The Cost of Legal Research is Burdensome

Legal research can be very expensive especially if you are using a paid subscription legal research service. One of the biggest, and most important aspects of legal research is figuring out how you can save your client money. If you are a newer attorney and decide to start your own firm it may not be the best idea to purchase a subscription to a platform such as Westlaw, LexisNexis, or Bloomberg. Rather, it would be smart to use services like FastCase, CaseMaker, Google Scholar, VersusLaw, and LaisLaw. However, it can be argued that purchasing a subscription-based legal research platform may increase the productivity of your legal research. But this is simply getting at the fact that everyone is different and will have different priorities when they finally start practicing. Not everyone is able to afford a subscription-based platform. 

Furthermore, the Ave Maria School of Law library is a resource that I feel is under utilized not only by students, but by local attorneys in the community as well. The law library has resources that all attorneys that are practicing will be able to utilize. If they are looking for something in particular area of the library and do not know where to find it they can always ask the librarian. Whether this is because a majority of attorneys have a paid service at their firms or not, I do not know. Since we are in a pretty affluent area, I would say this may be the case. There are many factors to consider when trying to determine the best legal research plan for your situation.