Net Q & A

Question of the Month: May 2001

Answer

I give Internet legal research seminars (focusing on free sites only) and spend a lot of time evaluating web sites. A quick look at this one shows me that much of it is under construction, so it's too early to evaluate it (or use it). In fact, even the "About Us" is "Under construction" so who knows who they are,--if they're a credible site, etc.!!

I have not heard of thelaw.com and I can assure you that nothing free or cheap can really replace Lexis or Westlaw. But, if you only need case law for instance, or just current cases, and don't need the full blown database offered by Lexis and Westlaw (public records, law reviews, news, international law, etc.) then there are other options.

Lexisone.com is free and covers case law of all U.S. Appellate Courts and all 50 state courts, but the last 4 years only. It also covers all U.S. Supreme Court cases since 1790. FindLaw also offers a lot of free case law. There is a comparison of the two at my web site.

For a review of many different low-cost legal web sites such as LOIS Law Library, VersusLaw, Jurisline.com, National Law Library, Quicklaw America and EastLaw , check out llrx.com and type in any of those names in the search box. For example, for a review of Versuslaw.com, see