How does one do research on Lexis-Nexis?

Smarter FREEPers than me

[Recovering_Democrat]

Okay, I see Ann Coulter articles talking about Lexis/Nexus searches and hear Rush Limbaugh saying he has does a Lexis search for "thus and such".

Do you have to be a millionaire to get Lexis/Nexus? What does it cover? Is it more or less selective than Google or Yahoo! or other search engines?

I am relying upon you media savvy and/or academic FREEPers to teach me a thing or two about this mysterious tool.

Thanks!
RD

[ArmstedFragg]

FWIW: Local libraries around the country have started offering access to their subscriptions to various database services. It's not Nexis, but you can often get some of Nexis's periodical functionality free off you local library's web-site. I carry cards at several libraries that are used primarily to access their online services.

[AnAmericanMother]

After all this time in the business, I don't need the drones at WestLaw telling me their opinion of what the cases say . . . I can read that for myself.

Headnotes were very useful back in the days when there were no search engines, and you had to find similar cases by collating headnotes in a Digest. But they have gone the way of the buggy whip and the shaving mug . . .

[July 4th]

I'm mainly a Lexis user, even though our firm has flat-rate contracts with both Lexis and Westlaw. I've only been out of school a couple of years, but Lexis has always been easier for me to use. I think these days, it's a matter of personal preference. Most people from my law school class use Lexis because the Westlaw rep for our school was always angry and unhelpful.

We also have a subscription to Loislaw, which is not bad if all you need is a single case. Lois also has unlimited access to my state's practice manuals, and those are a goldmine.

[catholicfreeper]

It is great. A law school roommate had it for free while he was attending school and could access from our Apartment. It was great. I had access to almost every paper magazine etc.Its expensive but a lot if universities near might have it. Mine does because it cuts down on the cost of Periodicals. Its a pain to go there sometimes but beggars cant be choosers.

[digitalbrownshirt]

LexisNexis has a news site too. It might be helpful without having to pay the premium since it also has a search function.
http://www.lexisnexis.com/news/
You can use it to do a search, but then they charge you for allowing you to read the search report.

I mostly use dogpile and google.

[rzeznikj at stout]

Usually you're going to need a subscription to the site--or access through a local school, college, or university (which usually has access for its students).

[Auntie Mame]

I use Lexis at work but a Westlaw guy has been courting us and I've been trying to find someone who has used both. He says he can save us about $100 a month which is enticing. He gave me passwords for a week's worth but I was too busy to do much with it. I don't like the way it's set up with frames but he says we can change that. Do you have any thoughts you would care to share about differences in the two and which is better and why?

[Mobile Vulgus]

They charge $3 a search if you want to pay per search.

It is a great service, you can find just about anything published.

But, as everyone else just said, it is a very expensive thing to subscribe to.

[Williams]

Well, I have been "forced" to Westlaw for a few years now. At some point Lexis didn't have the West case headnotes, but I'm not sure if that's still true. generally speaking I was so used to Lexis that I don't like Westlaw very much. Lexis came naturally to me, learning Westlaw has always been a pain. BUT that may just be me.

[Intolerant in NJ]

If you're more interested in current events than legal affairs, Newspaperarchive.com at about $10/month or $80 /year allows you to search or browse what they claim are over 80 million scanned pages of newspapers from around the country. They seem to have a fairly representative sample of papers from virtually every state, and have even a few from over two hundred years ago. Since the pages are optical scanned, you might occasionally miss an item on a search because of misreadings of the print, but I've found it very useful for some of the searches I've done......

[jamaly]

bump for later.

[BlessedBeGod]

I've used the news search part extensively.

You can search for news/magazine articles going back years. When you search, it shows a list of articles with the date it was published, the title, the author, the source (ex., New York Times), what page it was on, and how many words the article is. If you want to buy the article, it's $3.

Unfortunately, it doesn't offer a summary of the article so that you know what it's about. So, sometimes you end up wasting the $3 just to look at the article and then find out it's not really what you were after.

It helps to know exactly what you're looking for (if possible).

[BlessedBeGod]

They charge $3 a search if you want to pay per search.

No, actually the search itself is free. You pay $3 if you want to buy a specific article.