American Law Reports: The Choice is Yours (Again)

In January 2008, American Law Reports became available online exclusively in Westlaw. Historically, both LexisNexis and Westlaw had provided access to the electronic version of the lengthy annotations, which compile and summarize a large amount of state and federal case law on a particular legal topic.

Perhaps moved by the spirit of the holiday season, the two legal research giants have agreed to share A.L.R. once more. American Law Reports is now available on both Westlaw (ALR database) and LexisNexis (Legal > Secondary Legal). The series is also available in print in the library’s Practice & Procedure collection (Level 3). (This is a remarkable change from the spring 2008 semester, when the Lexis access ceased and the print volumes were in renovation storage.)

Other newly-reinstated titles on LexisNexis include Witkin treatises (a major secondary source in California legal research), New York Jurisprudence, Ohio Jurisprudence, Texas Jurisprudence, and Florida Jurisprudence.

This happy news should also serve as a reminder that content on Lexis, Westlaw and other databases can change suddenly and sometimes without warning. If you have trouble locating material in a database, please speak with a reference librarian about alternative sources.