Lexis v. Westlaw
May 16th, 2004I was quoted in an article in the ABA Journal entitlled, “TOWERING TITANS: LexisNexis and West Are Still Battling for Dominance”, written by Jason Krause. This is a well-written article. A must read for anyone working with these two databases. My quote:
“As the two behemoths work toward competitive balance, lawyers, paralegals and librarians have perhaps lost some allegiances that might have existed for one service or the other. In fact, large law firms now often maintain both, and many smaller firms use whichever one offers the lowest price. In response, both companies now offer a variety of pricing plans, including a feature that lets people who do not subscribe to the service pay for searches by credit card.”
“The main difference for me is that we have a contract with Lexis,” says Steven Cohen, a law librarian with Rivkin Radler in Uniondale, N.Y. “There are a few things that are not available in Lexis, which is why we keep both available, but if you’re asking why pick one over the other, the answer is usually money.”
“In fact, the companies have been chasing each other so aggressively that some lawyers and researchers may be surprised to find that one may have leapfrogged ahead in an area that used to be the other’s strength.” (Thanks Denise via PubSub for the heads up)