CRIV/Thomson Reuters Biannual Phone Call

December 11, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Conference call took place on December 2 at 11:00 AM EST.

Participants:

  • Deborah Heller – CRIV Thomson Reuters Liaison
  • Vani Ungapen – AALL Executive Director
  • Karen Selden – AALL CRIV Board Liaison
  • Kim Hurley – Information Management Advisor at Thomson Reuters
  • Rachel Torgerson – Customer Success Strategist at Thomson Reuters
  • Rachel Beithon, Product Developer, Litigation Analytics
  • Rebecca Ditsch, Manager, Product Development, Westlaw Today
  • Craig Vaughn, Senior Product Manager, Practical Law

Agenda:

  • Practical Law’s new Health Care Service
    • Developed and maintained by a team with decades of experience in the health law field.
    • Includes 6 topics at launch:
      • Clinical Trials and Research
      • Fraud, Abuse, and Compliance
      • Health Care Entity Formation and Governance
      • Patient Privacy and Security
      • Payment and Reimbursement
      • General Healthcare
    • Includes State Q&A resources, although not all states are available at launch. Information includes:
      • Data Breach Notification Laws
      • Fraud and Abuse Laws
      • Non-Physician Practitioners
    • Includes Multi-State Charts:
      • Physician Licensing Requirements
      • Consent to be Treated
      • Telehealth Requirements for Private Payers
  • Westlaw Edge Litigation Analytics Enhancement
    • Several updates throughout 2020:
      • Interface
      • Active judges pages
      • Additions to Case Type such as public health emergency cases and police conduct
      • Filter to remove MDL cases by default
      • Attorney Finder
        • Search by name and expertise
        • Allows filtering by case type, court, judge, etc.
        • Defaults to motions for summary judgment, but can be adjusted.
        • Allows for comparison
      • Updated Case Type Taxonomy to make materials easier to find and more cohesive
      • Added Damages for Federal District Courts
        • Available from the Courts page
        • Includes civil dockets
        • Data coming from dockets with monetary awards and/or attorney fees or litigation costs. Only dockets where all damages could be determined with sufficient confidence are included
        • Coverage begins from January 1, 2000
        • Coverage varies by jurisdiction
        • Includes a distribution chart with ranges of award in terms of percentage of dockets included
        • Provides a median award amount
        • Monetary awards and attorney fees and costs are separated
  • Westlaw Today, new TR legal news platform, powered by Reuters
    • Accessible in two ways:
      • Via Westlaw Edge or Westlaw Classic using the product picker
    • Includes 30 different practice areas
    • Content comes from several different providers
    • Reuters hired 14 new legal journalists who will contribute to the platform, two of which were recently hired for the service
    • Allows users to submit an article idea via a widget on the homepage
      • Everything is vetted, but this allows for dialogue between the publication and potential authors
    • Provides list of trending companies and law firms derived from recent legal news stories
    • Provides RSS feed delivery
    • For readers with Westlaw Edge, you can click through to the analytics page for attorneys and judges. For users without Westlaw Edge, you will see the person’s profile page
    • Daily Email alerts go out at 8:00 AM ET
      • You can customize alerts to get any or all of the practice areas
      • Alerts can be combined into a single email
      • You can also follow a company in the news
    • The Daily Docket is a Reuters and Westlaw newsletter, which is free and does not require purchase of a TR product
      • Provides a round-up of what is happening (latest news on the courts, lawyers, and legal profession)
    • There are periodic breaking news alerts
  • Updates to Billing
    • Improved communication of billing
      • Also providing electronic invoicing
      • PDF is included in the notice sent out rather than requiring users to follow a link
    • New sale invoice and debit invoice redesign released in May
    • New subscription invoice, monthly account summary, credit note, and pro forma invoices released in September
      • Easier to find the amount due and due dates
      • Clearly displays any payments received
      • Credit notes highlight the amount of a credit and that payment is not required
      • Hyperlinks throughout the document
      • The Monthly Account Statement displays the cleared charges for the previous month as well as any open balance as of the date of the invoice
      • Box at the top displays information about amounts due and due dates
    • Redesign of online invoices coming in Q2 of 2021
Filed Under: Legal vendors

Thomson Reuters Unveils Westlaw Today

October 26, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Leveraging its connections with Reuters news, Westlaw recently revealed a new news product called Westlaw Today. For any academic libraries, you can access Westlaw Today on the product switcher when you sign-in to your Westlaw Edge account or at today.westlaw.com. The homepage provides the latest legal news, attorney analysis, and most viewed articles. There is also a link to submit an article or sign-up for notifications. The service also has 30 practice areas that gather news articles on those particular legal topics.

