Online Sources in United States

Westlaw and LexisNexis are the two principal online sources for legal information. A developing new source is Loislaw which provides access to federal and state primary and secondary law sources. In addition, the Internet is increasingly becoming a resource for legal research, although one must constantly be more alert to the accuracy and completeness of the sources found on the Internet. Many students ask what the difference is between Lexis and Westlaw or why they should use one over the other. The answer to this varies and has many parts. First, your employer for whatever reason, including financial considerations, may only have one of the two systems. Personal preferences for whatever reason often plays a key part in deciding which system to use. Westlaw provides the headnotes from the West reporter system while Lexis’ wealth of non-legal and business information is highly valuable.

Another important question often asked is, why use books at all if there are computers? The online services should be seen as another resource that can help the readers or users with your research. Often, it is the best source. However, there are also times when it may be a hindrance. the readers or users may need to research a project in both book and online sources, using the information gathered from one to help the readers or users with using the other. Of course, the readers or users may find that what the readers or users need is not available online yet–or that your access is limited at the time the readers or users need to find the answer.