67. Shifting into electronic publishing

The two largest American legal databases are Lexis and Westlaw. They have become massive, but they are also very expensive. They have full text databases of case law, statutes, administrative materials, secondary texts, registry filings, etc., from the federal government and all the states. They also act as brokers for other databases that contain business and other information. The software for searching the databases is highly sophisticated and "user-friendly". They are substantially duplicative, and very competitive. Since they offer much the same material, often the competition ends up being how quickly they can get the information on-line. The US Supreme Court decisions are on-line within hours of their being issued, and other court cases within days. Recently, access to these systems, which is primarily dependent on prearranged subscriptions and passwords, is being offered on an ad hoc basis through use of an immediate credit card access system via the internet. Lexis/Nexis, through its LexisOne.Com front end, offers a small selection of materials free for small practitioners.

68. The Internet

As has been shown throughout the text, many law giving and related institutions have developed their own websites. There is no uniform standard for the presentation of legal information or the design of legal websites, so attempting to do broad research can be a hit-or-miss proposition. In the future, even as more and more courts and agencies and legislatures develop reliable websites, this is unlikely to change, so Lexis and Westlaw will remain key tools for legal research. The newer systems, such as LOIS and Hyperlaw have yet to take a significant portion of the market. However, in many jurisdictions, and for small specialist firms and solo practitioners, the government websites may end up being the major source of information for the practice. In order to stay abreast of what is available, it is useful to scan the LLRX.Com site. It is also a useful site to consult before starting any sort of comparative law research, since it has a lot of guides to the sources of law for a wide range of countries besides the United States.

69. The CD-ROM

For many small practitioners it is often much more cost effective to buy a CD-ROM database of the law of the jurisdiction or subject areas of the practice. They usually include most of the case law and statutory law of a particular state, or the same kind of materials contained in a looseleaf for federal administrative law. The publishers update the information several times a year, so the on-line services need only be consulted to cover any new materials issued during the intervening few months. However, we are already seeing that the ease of updating websites compared to having to update and distribute the CD-ROM disks regularly is leading to the abandonment of CD-ROM technology for many products.