Prepared by Michael Chernicoff
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/exclusive_inside_the_new_westlaw_lexis_bloomberg_platforms/#ecamp=t-n322
Despite coming out with new platforms of their own, the perceived‐legal research monopoly of “Wexis” – WestLaw and LexisNexis – is facing pressure from a newly rejuvenated Bloomberg platform. Benefits of the updated Westlaw platform includes the use of a powerful natural language search in the newly‐named WestlawNext, and in the case of Lexis Nexis an intuitive display of results in their product, NewLexis.
The potential release of BloombergLaw marks the company’s expansion of their research product onto personal computers. Historically, the Bloomberg legal research product, B‐Law, was restricted to the Bloomberg Terminal. Currently still running in the Beta version in universities and select New York City law firms, advantages of BloombergLaw include its dockets search and collaboration features, citation analysis, and strength‐of‐authority indicators.
Some expect law firms to see the benefit, with increased competition expected to bring down prices for online legal services.
Point of disclosure. The New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library has participated as one of the pilot test sites for the Beta version of BloombergLaw.