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LRAW Research Spring 2024

Subscription Resources Covered in LRAW

Bloomberg Law logo

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How Bloomberg Law compares:

  • Similar to Lexis and Westlaw, Bloomberg Law provides access to statutes, cases, secondary sources, and more. It has a citator called BCite (similar to Shepard's and KeyCite).
  • Bloomberg Law is a relative newcomer to the field of legal research, and fewer law firms subscribe to it compared to Lexis and Westlaw.
  • Bloomberg Law has secondary sources that Lexis and Westlaw don't have. Its resources are particularly strong in business law, health law, and tax law.
  • Bloomberg Law has a very useful interface for federal dockets. While federal dockets are also available on Lexis and Westlaw, many researchers prefer the functionality of the Bloomberg Law docket interface because it is similar to the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) interface provided by the federal courts.

casetext logo

Logging in:

  • Activate your Casetext login by clicking on "Get Casetext Free" here: casetext.com/lawschool
    • Bookmark this page, and use it to access Casetext: casetext.com
  • To troubleshoot login issues, please contact Casetext Customer Support: casetext.com/contact-us
  • Casetext provides logins to law students, but not via the law library. Students can contact Casetext directly.

How Casetext compares:

  • Similar to Lexis and Westlaw, Casetext provides access to statutes, cases, and regulations. It has a citator called SmartCite (similar to Shepard's and KeyCite). However, Casetext's secondary sources all cost extra.
  • Casetext is a relative newcomer to the field of legal research, and was purchased by Thomson Reuters, parent company of Westlaw in 2023.
  • Its search features for primary authorities are innovative.
    • CoCounsel is considered an "AI legal assistant," but unfortunately is not available on academic accounts yet.
    • CARA AI lets you upload a document to check it for bad law or missing cases.
    • Parallel Search allows you to type a sentence that needs support, and find related concepts in case law, even if there are no keywords in common.
    • Compose allows you to use Parallel Search to find and incorporate legal arguments into a draft without leaving Microsoft Word, but only for certain areas of law.

fastcase logo

Logging in: 

  • The law library provides access to Fastcase using your USC login.

How Fastcase compares:

  • Similar to Lexis and Westlaw, Fastcase provides access to statutes, cases, secondary sources, and more. It has a citator called Authority Check (similar to Shepard's and KeyCite).
  • Fastcase offers group subscriptions to bar associations which then extend free Fastcase subscriptions as a benefit to members of the bar. Fastcase now supplies a bar in every state. 
  • You have free subscriptions to many resources as a USC Law student, and all of them end not long after graduation. While Fastcase isn't necessarily stronger than other resources, it is equivalent for many purposes, and it remains free for members of the bar. Gaining familiarity with Fastcase may ease the transition to practice in a small firm, as a solo practitioner, or in public interest or pro bono work.
  • Fastcase integrates with the innovative Clearbrief AI. Clearbrief lets you select a sentence in your Word document, and click an Add Fact Cite Button to retrieve evidence to support that argument.

HeinOnline logo

Logging in: 

  • The law library provides access to HeinOnline using your USC login.

How HeinOnline compares:

  • HeinOnline's Law Journal Library contains more law journal articles than Lexis or Westlaw.
  • HeinOnline is also a great resource for historical legal research.

Lexis+ logo

Logging in: Lexis

Thomson Reuters Westlaw Precision logo

Logging in: Westlaw

 

Free Online Resources Covered in LRAW

GovInfo logo

No login is needed for govinfo.gov, a free website provided by the Government Publishing Office (GPO).

Govinfo.gov contains official PDF versions of federal statutes and federal regulations. This is helpful when providing Bluebook-ready citations.

South Carolina Legislature logo with palmetto and crescent

No login is needed to scstatehouse.gov, a free website provided by the South Carolina Legislative Services Agency.

In the Fall, we used the South Carolina Code of Laws on scstatehouse.gov. In the Spring, we will use the South Carolina Code of Regulations and the State Register, also on scstatehouse.gov.

 

Fall Resources Continued

Review the Getting Started page from the Fall for information on:

 

Beyond LRAW

For details on how to use online research subscriptions after LRAW ends, and which resources are available after graduation, see: 
Quick Start Guide for Work.

For a more complete list of research databases USC Law students can access, see the law library's Law Databases and the University's A-Z Databases.