A Page on the Web, published in the Solicitors Journal, June 1998.
Butterworths Direct
In May Butterworths, the largest UK law publisher by some margin, launched a redesigned and rebadged site – Butterworths Direct, including a number of new information services.
This event marks the transition of Butterworths’ web presence from an essentially ‘brochureware’ site with bells and whistles to a fully-fledged legal information service. There are many elements to the new site – stacking up on your virtual bookshelf as follows:
First, for those with limited or nil budgets, there are a number of free services:
- News Direct – constantly updated legal news
- Butterworths Law Directory
- a library of Legal Links
- selected articles from the current NLJ in New Law Online
- a Year 2000 information service
Chargeable subscription services include:
- Halsbury’s Laws Direct and All England Direct – online versions of these well-used sources, presented using Butterworths’ proprietary netBOS interface (the web version of its ‘books on screen’ viewer). These services are linked, so that clicking on an All ER reference in Halsbury’s finds the report in All England Direct. No doubt the other books on screen services will follow online in due course.
- Law Direct – comprising Law Online – summaries of Acts, cases, command papers etc, with daily updates; a weekly Journal featuring articles by leading practitioners which discuss those developments in a practical context; supplementary databases including Is it in Force?, Progress of Legislation and Practice Directions; and access to the Finance Act Tracking EC Brief and aRMadillo Company Search services.
Law Direct pricing starts at £900 for 4 users, with larger firms paying £100 per additional fee earner user. The Halsbury’s and All England services carry price tags of a larger order. From one perspective these services represent terrific value – all that info at your fingertips, constantly updated and no more filing looseleaf pages! But they are beyond the budget of most smaller firms, particularly in this transitional phase towards full use of electronic services, when users feel bound to continue subscriptions to hardcopy services as well.
So who are Butterworths targeting and why? The answers are axiomatic: they are targeting the large firms with large budgets, because they are the ones who appreciate the value of information so delivered and can afford it!
A Butterworths source suggests the services are ‘a significant step towards total legal publishing on the web’. Clearly they are intent on hammering the competition from Lawtel and similar players by offering a comprehensive solution using their unrivalled repositary of legacy data.
Where does this leave the small firm? There are many free legal resources available on the web, though tracking them down and monitoring them is often time-consuming. There are also many smaller publishers offering niche services which may suit the smaller specialist practice.
NextLaw and Blue Flag
Also in May, Clifford Chance, the largest UK law firm, launched its NextLaw online service to help international businesses monitor key aspects of their data protection compliance in 30 jurisdictions. This is the first in a series of online services aimed at senior in-house counsel from financial institutions and corporates which Clifford Chance will deliver via the web.
Clifford Chance anticipate that ‘online services will become an established method of delivering legal advice in many areas of service provision. … online services will help clients anticipate, evaluate and control legal risk in a structured and systematic way rather than responding to legal problems as they arise.’
First off the block with such a service (more than a year ago) was Linklaters’ with its Blue Flag service offering access to thousands pages of coverage of compliance rules and regulations applying to the financial markets
It is believed a five-figure annual price tag is attached to the NextLaw service, which CC consider will be ‘more economically viable for clients’ (presumably more viable than obtaining the advice through ‘traditional’ legal advice channels – ie the suit behind the desk) Prices for Blue Flag start at £1200 quarterly.
Featured links
- Butterworths Direct
- infolaw Legal Resources / Publishers
- Clifford Chance
- Linklaters’ Blue Flag service
Web watch
Courts
The Court Service and LCD sites now have a search facility
Journals
In Brief magazine is now on the web
Lawtech
Legalease – Legal IT site and directory coming soon
Patents
European Patent Office – useful patent links page
