firms leverage to enhance efficiency and streamline workflows. Key features to look for include:
- Comprehensive databases with millions of legal documents
- Powerful, accurate search capabilities
- Customizable alerts and monitoring
- Intuitive organization of content
- Downloadable and shareable documents
- Integrations with other software platforms
With the right research tools, law firms can significantly cut time spent on legal research while ensuring access to authoritative content. This allows lawyers to focus on higher-value tasks like legal analysis, strategy, and client counsel.
By investing in robust solutions like Westlaw, LexisNexis, Bloomberg Law, Fastcase, and Casetext, firms can empower their attorneys to deliver exceptional service. The best tools even provide round-the-clock customer support, ensuring help is available when lawyers need it.
As we explore the top legal research services in this post, keep these key buying criteria in mind. And remember, whether building a legal argument, advising a client, or compiling evidence, finding the facts fast is critical. Powerful research tools help savvy firms do just that while boosting productivity and enhancing client service.
What tools do legal researchers use?
Legal professionals rely on a range of legal research tools to efficiently access vital information. Here are some of the most popular options:
Westlaw
Westlaw, powered by Thomson Reuters, is one of the leading online legal research services. It provides access to case law, statutes, analytical materials, public records, and more from global content collections. Key features include:
- Comprehensive case law and statutes databases
- Tools to track litigation, dockets, analytics
- Mobile access
- Alerts for recent developments
Westlaw is best suited for law firms seeking robust search capabilities across a vast document repository.
Bloomberg Law
Bloomberg Law delivers legal analysis, market insights, company information, news and more. Key features include:
- Search across legal, government, and business content
- Tools for legal analytics and market intelligence
- Mobile apps
- Current awareness and alerts
Bloomberg Law appeals to firms interested in seamlessly combining legal and business research.
Fastcase
Fastcase is a leading legal research platform providing smarter legal search through artificial intelligence. Benefits include:
- Fast full-text legal search
- Visualization tools
- Integrations with Clio, Rocket Matter, and other platforms
- Mobile access
For lean firms aiming to maximize efficiency, Fastcase makes legal research uncomplicated.
This covers some of the most widely-used research services relied upon by law firms today to supercharge legal work. The optimal choice depends on specific firm needs and budget.
What is Westlaw used for?
Westlaw is a leading online legal research service used by lawyers, legal professionals, and law students to access comprehensive legal information to support their work.
Some of the key uses of Westlaw include:
Researching Case Law
Westlaw provides access to one of the most extensive databases of case law in the world, with coverage of state and federal cases going back over a century. Lawyers can quickly search for relevant cases to support legal arguments and briefs.
Accessing Statutes & Regulations
The platform allows users to research up-to-date statutes and regulations at the federal and state levels. This helps lawyers advise clients on compliance and interpret laws accurately.
Analyzing Legal Topics
Westlaw features thousands of expert-written analytical materials on legal topics to help users quickly understand complex issues. This includes practice notes, law reviews, treatises, and more.
Tracking Litigation Deadlines
Users can set up case trackers and calendaring tools to ensure they never miss a deadline for an ongoing case again. This helps avoid embarrassing and costly oversights.
In summary, Westlaw empowers legal professionals to perform efficient and comprehensive legal research to build stronger cases and provide exceptional counsel. Its depth of content and advanced search makes it an indispensable tool for law firms around the world.
What is a finding tool legal research?
Finding tools enable a researcher to find and interpret legal authority. Initially, many researchers turn to tools that provide summaries of a particular area of the law.
Some examples of finding tools that provide overviews of legal topics include:
- Legal encyclopedias like American Jurisprudence and Corpus Juris Secundum offer comprehensive summaries on various legal subjects. These provide a starting point to understand key concepts and sources to investigate further.
- Treatises analyze legal principles in substantive areas like contracts and torts in extensive detail. Renowned subject-matter experts author these practice-oriented resources.
- The American Law Reports (ALR) publish articles on narrowly defined legal issues. They compile relevant case law and analyze the differing reasoning courts employ when interpreting the same issue.
Finding tools like the ones above help researchers contextualize issues and discover authoritative sources to build a more persuasive argument. With their overviews of legal doctrines, landmark cases, and concise analysis, these resources make the research process more efficient.
