Westlaw

Westlaw is a legal database program that makes it easy to search through cases and laws. Unlike many other legal database programs, this one searches through headnotes so that you can quickly find citations that you need for memos, cases and arguments. This program can be quite expensive and it might be difficult for legal students or smaller firms to afford.

Main Features

One of the best ways to win a case, make a persuasive argument or draft any legal letter is to do your research and find relevant citations. This can be difficult without a program to aid you. Westlaw is a legal database that allows you to quickly search through thousands of cases to find the information you need. Not only that, but you can just as quickly look through cases that your competition is using to see if there are any weaknesses in their argument.

Searching is very easy and you can save relevant sources to check later. The search options are intuitive so that you can find exactly what you're looking for by keyword, lawyer, specific sources and more. You should have a good list of matches within a few minutes, which is much faster than similar programs.

Headnotes

Many legal databases don't search through or deliver headnotes, which is a shame because this would make your job easier and faster. The good news is that Westlaw is one of the few programs that does this. You can easily find headnotes that are relevant to your needs. This also allows you to quickly figure out if a certain source is or isn't good for your needs. There's nothing worse than reading many pages of legal text just to find out that the source doesn't help you.

Quite Expensive

Westlaw can be prohibitively expensive for legal students or newer lawyers without consistent cases. While there is a free trial, you will have to pay once that is finished. This program costs nearly $100 per month for the smallest plan. Larger plans cost significantly more money.

Many lawyers argue that it's worth the cost because it speeds up your job and makes it easier to find relevant sources for your needs, it might be too expensive if you don't have enough cases.

Good Law

Sometimes you find a legal source that seems great because it supports your case and works in your favor. The problem is that sometimes the rulings were overturned or changes have been made that negate that source's benefits. Westlaw reduces the chances of this happening because it checks through sources regularly to make sure they are still good and relevant. While you should still trust your legal judgment, Westlaw does a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

Pros

• Checks through thousands of cases to find relevant legal sources for your needs.
• Allows you to quickly look through headnotes to find what you need.
• The program regularly scans through sources to ensure they still represent good law.

Cons

• This program is quite expensive and might be hard for newer lawyers to afford.