According to their own literature, news comes from a variety of sources including CQ Roll Call, the Hill, and more. Editorial teams at the new publication include attorneys as well as legal editors who monitor the different practice areas. There is also something called the Daily Docket, which is a morning newsletter that provides the headlines for the day.

Filed Under: Legal vendors

John Jay Papers Added to Founders Online

October 19, 2020 by Leave a Comment

The National Archives National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the University of Virginia completed a project to add select papers of John Jay to Founders Online. The John Jay papers in the collection are derived from the Jay Papers Project at Columbia University’s Rare Books & Manuscript Library.

Founders Online is a fully searchable database of correspondence and other writings from George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Adams and other members of his family, and now John Jay. Over 185,000 documents are included in the collection. Founders online began back in 2010. Only the works of Alexander Hamilton have been fully completed at this point. It is expected that when work is completed there will be about 200,000 documents freely available. Researchers can search by author, recipient, and even period.

Filed Under: Legal vendors

DocuSign Releases DocuSign Analyzer

October 15, 2020 by Leave a Comment

On September 30, 2020, DocuSign announced the release of their DocuSign Analyzer, which is a contract analytics tool powered by AI. It is an extension of their existing Insight product, which helps with searching through agreements a company already has. Analyzer reviews new contracts when first received and looks for risks within the document relating to legal, sales, and procurement. Analyzer works by breaking down a document into component clauses and then looks at them based on the company’s standards, both legal and business. It will also recommend changes to language used in the document based on a library of pre-approved clauses. Results are available in Microsoft Word, Outlook, and the DocuSign Contract Lifecycle Management Solution.

Filed Under: Legal vendors

Fastcase Acquired Judicata

September 21, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Fastcase announced its acquisition of California based Judicata at the beginning of the month. Judicata is a legal search tool for California state law that focuses on providing precise results by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence. Judicata was founded in 2012. The intention is to use the power that Judicata built in relation to California law and develop it for a wider legal audience. Fastcase is working on development of Fastcase 8, the newest version of its research platform, using Judicata as the underlying backbone. The Judicata team will be joining Fastcase to work on the integration of Judicata with Fastcase.

Filed Under: Legal vendors

Lexis Releases its New Platform, Lexis+

September 14, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Back in July, Lexis began to roll out a new platform to librarians and professors in law schools. As of August, all law students only have access to Lexis+, while professors will still be able to access Lexis Advance until the end of the year. Most importantly, the new platform does not require new registration and set-up. You will be able to log-in using your existing credentials.

The new platform does have a slightly new look. On the research page, you will see a red wave image. When you toggle to different aspects such as practical guidance and brief analysis, the color of the wave changes. The Explore box is still on that initial search page, letting you choose content type, jurisdiction, topic, source, etc. As you run searches and move through the content, many of the pages still have the look and feel of Lexis Advance.

There are several new features on Lexis+. First, when you run a search on the legal research portion, the search will also include any of the materials available on Practical Guidance. Previously, you needed to search this separately. Also, there is the ability to edit your search without going back to the first search box. There will be a little pencil icon next to your search, which can be used to edit the search. Additionally, there is a search tree map that shows you how the different operators you use in your search yielded the results you see. Lexis has also added a new Shepard’s feature called Shepard’s at risk, which provides you with notice when a case you are using itself relies on authority that has received negative treatment. Additionally, the platform now has code compare, which can compare two versions of a statute side-by-side.

As part of the new platform launch, Lexis also announced a few name changes. In the U.S. and Canada, Lexis is removing the Advance moniker from all of its products and will simply be known as Lexis. Further, Lexis Practice Advisor is being renamed Practical Guidance in the U.S. and Canada. You can see more information about Lexis+ from the press release issued on September 14.

Filed Under: Legal vendors

Vendor Resources for COVID-19 & Racial Justice

September 8, 2020 by Leave a Comment

CRIV hosted its annual vendor roundtable at the beginning of July. Several legal information vendors presented on the topic of what they have done in response to COVID-19 as well as plans they had for the future. Listed below are some links provided by the vendors to resources mentioned during the event.

Thomson Reuters:

LexisNexis: Complimentary COVID-19 & Related Resources:

LexisNexis: Racial Equality Resources:

Filed Under: Legal vendors

CRIV/Thomson Reuters Biannual Phone Call

June 25, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Conference call took place on Tuesday, June 2 at 1:00 PM EDT.

