Westlaw by Thomson Reuters
March 16, 2018

Westlaw by Thomson Reuters

Raymond Tran | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Thomson Reuters Westlaw

Westlaw is used across the whole organization. It serves as a research platform, search engine, and document saving system. We can also use it to share files.

It is mainly used for research purposes. I use it for three main purposes: first, to locate primary resources (cases, statutes, black letter law); second, to locate secondary resources (law review, treatises, articles); last, to find templates or forms.
  • Easy to use
  • Logical, clear to follow
  • Access to certain publishers
  • Some functions/features may seem less familiar if you are used to other platforms
  • Certain resources are not the very best (and are available on other engines)
  • Costly!
  • Great resources available
  • Research
  • Document templates
  • LexisAdvance, Bloomberg and Justia
Westlaw and Lexis Advance are pretty similar in quality -- whether a user has a greater preference for one over the other depends on a few factors: the area of law researched, the user's preference for filters, familiarity with the platform or interface, price, and what is widely used by the user's firm/organization.
Westlaw is very well suited in any legal research setting. Particularly for law students, summer associates, interns, externs, or junior attorneys, it is probably the most familiar and available research platform and search engine available. Additionally, most other attorneys, judges, and researchers or professors are used to using Westlaw.