March 1999 Volune 12 No3 - Utah State Bar

Technolo Review' "
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by Marsha Thomas
Working at a law library, we are often asked whether the
Internet wil replace Westlaw"" and Lexis"". We predict that it wil
not. Although the Internet is becoming an excellent source for
some recent legal materials, in most areas it stil lacks the
retroactive coverage of traditional legal sources. Westlaw"" and
Lexis"" have adapted to the Internet format well, and offer a fee-
based web interface to their databases.
WHT is VERSUSLAW?
Having said all that, there is a competitor of Westlaw"" and
Lexis"" out there on the Internet. It is called VERSUSLAW. This
database allows full-text searching of (mostly) cases and is
quickly obtaining retroactive coverage. For example, Utah Cases
back to 1950 are available on VersusLaw. Many states go back
even further. Federal appellate cases are also available (they are
stil weak on the federal district court level). You have an option
to search individual states or to search all the state or federal
opinions at once. State statutes are just beginning to be loaded
and some are not current (including the Utah statutes). Regula-
tions, newspapers and journal articles are not yet available.
SEARCHING VERSUSLAW
There are two ways to search on VersusLaw - Boolean and
Natural Language. The boolean searching is similar to boolean
searching on Westlaw'" or Lexis"'. Most connectors are the
same, except that if you do not put a connector between words
it tries to find the words adjacent to one other, and there is no
sentence (Is) or paragraph (/p) connector - instead you must
specif the number of words you wil allow between your terms
(Le. w/50). If you are familiar with Lexis"" or Westlaw"" search-
ing, there is an operator comparison chart available. There is
also "natural language" searching on Versuslaw, but instead of
tryng to find the most occurrences of your words in a docu-
ment, it looks for the words you input adjacent to each other.
You can pull up a particular cite or restrict your searching to a
particular level of court. Help screens are available to explain
the searching methods and connectors. Although there is a
SeachBuddy available to help formulate queries, I think it is
easier to jump in and tty formulating the queries yourself. The
searching is pleasantly easy.
is IT EXPENSIVE?
What is really amazing about this database is the cost. For attor-
neys or the general public, the cost is $6.95 per month (yes,
that is six dollars and ninety-five cents). This is for unlmited
use. There are no additional per minute or printing charges.
DISPLAYING AND PRINTING THE RESULTS.
Once you run a search, VersusLaw wil give you a cite list of the
results. Clicking on one of those results wil show you the full-
text of the case. Often (but not in every case) it wil give you the
regional reporter citation of the case, along with any uniform
tye of citation required. The paragraphs are numbered (rather
than having page numbers). Your search terms are shown in
bold or red so you can easily locate them by scrollng down the
screen. Of course, you won't get West's topic and key numbers
because this isn't a West product. Printing the case will yield
what you see on the screen. To save a case, the procedure
changes depending upon the date of the case. You wil be
instructed either to download a fie or to save the fie as text
only. You can also cut and paste results to a word processor.
WHT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ME?
My prediction is that if VersusLaw can keep the cost low, more
Marsba Tbomas is tbe Head ofTeachillg
and a RefeJ'iice Librarian at tbe SJ
f)uinney Law Library She rqcqilJ~d bel'
JD. jiom tbe úniversif,J1 of ltab College
ofLâtu in 1992, and cUl'rRntly coordi-
nates tbe te(l(;biiig s(!rvicps offered by
the LibraiJ! Sbe tqacbpc I1pf.i1Ziillg and
Advanced Legal IIPse(f1:h to law sm
dents. Siy alw) io( l1ks tlJ 'riNPiice desk wbere sbe belps all
t)lJes of peoplr'fìlld all t)Jes of legal Í1~/Ò1'nation.
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