Google Delivers The Law. Are West and Lexis Sweating?

Google is at it again.   Google Scholar has just been expanded to include (some number of) federal judicial opinions.  I'm not certain the extent of this collection and, because of that, I'm not sure whether this collection is tons more extensive than the web more generally.  For example, one can find Korematsu in a number of different free databases already.  It appears that Google is not yet looking to displace traditional legal research databases, but rather to assist researchers - and members of the general public - trying to find relatively famous cases. But it also appears that they've included the beginnings of cross-referencing between cases and journal articles.  I can't help but wonder whether a  full-scale war on West and Lexis, at least with respect to cases (and to some degree journals), is on the horizon.  

This, from Google:

Starting today, we're enabling people everywhere to find and read full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts using Google Scholar. You can find these opinions by searching for cases (like Planned Parenthood v. Casey), or by topics (like desegregation) or other queries that you are interested in. For example, go to Google Scholar, click on the "Legal opinions and journals" radio button, and try the query separate but equal. Your search results will include links to cases familiar to many of us in the U.S. such as Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, which explore the acceptablity of "separate but equal" facilities for citizens at two different points in the history of the U.S. But your results will also include opinions from cases that you might be less familiar with, but which have played an important role. We think this addition to Google Scholar will empower the average citizen by helping everyone learn more about the laws that govern us all. To understand how an opinion has influenced other decisions, you can explore citing and related cases using the Cited by and Related articles links on search result pages. As you read an opinion, you can follow citations to the opinions to which it refers. You can also see how individual cases have been quoted or discussed in other opinions and in articles from law journals. Browse these by clicking on the "How Cited" link next to the case title. See, for example, the frequent citations for Roe v. Wade, for Miranda v. Arizona (the source of the famous Miranda warning) or for Terry v. Ohio (a case which helped to establish acceptable grounds for an investigative stop by a police officer). 

Comments

[Joe]

It looks pretty good to me. Includes state supreme courts too. Nice interface. In some ways, better and faster than Westlaw/Lexis. And FREE.

[Nadia N. Sawicki]

Is anyone else worried about where/how Google is getting the text of these opinions?

[Roger Dennis]

Most (99+) of this information was available thru a variety of free sites..the real power of the google move is the aggregation effect plus the user interface.

[Matthew Reid Krell]

As a Mississippi solo without Westlaw or Lexis, the Google system is a godsend, since it includes intermediate courts (at least for MS), and rules of procedure (I'll pause while your heads explode at that one).

Haven't searched for statutes yet. Should be interesting to see what happens.

[Joe]

Matthew's comment is really encouraging. This is not about Big Law firms. It's about solos and small firm lawyers who are having a tough time in this economy. And it's about the clients; this will save clients money. The only losers are Westlaw and Lexis, and I have no sympathy for them. Let's just hope it doesn't lead to an explosion of frivolous pro se litigation.

[GJELblogger]

I think it's a good way to start a search, especially if you're unfamiliar with the area of law you're dealing with. It can give you a better idea of what to look for, and which databases to use, when you finally do the final search on Westlaw. And then that search will be cheaper, which really helps if you're a small firm or solo. Or, in this economic climate, it even helps if you're a big firm--especially since it seems like the flat fee structure is becoming popular.

[excessive sweating]

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[propecia online]

hello friend As a Mississippi solo without Westlaw or Lexis, the Google system is a godsend, since it includes intermediate courts (at least for MS), and rules of procedure (I'll pause while your heads explode at that one).

[Acai Berry Pure]

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