Lexis v. Westlaw

In My Humble Opinion
1

One of my law profs claims Lexis is not nearly as good as Westlaw. She made some comment about Lexis losing a suit against Westlaw and now they don’t have access to the West headnotes or the keycites. Lexis has it’s own headnotes now, which I find satisfactory, and its key cite type system, plus it has sheppards. To me the two are equivalent and it’s just a matter of which you are more comfortable with.

I’m wondering if any lawyers/ law students think West is definately the service to use if there is an option.

2

In law school (2001-2003), they trained us to use both, but I’ve found in the “real world,” most employers seem to favor WestLaw or a third, cheaper option I can’t remember the name of. My friends who started work in the last few years have echoed these sentiments. Personally, I always found the Lexis interface to be MUCH more user-friendly, but I think it may be like the “Mac vs. PC” debate in that regard. We use WestLaw where I work, so I’m just glad I have experience in both!