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Free Case Law On-Line From Google

By James M. Beck and Mark Herrmann

We're delighted that many of our readers are, like us, Luddites.

We know that some of you folks don't understand the meaning of complicated words like "RSS feed," "gigabyte," and "computer."

So we're betting that a few of you aren't yet aware that Google announced last week that Google Scholar now makes available on-line, and free of charge, a broad range of case law and law review articles. Here's the obligatory link.

This puppy is pretty stripped down. It doesn't have headnotes to cases, has issues with sorting results, and doesn't permit searches of, for example, one word "within X words" of another, which are important features.

Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, the head conspirator ran some searches and complained about what came up.

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog quotes folks from Lexis and Westlaw explaining that the availability of cases on-line and free doesn't worry them at all.

Information Today spent a fair amount of time experimenting with the product and posted a pretty favorable review.

Finally, the Supreme Court of Texas Blog walks you through the entire search process.

So, take a look.

Experiment.

See what you think.

And remember: A "computer" is that thing on your desk that you're staring at as you read this post.

Full post as published by Drug and Device Law on November 24, 2009 (boomark / email).