By leveraging finding tools as a launch pad for investigation, lawyers can craft stronger legal arguments rooted in precedent and backed by reliable commentary. Resources like treatises and ALR articles also suggest other primary and secondary sources to explore. With their guidance, savvy law firms can reinforce their positions drawing from a wealth of legal authority.
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How to effectively do legal research?
Effective legal research is key to achieving favorable outcomes for legal cases. Here are some best practices to follow:
Identify Key Issues and Questions
First, gather all relevant background details about the case and determine the key legal issues and questions you need to answer. Understand if you need to find a statute, analyze a precedent case, or discover legislative intent. Clearly defining the scope of research upfront ensures efficiency.
Search Relevant Legal Resources
Reliable legal research platforms like Westlaw and LexisNexis provide access to vast databases of caselaw, statutes, regulations, law journals, and more. Utilize advanced search features to pinpoint specific legal sources and filter by jurisdiction, court level, date range, etc. Free alternatives like Casetext and Fastcase can also be leveraged.
Review and Compare Multiple Sources
Do not rely on a single case or statute. Expanding research across multiple reliable sources establishes stronger authority and reveals contrasting perspectives. Trace back seminal cases that newer decisions reference. Compare language across statutory versions to spot key revisions.
Analyze and Synthesize Findings
Methodically assess how your research findings relate, corroborate positions, satisfy open questions, and achieve the predefined goal. Synthesize learnings into a cohesive narrative anchored by the strongest evidence. Discuss any open gaps needing further research.
Following structured legal research processes pays dividends in the quality and defensibility of conclusions reached. With the right frameworks and tools, attorneys can uncover authoritative sources to construct winning legal positions.
Exploring the Essential Features of Legal Library Software
This section will outline the most critical capabilities legal teams need from research tools, including comprehensive databases, intelligent search, collaboration features, and practice-specific customization.
Accessing an Online Legal Database: Scope and Depth
The best legal research tools like Westlaw and Fastcase offer expansive databases of case law, statutes, regulations to support thorough research. For example, Westlaw provides access to over 40,000 databases of legal content to aid comprehensive case building.
With extensive primary law and secondary materials readily available, legal teams can efficiently find supporting cases and references without restrictive paywalls or limited data. Robust databases also include litigation documents, expert witness testimony, jury verdicts, and more niche content to aid legal strategy.
Overall, choosing a legal research platform with vast data breadth and depth ensures legal professionals can find the exact information they need to thoroughly examine issues.
Smart Search and Advanced Filters in Legal Research
Sophisticated keyword, boolean, and natural language search along with filters by jurisdiction, court level, date range, etc. help teams quickly find relevant sources.
For instance, Legal Buddies' talent can utilize Westlaw's Flex search to input complex nested queries with precedence logic to pinpoint applicable documents. Research accelerators like WestSearch Plus then recommends additional relevant case law using AI algorithms.
Advanced filters also allow narrowing source results by case type, court level, jurisdiction, date range, etc. This avoids sifting through irrelevant materials that match the query keywords but lack proper context. Overall, intelligent search and filtering minimizes research time without sacrificing depth or accuracy.
The Role of Collaboration in Legal Research Services
Collaboration features like sharing documents, annotations, and search queries in real-time aid efficiency for legal teams. For example, the Westlaw Edge platform provides a centralized dashboard for finding and organizing relevant research content.
Legal professionals can then highlight passages, add digital sticky notes, create shared folders, and seamlessly exchange insights across devices. This facilitates better division of research responsibilities, allowing concurrent analysis of sources rather than linear hand-offs.
End-to-end collaboration also reduces duplication of efforts and keeps all stakeholders aligned on the latest findings. With Legal Buddies' global talent, seamless teamwork enables 24/7 productivity across time zones.
Tailored Solutions for Different Practice Areas
Leading platforms provide focused content, data analytics, and tools tailored specifically for practice areas like litigation, IP, corporate, etc.
For example, Westlaw Edge offers litigation workflow tools for managing case documents, transcripts, and evidence while providing key analytics for case strategy. Similarly, dedicated IP research services like Thomson Innovation help analyze patents, emerging technologies, and competitive intelligence.
Practice-specific research solutions enhance efficiency by streamlining document review and analysis. Targeted analytics also provide data-driven insights to inform legal strategy based on type of case, court tendencies, verdicts, settlements, etc. This saves substantial time while unlocking targeted perspectives.
