With the announcement of Google Scholar, Google enters the world of online case law. And makes it free!
So, the obvious question becomes, what effect will this have on the two fee-base global leaders in this space, LexisNexis (a unit of Reed Elsevier) and Westlaw (a unit of Thomson Reuters).
In the short term, the answer is most likely, little to none. However, over time, Google will put both these services into “differentiate or die” mode.
Right now, there are many essential components to legal research that both Lexis and Westlaw do that, as of now, Google Scholar doesn’t. So, in the short term, law firms will have to continue using these fee-based services.
HOWEVER, we’re talking about Google here. Ever heard of them? Oh yeah, they are the masters of search, which at its core, is exactly what legal research is.
Read between the lines of Google’s announcement:
“As we worked to build this feature, we were struck by how readable and accessible these opinions are. Court opinions don’t just describe a decision but also present the reasons that support the decision. In doing so, they explain the intricacies of law in the context of real-life situations. And they often do it in language that is surprisingly straightforward, even for those of us outside the legal profession. In many cases, judges have gone quite a bit out of their way to make complex legal issues easy to follow. For example, in Korematsu v. United States, the Supreme Court justices present a fascinating and easy-to-follow debate on the legality of internment of natural born citizens based on their ancestry. And in United States v. Ramirez-Lopez, Judge Kozinski, in his dissent, illustrates the key issue of the case using an imagined good-news/bad-news dialogue between the defendant and his attorney.”
My humble translation:
Legal research and case law lend themselves very nicely to being organized within Google’s index.
While the initial “pitch” is giving access to the law to lay people, Google will undoubtedly begin to incorporate many of the other key components of performing legal research (citations, shepardizing, cross-referencing, etc.).
And, as Google has proven in the past, they are really good at search.
Final analysis:
Don’t count Lexis and Westlaw out yet. They still offer much more to lawyers and law firms than Google Scholar. However, this certainly turns up the heat and requires them to evolve their services to continue to outpace Google.
In the very least, Google has finally given every living room lawyer in the country access to legal research. Now when you’re buddy claims that it’s illegal to eat in a burning building in Chicago, they’ll have some actual law to back it up.
Here are some interesting articles on the topic:
Google Squeezes LexisNexis and Westlaw Hard
Google Scholar Gets A Law Degree
Google Scholar: Better than LexisNexis and Westlaw?
Google Scholar — access free caselaw on your iPhone
Google Scholar Search Now Includes U.S. Case Law and Legal Journals
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