4.5 Virginia Case Law in Electronic Format

• Library: A Guide to Legal Research in Virginia (Virginia CLE) (2017 Ed.)

4.5 VIRGINIA CASE LAW IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT

4.501 Online Subscription Services. Virginia case law is available electronically in a variety of online fee-based services. Subscription options and pricing structures vary, with services that provide more extensive editorial enhancements and comprehensive coverage generally costing more.

A. Westlaw. ¹⁵ Westlaw includes Virginia Supreme Court opinions from 1790 to present, Virginia Court of Appeals opinions from 1985 to present and unpublished decisions since 1992. West's key number system provides a controlled vocabulary for searching case law databases on Westlaw. The "star paging" feature allows the researcher to cite to pages in the official reporter. Westlaw's selective coverage of Virginia Circuit Court opinions begins in 1976. Some libraries subscribe to Westlaw Patron Access, a product that offers some of the legal research functionality of Westlaw.

B. Lexis. ¹⁶ Lexis content includes Virginia Supreme Court opinions from 1730 to present and Virginia Court of Appeals decisions since 1985. References to internal page numbers allow the researcher to cite to pages in the official reporter. Coverage of Virginia Circuit Court opinions in the database is comparable to the print compilation. Some libraries subscribe to Lexis Academic or provide Lexis Patron Access terminals, products that offer some of the legal research functionality of Lexis.

C. Bloomberg Law. ¹⁷ Like...