PreCydent Outperforms Lexis and Westlaw?

Yes, according to Goodwin, Proctor’s Litigation Knowledge Manager David Hobbie. PreCydent is a free (for now, anyway) law search engine that aims to offer “google-like” access to case law (more details here).

Hobbie did several case law searches, as described on his blog, Caselines, and in his view, PreCydent consistently provided the best results. Despite this, Hobbie doesn’t recommend giving up Westlaw or Lexis, at least not for now. PreCydent “only covers a limited amount of federal appellate caselaw—in most cases, that after 1950 and up to July 2007,” and has a few other disadvantages, as Hobbie explains in his article Nevertheless, you may want to get a free preview of what might turn out to be the next major law search engine.

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