CRIV BLOG

CRIV Vendor Liaison – Wolters Kluwer Semi-Annual Call

11/29/2022

Attending:       Jenna Ellis, Wolters Kluwer Liaison

                        Vani Ungapen, AALL Executive Director

                        Michelle Hook Dewey, AALL-CRIV Board Liaison

                        Jane Bahnson, AALL CRIV Wolters Kluwer Board Liaison

The meeting commenced at 3:00 pm. Jane has taken over as the new AALL CRIV Wolters Kluwer Board Liaison; all others are continuing on and we are looking forward to a productive year.

Updates from Wolters Kluwer

Jenna Ellis told us of new enhancements to VitalLaw.

One enhancement is the addition of Abortion Restrictions Jurisdictional Compare Smart Chart to the “Smart Chart” tool, which is a multi-jurisdictional comparison survey that includes laws, regulations, executive orders, and seminal cases. This new topic compares abortion rights and restrictions by topic, such as time and  insurance coverage restrictions, and across multiple jurisdictions.  Links provide full access to the underlying documents  and the chart format can be customized. This new smart chart is available to most subscriptions that include the related underlying publications.  

Another enhancement involves the expansion of research features available to everyone for the statutes and regulations database, which includes primary statutory and regulatory law at both the state and federal level. The search template now offers search by “document type” in addition to the jurisdiction, citation, and keyword options. There is also a “curated topic” option that will retrieve cross-jurisdictional results on a specific topic through a pre-designed Boolean search. For example, for the curated topic “cannabis,” there are six pre-designed searches that retrieve relevant laws and regulations on discrete subtopics. One such subtopic, “Medical Marijuana Cultivator Requirements” runs the search “cannabis w/5 medical AND cultivat*” and retrieves 1,021 cross-jurisdictional results.

Another feature, Next Generation Laws and Regulations, alerts users to updates or pending updates in laws and regulations. Researchers can use pre-search filters, curated topics, “show all future versions,” and other functions.  An orange flag identifies those laws under revision, and a redlining toggle in the upper right of the screen allows the reader to see what the changes are. New language is indicated in green type, while deleted language is shown in red type. These changes will remain for a few weeks after the changes take effect. There is no retained archive of older versions of the laws after this period has run.

Wolters Kluwer representatives can also provide training on the use of its products, including training for law schools in conjunction with upper level courses on topics such as tax and arbitration. Contact links are available on the VitalLaw home page.

Requests for Assistance

No formal requests for assistance were submitted, but one issue of concern was raised to a CRIV member regarding the receipt by individuals of Wolters Kluwer communications they no longer wish to receive. Wolters Kluwer acknowledges some who have opted out of communications may be on different lists and is taking steps to make sure the lists are updated.

Updates from AALL

The 2023 AALL conference will take place from July 15-18 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. The topic for the vendor round table has not yet been determined, but all expressed a preference for an in-person meeting if possible. The format will be decided when the date gets closer and will be influenced by health and environmental concerns as they exist at the time of the conference.

The meeting adjourned at 3:30.