8 Legal Research Tools to Work Smarter
Legal research tools can be a huge boon for law firms looking to find helpful case information quickly and easily. Let’s look at some of the most essential legal research tools.
A legal research tool is perhaps one of the most important aspects of the legal workflow — it bolsters a case by helping you find relevant case law, precedents, court decisions, and more. You can even use the insights provided by legal research to support your arguments and inform how you conduct your case.
That’s why conducting thorough legal research is so important. Sure, you can do a quick Google search and hope for the best, but outsourcing to a devoted legal research tool can help you find what you need quickly and easily. Devoted legal resource tools are also more reliable than Google, which may not always have the most accurate information.
Let’s look at some of the best legal research software out there and how you can search case law.
1. FindLaw
FindLaw aims to do exactly what its name implies: find applicable laws. It is an online database of case summaries, decisions, and laws from federal and state courts. Legal professionals can use its search functionality to learn more about their cases or relevant precedents from past cases. It also offers a searchable database of Supreme Court decisions starting from the year 1760, making it easier to learn how past decisions will impact your current work.
- Cost: Free
- Best For: Finding relevant laws, precedents, case summaries, and Supreme Court decisions while researching a case.
2. Callidus AI
Callidus is a powerful platform that uses AI technology to help with legal research and drafting. On the research side, the Callidus platform aims to provide quick answers to legal questions and provide summaries of complex articles or documents so you don’t have to sift through an overload of information.
- Cost: $149 per month
- Best For: Receiving quick answers to legal questions.
3. WestLaw Next
WestLaw is a Thomson Reuters-powered law tool that has been around for some time, but has begun using AI to help empower legal research and keep up with emerging technologies. WestLaw uses generative AI to help you begin your research; you can input a question into WestLaw and gain insights quickly. You can also use WestLaw’s AI to input your case facts and receive insights, laws, and legal news to consider.
- Cost: Tiered pricing starting at $306 per month.
- Best For: Going in-depth with legal research without losing out on AI-powered ease and valuable insights.
4. Fastcase
Fastcase is a legal research database that aims to help you locate the correct case…well, fast. It can sift through the federal and state constitutions, case law, statutes, and more to help you find relevant information for your case. It can also help with collaboration by producing shareable links to legal blogs and other helpful secondary sources.
- Cost: Tiered pricing starting at $65.
- Best For: Firms looking for an affordable yet helpful legal search engine.
5. CourtListener
CourtListener is a free, non-profit law research tool that provides access to legal decisions in 469 jurisdictions. CourtListener is home to millions of court decisions, which are updated daily to be as accurate and fresh as possible. CourtListener is sponsored by the Free Law Project, which provides free access to primary legal sources.
- Cost: Free
- Best For: Gaining access to legal materials without having to pay.
6. Legal Information Institute
The Legal Information Institute, created by Cornell University, aims to make legal information accessible for everyone. They do this by not only providing legal information online but also providing tools to make the information easier to understand. On the website, you can sift through legal information like constitutions, codes, executive orders, laws, precedents, and more.
- Cost: Free
- Best For: Gaining access to a plethora of legal materials, especially for those who may need help understanding what they’re looking at.
7. Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a well-known tool that allows free access to educational, legal, and scholarly articles online. With the tool, you can easily search through scholarly materials available on the Google search engine to find relevant legal articles or documents. This can help those in the legal field find the necessary information to back up their arguments.
If you’re looking specifically for legal materials, you can select “articles” or “case law” when searching with Google Scholar so you can direct the engine to find legal materials only.
- Cost: Free
- Best For: A base-level look into the information available for your case during initial exploratory or research phases.
8. Justia
Justia is another legal research database that offers free access to legal materials for law professionals, students, and more. With Justia, you can find extensive legal materials and even guides to various types of law, like personal injury, family, immigration, and more.
Justia takes legal education a step further with the ability to sign up for weekly emails with new legal developments, precedents, or relevant case updates.
- Cost: Free
- Best For: Those wanting a no-frills yet extensive legal database that covers a lot of bases in the legal field.
The Importance of Proper Legal Sources
When working in the legal field, providing accurate information at every step is a must. This not only helps to increase trust with your clients, but it also helps avoid potential repercussions like the loss of your license or getting sued. With such high stakes, finding trusted sources when conducting legal research is crucial.
You can guarantee the validity of your resource by conducting legal research correctly. Only visit trusted websites or search engines, double-check your facts, and always make sure you’re using the most updated versions of laws or precedents (some legal research tools have features built-in that will tell you when a legal decision is outdated).
You should also pay attention to the statute of limitations for any case or query you’re working on, as it may differ by state. Doing legal research can help you find relevant information about statutes of limitations in your jurisdiction.
What Is the Best Legal Research Platform?
For its thoroughness, extensive database, and long-standing relationship with the legal field, Westlaw by Thomson Reuters is the best legal research platform. However, Westlaw can be pricey, especially for smaller firms or individual contributors.
Free legal research tools like Justia or Fastcase can also be great options for those with more budget constraints. At the end of the day, there are great legal research tools available for any firm’s budget, size, or needs.
How to Make Law Research Easier
Staring at a wall of legal resources or a list of 100-plus relevant court decisions can be a daunting task. Luckily, there are technologies available that aim to take some of the tedium out of legal research. Mainly AI-powered, these technologies can analyze insights, surface the most important thoughts, and point you to what you need quicker than ever before.
One AI-powered tool that can help make legal research easier is Rev. Using our AI Notetaker, you can record your research interviews or intake calls with clients, witnesses, and more, and receive a quick and accurate transcription. The AI Notetaker will also analyze topics covered in these interviews or meetings and point out the most important takeaways.
Your Resource to Find a Source
Using Rev, you can keep your focus on practicing law instead of taking notes. Our technology was tailor-made for a legal workflow, from taking notes on meetings or interviews to providing transcriptions and surfacing the most important insights. That way you can remain present in your important conversations instead of trying to keep up with note-taking.
Subscribe to The Rev Blog
Sign up to get Rev content delivered straight to your inbox.