|
Law in Contemporary Society
|
|
[EQUAL ACCESS TO LEGAL INFORMATION]-- By GraceChan - 17 Feb 2010 (apologies for the lateness...the more I thought through this, the more I realized I did not yet know, so I'm working on more research right now)THE PROBLEM WITH THE CURRENT WESTLAW/LEXIS SYSTEMLegal research costs tend to be the second highest cost at law firms, after personnel costs [_insert link_]. In 2008, the legal division of Thomson (West) generated $3.5 billion in revenue with a whopping operating profit margin of 32.1%. This money is made from information that is both free and public, though, to be sure, there is value-added in the organization and additional information provided by Westlaw. In the first part of my essay, I will discuss the problems with the current system of legal information along with a brief history on how we got here...[transition] The nature of the duopoly of Westlaw/Lexis makes it unlikely that change will come from within. Not driven by free market forces. In fact, annual price increases in Lexis and Westlaw have outpaced inflation [_insert link_]. For the second part of my essay, I will discuss the potential impact of Google Scholar Legal and Online Journals (SLOJ) and other possibilities opened up by the Internet.How We Got Here: A Brief History of West PublishingHow John West Made His FortuneWhy His System Remains So Entrenched in the Field of Law TodayWhat is Problematic About the Current SystemThe Needs It's FulfillingThe Problems It's CausingTHE FUTURE OF LEGAL INFORMATION ACCESSThe InternetSubsection BYou are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" on the next line: # * Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = TWikiAdminGroup, GraceChan Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of that line. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated list |
|
