You may have heard already, but Google has decided to enter into the legal research field with it’s Google Scholar search (see official announcement here). The service features caselaw from:
State Appellate and Supreme Courts since 1950
US Federal District, Appellate, Tax and Bankruptcy since 1923
US Supreme Court since 1791
The search can be limited to legal opinions, US Federal opinions and state court only searches. The results include the full text of the case, with original page numbering, along with internal links to cases cited. Perhaps most welcome is the tab feature showing cases which cited the case you searched for, thus allowing a researcher to check for opinions referencing that case.
Since Google Scholar is free, this will also allow linkage from webpages and documents directly to a case without requiring access to Westlaw or Lexis. This is a common problem with citing a case on webpages and shared briefs.
iPhone J.D. has some great tips on accessing the service through your iPhone. He includes a method of changing the default state used to search Google Scholar by changing the advanced search features and bookmarking that page. Though the site isn’t optimized for the iPhone, it does offer a free method of caselaw searching while mobile.
Obviously, there is room for improvement. The service lacks many of the features Westlaw and Lexis offer, but for a free service Google Scholar offers an amazing database of cases. Going through approximately 20 cases in random motions and briefs cited in my legal practice I did not run across a single case not accessible by Google Scholar. This is definitely something every lawyer should check out and as we test the service on a broader scale we will provide a complete review.