Overall, configurable platforms catered to different practice specialties ensure legal teams can maximize productivity for their specific needs. With Legal Buddies' global talent network, law firms can build customized workflows to access niche capabilities on-demand.
The 5 Best Legal Research Websites and Platforms
As a law firm seeking to leverage technology for enhanced efficiency, a robust legal research platform is invaluable. However, with the multitude of options available, selecting the right tool for your needs can be daunting. In this section, we'll explore 5 leading solutions to consider.
Westlaw: The Comprehensive Legal Research Suite
With over 40,000 databases spanning case law, statutes, analytical materials, and more, Westlaw provides unrivaled breadth and depth of legal content. Key strengths include:
- Intelligent Tools: Westlaw's suite of AI capabilities deliver advanced search, recommendations, and analysis to accelerate research. The KeyCite citator also ensures up-to-date caselaw validity.
- Practice Area Focus: Dedicated practice pages provide focused, curated content and task-based workflows by legal specialty to boost efficiency.
- Collaboration Features: Folder sharing, integrated messaging, and admin/analytics dashboards streamline teamwork.
However, the premium content does come at a cost - Westlaw is one of the more expensive research services. Customer support is also not 24/7. Overall, Westlaw excels for the depth of resources.
LexisNexis: A Multifaceted Legal Research Service
Offering over 10,000 databases across a vast array of content types, LexisNexis enables comprehensive research tailored to your practice area:
- Practice-Focused Offerings: Lexis+ bundles provide specialized analytical tools and editorially-enhanced content by legal specialty.
- Flexible Plans: Choose from pay-as-you-go options to subscription packages to meet budget needs.
- Multimedia Content: Expand beyond text-based data with access to transcripts, verdicts & settlements, expert witness profiles, and more unique content types.
However, the extensive options can also create complexity in navigating platforms. Support is also limited outside US business hours. Overall, LexisNexis shines for practice area support.
Fastcase: Dynamic Legal Research on a Budget
Delivering robust legal content with innovative features at affordable pricing, Fastcase balances comprehensive capabilities with value:
- Intelligent Search: Leverage AI, natural language processing, and visualization tools to uncover insights.
- Interlinked Content: SmartCite links related passages across statutes, cases, treatises, and court rules for efficient contextual research.
- Generous Plans: Flat-rate subscriptions provide unlimited searching across comprehensive content starting under $100/month.
However, practice area support tools are less specialized relative to costlier platforms. Support is US-based, so international users may face limitations. For lean firms seeking robust capabilities on a budget, Fastcase hits the mark.
Casetext: AI-Powered Research and the CARA Assistant
Casetext enhances productivity via AI, with the CARA legal research assistant at the core:
- CARA Recommendations: The AI assistant surfaces relevant case law, statutes, and analytical content tailored to the context of your research queries.
- Powerful Search: Leverage natural language queries and filters by jurisdiction, court level, date range, and more for precise results.
- Collaboration Tools: Integrated document annotation and team task management simplify sharing insights.
However, as a newer entrant, Casetext offers less extensive secondary source content relative to legacy tools. Support is also limited to US business hours. For AI-powered productivity, Casetext delivers.
Ravel Law: Cutting-Edge Data Visualization Techniques
Specializing in interactive case law data mapping, Ravel Law provides unique visual perspectives into legal relationships:
- Relationship Graphs: Visually map connections across judges, courts, jurisdictions, attorneys, and more for new insights.
- Intelligent Search: Surface patterns in the data with filters, keyword queries, and AI recommendations.
- Integrated Content: Combine visualizations with case law, statutes, dockets, and analytics from partner providers.
However, Ravel's focus on visualization creates limitations relative to full-service research suites. Support is also confined to US business hours. For distinctive data visualization capabilities, Ravel Law stands out.
In summary, today's legal research landscape offers varied solutions to meet diverse needs and budgets. As you evaluate options, prioritizing key functionality, practice support, content breadth, pricing models, and other aspects as they align to your firm's priorities enables smart platform decisions. With Legal Buddies, you also gain support in leveraging these tools efficiently through our talent placement services. By integrating legal virtual assistants into your team, we facilitate optimized utilization of legal technology for enhanced outcomes.