Participants:

  • Deborah Heller – CRIV Thomson Reuters Liaison
  • Kim Hurley – Information Management Advisor at Thomson Reuters
  • Rachel Torgerson – Customer Success Strategist at Thomson Reuters
  • Kevin Lane – Manager, Westlaw Product Development

Agenda:

  • Discussion about some of the billing changes recently implemented and forthcoming.
    • Working to improve communication and redesign invoices
    • Ensuring a more reliable communication channel to customers
    • Increase in electronic invoicing
    • Making it clearer to customers if they are on auto-pay for certain items
      • The invoice more clearly shows that something has already been paid to cut down on duplicate payments
      • Providing 60, 30, and 15 day notices when a credit card that the customer is using for auto-pay is expiring to help prevent past due invoices and collections.
    • Working to reduce the unapplied payments backlog by contacting customers and asking how payments should be applied to their account
    • 3 phase invoice redesign
      • Phase one began in early May and applies to new sale or debit invoices
        • Cleaner
        • Clearly outlines the amount due and the date it is due
        • Customer name and address clearly provided on the invoice
        • Customers will receive a PDF attachment with the invoice in an email so there is no longer the need to go to a separate platform in order to access the actual invoice
        • The invoice will include hyperlinks.
      • Phase 2 is anticipated to launch in the 3rd Quarter of 2020 and applies to Subscription, Credit, and Pro Forma invoices
      • Phase 3 launch date is still being determined after Phase 2 and will include online invoices
    • Customer support information including how to read my new invoice is available online here
  • Quick Check on Westlaw Edge has added a quotation analysis feature
    • It analyzes quotes in legal documents to ensure that they are accurate
  • A new feature on Westlaw Edge that will be rolling out later this summer (August) is Quick Check Judicial
    • Allows you to upload multiple documents from a single matter. So the documents submitted by both parties will be analyzed together
    • Shows the cases cited by each party, cases cited by both parties, and cases cited by neither party
    • Will allow you to upload up to 6 documents at one time and assign each document to a party
    • It will be included with a Westlaw Edge subscription
  • More Practical Law materials will be released towards the end of June
    • Includes a commercial litigation subtopic with over 200 new resources
    • Substantive videos by the Practical Law editors
    • Relaunch of the life sciences topic
    • FDA-regulatory cross practice collection
Filed Under: Legal vendors, updates, Vendor Relations Tagged With: , ,

CRIV/Thomson Reuters Biannual Phone Call

January 9, 2020 by Leave a Comment

CRIV-Thomson Reuters Bi-Annual Liaison Call

Conference call took place on Monday, December 16, 2019 at 3:00 PM EST and ended at 3:30 PM EST.

Participants:

  • Deborah Heller – CRIV Thomson Reuters Liaison
  • Kim Hurley – Information Management Advisor at Thomson Reuters
  • Rachel Torgerson – Customer Success Strategist at Thomson Reuters
  • Vani Ungapen – AALL Executive Director

Agenda:

  • Introductions
  • Discussion of direction of the phone calls moving forward. Deborah expressed an interest in having the calls address outstanding advocacy issues, provide an overview of any updates to Westlaw and/or Practical law, and continue ongoing discussions of billing issues worked on with Caroline Walters, the previous CRIV Thomson Reuters liaison.
    • Kim said she could share the quarterly product updates with Deborah, who will then share information with members. Normally, Thomson Reuters tries to provide the update information in person to customers.
  • One request for assistance was shared. The customer reported that Practical Law charges are appearing in Quickview as chargeable even though they are supposed to be non-billable. The problem is apparently not immediately obvious unless you are spot-checking a specific charge, so it is possible that firms may have been billing clients for something that should have been free. The problem was reported to a client relations manager, who has reported that Thomson Reuters is aware of the issue.
    • Rachel took note of this problem and will look into the issue.
  • Rachel provided an update on her work with the customer to cash group to improve customer experience.
    • Survey responses as well as phone calls used to understand customer experience. This information has been shared with various departments.
    • Working on making invoicing clearer and more understandable.
    • Working on improving accuracy and timeliness of processing payments
    • Working on consistency of information provided
      • Discussed fact that product numbers are not appearing on all invoices, so Rachel wanted to know if this was information users wanted and or needed.
        • Deborah said that the most important information to her is the title of the product and a description of what it is (e.g. yearly update, specific release number, etc.).
      • Rachel hopes to be able to share more specific information including roadmaps and timelines for improvements to customer billing at the next phone call around the beginning of May.
    • Kim explained that she is the current liaison to CRIV for Thomson Reuters since the CRIV liaison once again falls within her territory (Deborah works in NY).
    • Discussion about the timing for the next call. It will happen in early to mid-May. Deborah will contact Kim and Rachel to schedule it at the beginning of April.
Filed Under: Legal vendors, Vendor Relations

