Lexis, Westlaw, and VitalLaw at the law library

The Trial Court Law Libraries offer access to Lexis, Westlaw, and VitalLaw in the libraries for free.

Table of Contents

Lexis and Westlaw

Lexis and Westlaw are legal research platforms that offer continually updated and expansive collections of online databases of state and federal statutes, legislative histories, regulations, administrative rulings, published case opinions (historical and current), and court documents. Users can also access publications that cover various law-related topics authored by judges and legal professionals. Publications include news and magazine articles, legal guides, law reviews, and journals.

Lexis and Westlaw allow for both natural language and advanced searching. Researchers can use either Lexis’ Shepard’s Citations or Westlaw’s KeyCite online database tools to search for and check the status and citation history of a court case, statute, regulation, or administrative ruling in order to determine if a citation is still good law. Researchers can also navigate through specific legal topics by using Lexis’ topic index or Westlaw’s Key Number System.

VitalLaw

VitalLaw, formerly Cheetah, is an online legal research database developed by Wolters Kluwer for attorneys and other legal professionals. VitalLaw maintains a Practical Content Dashboard that contains over 20,000 expertly-curated tools and documents for researchers interested in various practice areas, including bankruptcy, securities, tax, labor and employment, antitrust, and more.

Access

Lexis, Westlaw, and VitalLaw are available to the public for free at all 15 Trial Court Law Libraries.

Access is available onsite only. If you're unable to visit a library in person, you may be able to request documents to be sent to you.

Contact   for Lexis, Westlaw, and VitalLaw at the law library

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