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Guide to the Three Major Commercial Legal Databases

Contrast and Comparison of WestlawNext, Lexis Advance, and Bloomberg Law

Bloomberg, Lexis, and Westlaw Overview

There are three major commercial legal databases:

  • Lexis Advance 
  • WestlawNext 
  • Bloomberg Law

What is the main differences between Lexis Advance, WestlawNext  and Bloomberg Law?  

  • All systems contain cases, statutes, regulations, law review articles, legal books, and practice materials, and news.

  • One difference is that the books and practice materials are by different writers for each system.

  • Lexis Advance and WestlawNext contain more books and practice materials than Bloomberg Law. 

  • The systems for the most part carry the same caselaw. Still, some cases may only appear in one or two of the databases.

  • Lexis Advance and WestlawNext have some editorial features to aid legal research while Bloomberg Law does not.

  • Lexis Advance and WestlawNext provide annotated statutes and almost all of the cases have headnotes. Bloomberg Law will show case law that has cited a searched statute.

  • All of the platforms allow for terms and connectors searching (and, or, phrase and proximity searching). The terms and connectors (search language) used by each system vary. (More about that on the last page.)

  • The  three databases have an all-in-one search box, ability to post notes on cases and other documents, ability to save documents in folders, and alert searches.

  • The three databases have a way to check and see if a case is still good law - Shepard's on Lexis Advance, KeyCite on WestlawNext and Bcite on Bloomberg Law.

  • Bloomberg Law is excellent for searching court dockets, and has superior news coverage.

Apps

All three databases have mobile apps to allow people to research from anywhere.

For iPad and Android

 For iPad and iPhone

For iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch

*Access to Law Reports only

Non-Academic Use and Post-Graduate Password Restrictions

-Academic use only-Summer use must be for academic purpose, including summer school, externships, internships, judicial clerkships, and pro bono work for school credit- Password remains active 1 year after graduation for TWEN and West Study Aids- May 2015 grads have access to Westlaw until Nov. 2015.

 

-Academic use only, but there was an employment use exception for the summers of 2013, 2014, and possibly 2015 as well-Password stays active all summer-Password remains active 3 months after graduation.

 

- No “academic use only” restriction-Can use for employer-Password stays active all summer-Password remains active 6 months after graduation.