Auto-cite and Insta-cite: the Race to Update Case Histories
| Publication year | 1986 |
| Pages | 1675 |
| Citation | Vol. 15 No. 9 Pg. 1675 |
1986, September, Pg. 1675. Auto-Cite and Insta-Cite: The Race to Update Case Histories
Having access to both WESTLAW and LEXIS at the University of Colorado Law Library can be an asset or a detriment, depending on the situation. If the gremlins have seized one system, it is easy to walk next door and use the other. However, the presence of two competing computer-assisted legal research systems in the law library leads to constant requests for comparison. The law librarians are expected to be experts on both systems; however, occasions have arisen when they were unable to answer some questions by patrons.(fn1)
This article provides an overview of Auto-Cite and Insta-Cite, two popular computer-assisted legal research systems. Hopefully, it clarifies some of the issues which have arisen with regard to using the two systems.
Auto-Cite, a product of the Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Co. of Rochester, NY, is available either through the LEXIS system or separately from the publisher. Insta-Cite is available only through a WESTLAW subscription from West Publishing Co. in St. Paul, MN. The basic function of both is the same. Using Auto-Cite or Insta-Cite, the researcher can verify the citation to a case and obtain any parallel citations to it, and also can obtain a prior and subsequent history of that case with appropriate parallel citations. The systems also provide citations to those cases which in some way indirectly affect the principal case.
For example, if the holding of the principal case has been overruled by a later judicial action, this information would appear even though it is not part of the principal case's direct chain of history. Auto Cite also includes in its display a list of ALR annotations that have cited the principal case or any case in its direct history chain.(fn2)
One of the most common questions asked by those who are investigating the on-line case history services, Auto-Cite and Insta-Cite, is "Which system is faster?" The question to be asked in return is, "What do you mean by 'faster'---faster in response time to a request for information, or faster in terms of which company gets new information on-line quicker?" Usually, the inquirer is asking which system gets the information on-line quicker.
The reason so many patrons are interested in speed is because speed is crucial to the overall usefulness of these services. Attorneys and legal researchers must know if the case upon which they are relying has been affected by subsequent judicial action, and if it is still useful as "good law."
In order to answer these questions about the speed with which Auto-Cite and Insta-Cite get information on-line, the progress of Colorado Supreme Court cases which directly affect Colorado Court of Appeals opinions was tracked from the day each Supreme Court decision was released to its first appearance in the history of the appellate court case on Auto-Cite and Insta-Cite. Between November 18, 1985, and February 3, 1986, the Colorado Supreme Court Law Library was contacted each Monday morning to find out the names of the cases for which the Colorado Supreme Court had released opinions; specifically, cases in which the Supreme Court had affected (for example, by reversal, affirmance or remand) the ruling of the Colorado Court of Appeals. Both Auto-Cite and Insta-Cite already would have noted the Court of Appeals decision, so what had to be determined was how
fast each of the services would include the addition to the history of each case. After all, the...
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