Cost Effective Lexis and Westlaw Use

billWhen you go out and practice law, or even at your legal job this summer, you may be concerned with costs associated with using Lexis or Westlaw.  A law firm may purchase only a part of  Lexis Advance or WestlawNext, such as only Ohio materials.  If an attorney needs to go outside of the purchased plan, say to retrieve Pennsylvania materials, the attorney will be charged per document accessed.  Additionally, some law firms charge research costs back to clients, even if the research was within the flat-rate plan.  For a brief explanation of legal research charges, see Cost Recovery – The Movie.

Our most recent Legal Research Certificate Seminar explored ways to reduce Lexis and Westlaw costs.  Ways to reduce the number of documents clicked on in Lexis and Westlaw include:

  • Retrieve documents you saved in folders for up to one year for free.
  • Access documents for free via your History for until 2 a.m. the next day on WestlawNext and for 90 days on Lexis Advance.
  • Call the Lexis and Westlaw Reference Attorneys to help create an efficient search.
  • Use the Internet or low-cost databases to pull up cases retrieved from a Lexis or Westlaw search.  Or use these lower cost alternatives to do preliminary research before going on Lexis or Westlaw.

For more cost-effective searching hints see the library’s Cost Effective Legal Research Guide.