Judge Disallows LexisNexis and Westlaw Expenses, Calls Services “Overhead”

In Class Lawyers Against Coke Get More Than $31.5 Million, Robin McDonald reports that U.S. District Court Judge Willis B. Hunt disallowed $93,960.67 for LexisNexis and Westlaw expenses in a $137.5 million class action securities fraud settlement. Judge Hunt explained, “This Court is of the opinion that charging separately for use of a research service is akin to charging for the use of a case law reporter. That is, the research service is a tool, much like a computer or a pen, and this Court considers the use of such a service part of a firm’s overhead. … Moreover, this Court is aware that many firms pay a flat rate to Lexis and Westlaw regardless of their usage, and class counsel cannot claim such flat rate payments as an out-of-pocket expense.” Read more

New Headline Service

Monday through Friday three of our librarians scan the headlines of the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal for items of interest to our faculty. Articles viewed as potentially interesting to a faculty member are forwarded via email.

Congressional Hearings

The Law Library of Congress contains approximately 75,000 volumes of printed Congressional Hearings.As part of the Law Library’s transition to the digital future, a collaborative pilot project was undertaken with Google, Inc. to digitize the entire collection and make it freely available to Congress and the world. Three collections have been selectively compiled to provide users with a test experience:
* Census: U.S.
* Freedom of Information/Privacy
* Immigration
These selected Hearings, presented as Adobe Acrobat PDF files, are samples of a larger group that will be digitized and made available as a result of this project. Ultimately, both the Library and Google will provide full-text access to the larger group of Hearings.

Environment &Energy (E&E) Publishing’s Web Service

The Law Library has subscribed to E&E Publishing’s web service, providing comprehensive, daily coverage of environmental and energy politics and policy. Includes articles, webcast video, and transcripts, presented under the titles: ClimateWire, Environment and energy daily, Onpoint, Greenwire, E&ENews PM, E&ETV news, Land letter, and E&E Special reports. It can be accessed via Annie, under any of the titles included above.

BNA Online

The library is happy to announce the acquisition of BNA Online. This service provides electronic access to over one hundred of BNA’s titles. The purchase of this service also permits access to the BNA titles via the Westlaw and Lexis interfaces as well as the BNA interface. For a complete list of the available titles, please go to the Law Library’s research page available from the Law Library home page and click on BNA.