Legal Research

This now-venerable tool for lawyers, found at TheLaw.net, looks like a useful, cost-effective research source for the practicing bar.  It usefulness positions it as a low-cost rival to Westlaw and LexisNexis.  Costs range from $575 annually for 1 lawyer to $1995 for 5 lawyers.  It bills its search engine as modeled on Google's, confined to pre-selected databases to avoid irrelevant search returns.  Those databases include:  statutes, rules, forms, news, courts, administrative law, executive, legislatures, topics, bars (one of which is Half-Norwegian on mother's side!), and internet.

Coverage of federal courts is back to 1 U.S. 1, 1 Fed. 2d 1, 1 B.R. 1.  State court coverage begins in 1950.  Using the system requires downloading and installing their proprietary LawNet Equalizer 7.0 software.  A head-to-head comparison with Westlaw using a TheLaw.net suggested search (Federal Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, search for cases containing the phrase "alternate bid") found that TheLaw.net had some advantages over Westlaw.  Right on the search results page it shows you which case is most relevant, and how many times that case has been cited.

Bottom line:  not a tool for an academic law library, as it would duplicate databases already available there, but definitely worth a look for the practicing bar.