Lexis Provides Information on its Dealings with ICE

November 18, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Today, Lexis sent an email to Law Faculty to explain its relationship with ICE in response to the #NoTechForICE petition. One of the issues that has been prevalent in the past few years is the interaction that the legal research vendors have with ICE, as the agency has cracked down on illegal immigrants during the Trump Administration. The email noted that all federal agencies can purchase access to LexisNexis products under the contract the company has with the federal government. According to the email, ICE has purchased some ancillary public records services, which account for approximately 10% of the contracts reported in the petition. The email goes on, stating “[w]e are not providing jail-booking data to ICE and are not working with them to build data infrastructure to assist in their efforts (emphasis in original). The email also notes that LexisNexis has a contract with ICE, which provides core legal research services to detainees including cases, statutes, secondary materials, bilingual user guides, and immigration forms. The email also stated that LexisNexis does not sell subscriber user information to ICE or any other government agency.

Filed Under: Legal vendors, Vendor Relations Tagged With:

Westlaw Edge Now Has Regulations Compare for Select States

November 14, 2019 by Leave a Comment

According to a tweet earlier this week, Westlaw Edge has added the Regulations Compare feature to select state regulations. Unfortunately, the announcement does not say which states are included. However, after a chat session where I asked which states were included, I received a response that the following states have regulations compare: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. For those unfamiliar with regulations compare or statutes compare, the feature allows users to compare red-lined versions of the regulation showing deletions and insertions. The comparison is done automatically when you select two versions to compare. This saves the user the time that would have been spent comparing the versions manually. Presumably, this feature will be added to all states in the future.

Filed Under: Legal vendors, updates, Vendor Relations Tagged With: ,

West Academic Acquires AdaptiBar

November 4, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Back in October, West Academic announced that it acquired AdaptiBar Inc.  AdaptiBar is a bar review supplement program that focuses on getting students ready for the MBE. It has simulation exams, explanations, and subject area analysis. AdaptiBar was founded back in 2003. West Academic has not announced how its acquisition of AdaptiBar will impact either company. For now, both will continue to operate as usual.

Filed Under: Legal vendors

GPO and Law Library of Congress to Digitize the Serial Set

October 28, 2019 by Leave a Comment

The GPO and the Law Library of Congress announced plans last week to digitize the Congressional Serial Set going back to the first volume from 1817. The digitization will take place through the Law Library of Congress and the GPO will store the files and upload them onto Govinfo for free public access. The project is expected to take at least a decade to complete. This digitization effort follows on the heels of HeinOnline, which began digitizing the serial set several years ago and made the first phase of its digitization available in October 2018. Hein’s digitization has been made available for free to HeinOnline Academic subscribers, Core+ subscribers, and subscribers of HeinOnline’s U.S. Congressional Documents.

Filed Under: Legal vendors Tagged With: , , ,

GPO Publishing Changes

October 16, 2019 by Leave a Comment

The Government Publishing Office announced at the end of September that it is using new software to publish the 2018 United States Code. The GPO is now using XPub, which allows for XML-based publishing. According to the press release, this technology will allow for publishing in print and digital format in a more timely manner. This comes as good news since the GPO has only just begun shipping out titles of the 2018 USC to depository libraries and has been behind on publication of the CFR for 2019 ever since the government shutdown earlier in the year. The plan is to publish all routine publications using this new program. As for the USC, the plan it that the production process will only take about 1 year rather than the normal 1.5 years for past main USC editions.

Filed Under: Legal vendors, updates

Fastcase’s Docket Alarm Adds Deadline Display

March 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Fastcase acquired Docket Alarm in January 2018. Docket Alarm is a legal analytics tool that can be used to identify judicial trends and identify possible outcomes of litigation. Deadline display is Docket Alarm’s newest feature. Deadline display gleans any deadlines from the docket and automatically displays them to users viewing the docket sheet. This allows users to see at a glance all upcoming events in a case. Deadlines are also searchable; allowing users to see upcoming work by firm or type of filing. The deadlines can also be exported to Google or Outlook calendars to allow for easy integration into work processes.As of March 14, deadline display is included as a complimentary feature for all Docket Alarm users.

Filed Under: Legal vendors Tagged With:
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