What to Consider When Choosing a Legal Research Platform
Evaluating the best legal research tools can be complex given the range of critical factors law firms must weigh. Beyond coverage and search capabilities, collaboration features, practice area support, and pricing models can all impact a platform's utility. As firms assess solutions, focusing on how well each aligns with core research needs and budget priorities is key.
Evaluating Content and Jurisdiction in Online Legal Databases
Ensuring a legal research database has sufficiently robust federal and state-level content libraries to support a firm's jurisdictional research needs is paramount. Firms should evaluate:
- Depth of case law, statutes, regulations, dockets, verdicts, contracts, and more at both state and federal levels
- How frequently primary law and secondary materials are updated
- Whether databases include exclusive or niche content types, like jury instructions
Platforms with comprehensive content across a firm's required jurisdictions, kept current through frequent updates, provide confidence research findings will stand up over time.
The Importance of Search and Filter Precision
Advanced search and filtering controls influence how efficiently lawyers can pinpoint relevant documents. Capabilities to consider include:
- Boolean operators linking keywords with AND, OR, NOT logic
- Natural language queries in plain English
- Filtering by document type, jurisdiction, court level, date range
- Folders to save and organize searches
Platforms allowing complex yet user-friendly search and filtering help firms maximize research productivity.
The Advantages of Collaboration Features in Legal Research Software
With legal teams often tackling projects jointly, collaboration capabilities enable convenient information sharing. Lawyers can:
- Share documents like briefs through email or link
- Highlight text and add annotations for colleagues
- Save and share searches so others can refine or rerun queries
- Access shared items on mobile for continuity
By centralizing work product access and commentary, firms prevent duplication of efforts and keep everyone updated.
Selecting the Right Practice Area-Specific Resources
Generic legal research tools have limitations across specialized practice areas like IP, tax, employment law, and more. Focused platforms provide tailored productivity features like:
- Practice-specific analysis connecting verdicts, judges, attorneys
- Data visualizations delivering actionable insights
- Model briefs and motions with convenient customization
- Automated form libraries including practice-relevant templates
Evaluating niche tools purpose-built for a firm's practice areas ensures the unique needs of specialists are fully supported.
Balancing Costs with Legal Research Needs
From flexible pay-as-you-go options to discounted flat-rate contracts, pricing models differ significantly across solutions. Aspects to evaluate include:
- Overall budget for legal research
- Expected monthly utilization by lawyers
- Pay-as-you-go costs per search or document
- Contract discounts based on commitment
Selecting affordable plans aligned with expected usage ensures firms apply resources effectively. Weighing utilization and budget tradeoffs helps identify the optimal value.
Maximizing Efficiency with the Best Legal Research Services
Legal research tools provide opportunities for law firms to enhance productivity, analysis, and client deliverables while controlling costs. By leveraging the best resources available, teams can accelerate case assessment, build stronger arguments, elevate client reporting, and stay updated on legal developments.
Streamlining Case Assessment with Free Law Resources
Free legal research websites like Fastcase and state bar associations contain a wealth of citable case law. Robust filtering makes it easy to sort cases by jurisdiction, date, judges, and other factors critical for determining precedential value. Visualization features like keyword graphs and citation maps further accelerate identifying relevant cases to evaluate.
Building Strong Cases with Access to Quality Precedents
Comprehensive legal research databases like Westlaw contain over 90 million legal documents. Smart search features, coupled with extensive filtering capabilities, help users efficiently discover supportive precedents. Annotating and comparing passages across related case law can reveal compelling patterns. These insights better equip legal teams to construct convincing arguments rooted in case law.
Elevating Client Reports with Integrated Legal Research Tools
Many legal research platforms offer built-in tools to enhance client deliverables. Annotating meaningful excerpts, highlighting persuasive passages, building custom templates, and comparing documents enhances efficiency. Teams can easily compile key case law, analysis, and strategy recommendations into polished, customizable reports to clearly convey insights to clients.
Staying Informed of New Developments via Legal Research Alerts
Leading tools like LexisNexis offer alerts for new court decisions related to specified cases, statutes, topics, judges or jurisdictions. This keeps legal teams effortlessly updated on developments that may impact existing cases or warrant new legal action. Proactive insights into emerging issues better position firms to protect client interests over time.
