Research in the Law Office: Disaster Preparedness and Recovery as an Additional Advantage to Electronic Methods
By William H. Skeels, IV
The recent damage and dislocation created by the flooding following Hurricane Floyd, and hard decisions faced by law firms needing to rebuild, reemphasizes the significance of changes in current methods and cost of performing legal research in the law practice. Specifically, the advantages of electronic research methods have become sufficiently compelling that almost all firms will wish to rethink the best use of resources as they face the 'books vs. computers' choice in this matter. Both functionality and economics would strongly argue that a firm which has lost a significant portion of its library in a flood or other calamity should adopt an all-electronic, or mostly electronic, research strategy. The same compelling factors call for all attorneys to make the transition to research strategy primarily based on electronic methods in the very near future.
There was a time in the memory of any lawyer who has practiced more than a few years where the law library bore not only substantive significance, but was an important part of the profile and impression left by the law firm. Today, the reverse is almost true. While the physical law library is increasingly irrelevant to how a firm is perceived, how 'wired' the firm is would frequently be a significant factor in that perception. Especially with business clients and new law recruits, being perceived as at least somewhat 'wired' has a great deal of effect as to how the firm is perceived.
With respect to legal research, that perception is based in large part on reality, both in terms of research quality and, increasingly, in terms of ease and cost. Simply put, the time when principle reliance on a paper book law library is a reasonable use of the time and money of a law practice is rapidly passing. As with past transitions from typewriters to word processors and from standalone to networked PC's, electronic research has matured to the point that cost and practicality benefits outweigh the inevitable cost, training and other burdens of transition from time-honored methods.
It has been the case for many years that even the largest firms cannot practically maintain even a reasonably full set of book-based resources, and needed resources are expanding, not contracting. Online research, though traditionally very expensive, has provided a means of instant access to a range of resources not practically available even in regional libraries for some period of time.
As anyone who has ever tracked through the Decennial Digests can attest, the speed and effectiveness of online search is incomparable. Search through books is limited to key notes and text indices of erratic quality, and cannot provide the full text search capabilities increasingly taken for granted with electronic methods.
The expense of online search has, in times past, been prohibitive, notwithstanding its benefits. While intelligent usage of resources is still key to economy, this is no longer necessarily the case. Prudent usage of new delivery tools, particular CDs and the rapidly growing and largely free material on the Internet, can be undertaken at a fraction of the cost of previous direct dial electronic research methods.
Most of the material previously available from the research services and legal publishers such as Westlaw, Lexis and the like, whether through direct dial or in paper, are now available in CD form. While costs and programs vary, it is universally the case that, for resources which are heavily used, the cost per usage will drop dramatically. Both paper and online presentation are expensive and hard to manage, and legal publishers are adopting increasingly compelling incentives to induce users to adopt the CD methods. Updates, or less frequently needed material, can still be obtained through online access to legal publishers database, often free or at nominal charge to CD users.
Perhaps even more compelling are the vast and growing resources available on the Internet. While the Internet resources are not perfect or complete, most sites are free. Key resources include coverage of recent federal and, increasingly, state case law, extensive federal and state statutory and regulatory information, current legislative activity and bar association information. The Internet also provides unparalleled sources for factual information; while the Internet may not always provide the last word in a given area, it is almost always the first place to start. The LawSight.com web site (of which the author is, in the interest of full disclosure, a participant) contains a roadmap overview to these services.
The functional and cost advantages of electronic research are supplemented by a key additional factor, re-emphasized by the recent difficulties relating to the flood. A book-based law library is essentially vulnerable to flood, fire and other disastrous circumstance; electronic research resources, properly configured, are vastly less vulnerable. As an initial matter, a book-based library is difficult if not impossible to move from harm's way in the case of a flood or other known impending threat. Electronic research facilities are much easier to move, as in the case of a PC and a rack of CD's, or unnecessary to move, as in the case of Internet-based facilities, which are "virtual" and not located on site.
Further, even if properly insured, a book-based library will be time consuming and costly to replace. The online and Internet based aspects of research can be restarted as soon as basic phone and Internet services are restored, while CDs can be easily and conveniently replaced. Proper off-site backup, necessary in any circumstance, will further support restarting research and other critical functions.
Electronic support is compelling, but is not a religion. The law office will, no doubt, keep books for certain purposes into the foreseeable future. Those books used for handy desk reference, treatises, and books which are not otherwise available would fit into this category.
Lawyers who have lost book-based facilities owe it to themselves to review the compelling advantages of electronic research facilities. Given the superior depth and breadth of electronic research facilities, the economics of online and Internet resources, and resistance to interruption of service and greater ease of restoration following such 