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| CourtLink eAccess | |
| A decade ago,
searching for court cases was a time-consuming task that involved looking up
attorney services in the phone book and asking for referrals to attorney
services in each state in which I needed a docket.
It often took at least a week to get the work done, and sometimes the dockets were outdated by the time I received them. Today, the legal services landscape has shifted. Clients are demanding better, quicker, faster and cheaper legal services. Complex litigation has gotten more complex. Clients have different information needs, and the Internet offers solutions to those needs. LexisNexis’ CourtLink eAccess is an online source that offers users the ability to search, track and access selected state and federal court records in real-time, track docket activity and retrieve court documents. CourtLink offers two types of services: Web-based and desktop. The Web-based service provides access to historical, active and federal (including bankruptcy) cases, select states and local cases on any computer with Internet access. The desktop version offers access to federal (including bankruptcy) civil, criminal, state and local court records through a dial-up or TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) Web connection. The free software for the desktop version is available at www.lexisnexiscourtlink.com. CourtLink eAccess provides access to more than 200 million court records including full dockets, claims, judgments, sentences and charges, from civil, criminal and bankruptcy cases from more than 4,000 federal and state courts. Online documents are available in 71 courts. When online court documents are not available, users can order the documents from partnered document retrieval companies. Price for this varies depending on the document retrieval company and begins at 15 cents per page. CourtLink eAccess also offers the following specialized services:
I had no problems logging on to CourtLink eAccess. I ran a search by the litigant’s name to obtain a state court docket. However, the search was unsuccessful because the state court was not online at the time I ran the search. The next day, I received an e-mail from the search assurance team with the case name and number. I viewed the standard docket. This particular state court didn’t offer online documents, but I could order the documents online from one of the partnered document retrieval companies. I was shown all charges before they were incurred. I was happy the search assurance team followed up on my search request, and I would not have to take time to run the search again. I also had the option to view my online billing history after I completed my searches. And there is a drop-down box to enter the client billing number before running searches. These tools help monitor and save costs. When performing various searches, I was accessing the Internet at between 28.8 and 56 bps. In spite of this slow speed, the searches were executed within a few short minutes. Although the user guide was short, simple to read and offered step-by-step directions on how to perform searches, set up alerts and retrieve dockets and cases, I don’t believe CourtLink eAccess is entirely intuitive to use. The search interface is confusing with many buttons, drop-down boxes, icons and next screen arrows to click. I would prefer a simpler search interface with less choices. After a good read of the User’s Guide and some trial searches, I was on track but was overwhelmed by many search choices and services. I recommend formal training. CourtLink eAccess offers scheduled and customized Web classes, in-person training and telephone training at no cost. If you are strictly searching for federal court information and don’t have complicated litigation research needs, use Pacer — it’s a better buy for the money although your search options are limited compared to CourtLink eAccess. However, if you have a complex practice, CourtLink eAccess offers faster and better options for litigators to complete federal and state litigation research and intelligence. You can argue that many state courts are online, and the litigation research might be available for free and just a few clicks away. However, time is a valuable commodity and a single source for litigation research is a timesaver. Services like CourtLink eAccess, with comprehensive court coverage for litigation research help avoid useless Internet searches, which enables a busy litigator to focus on practicing law and not on the black and white costs of saving a few dollars here and there. |
LexisNexis (800) 774-7317 www.lexisnexiscourtlink.com Price: Desktop — Federal court case retrieval $5 to $8 per search; name search $5 per name per court; nationwide name searches $250 per name; U.S. party/case index name and profile search $5 per search; state court case retrieval and name searches $1 to $15 Web-based — Alert/new case notifications 30 cents to $5 per case found; track/new activity in existing cases $2 to $11 per retrieval; search and retrieve by name, other criteria or case number $5 to $40 per search; $10 for each patent case; document ordering 15 cents per page Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000 Reviewed by Melynda Hill-Teter, a litigation paralegal based in Phoenix. PROS CONS VERDICT |
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