The Newest Legal Research Game Changer: Bloomberg Law

Transcription

1 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing Vol. 21 No. 1 Fall Cite as: Tamara Herrera, The Newest Legal Research Game Changer: Bloomberg Law, 21 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Res. & Writing 7 (2012). The Newest Legal Research Game Changer: Bloomberg Law By Tamara Herrera Tamara Herrera is a Clinical Professor of Law and Coordinator of Legal Writing Curriculum at the Sandra Day O Connor College of Law, Arizona State University, in Phoenix, Ariz. Bloomberg Law is the newest game changer in the constantly evolving world of legal research instruction. Over the past decade or so, the teaching of legal research has changed considerably. First, paid electronic resources, Westlaw and Lexis, became a mainstay on research and writing syllabi, and teachers introduced these sources after students learned how to research in the books. Then, free Internet sources were added to research instruction, and many schools moved to a more integrated, process-based approach of teaching book and electronic research at the same time. Research instruction recently shifted again as Westlaw and Lexis introduced their new advanced products: WestlawNext and LexisAdvance. Many of us are struggling with how to balance teaching the old products, including book research, 1 in conjunction with these new products, and now the research game is set to shift significantly again. Bloomberg recently offered its Bloomberg Law to law schools, and many law schools are adding the service this year. According to its promotional brochure, Legal Research Redefined, Bloomberg Law was created by legal professionals to provide the information legal practitioners need. So why is Bloomberg Law poised to be such a game changer both in practice and in law schools? For practitioners, Bloomberg Law is focused on organizing content by practice centers and providing users with not 1 Over the past few years, many libraries have given up some of their books, due to the rising cost of maintaining the collections or simply because electronic resources are preferred by patrons. In addition, some books are simply not published anymore. just the law, but also relevant business news and industry information in one product through its integration with Bloomberg BNA. Every user has the same unrestricted access to all the content on the service. For legal research teachers, Bloomberg Law requires in its contract that law schools offer the same instructional opportunities for Bloomberg Law as the schools offer to Westlaw and Lexis. Thus, as teachers, we may face some tough curricular decisions in adding Bloomberg Law. Bloomberg Requirements and Class Limitations In programs where class time is used to introduce electronic services, teachers will need to redo their syllabi to include Bloomberg Law. For example, if sixty minutes are devoted each to Westlaw and Lexis, an additional sixty minutes will need to be carved out for Bloomberg Law. Each school with a contract has a Bloomberg Law account representative and student representatives, so these representatives will be able to aid in instructing students. That is the good news. The bad news is that most teachers do not have an extra sixty minutes of unused instruction time to give up. Those who are pressed for time will either need to cut coverage in another area or shorten the length of in-class trainings to accommodate all three services. Regardless of these timing issues, teachers adopting Bloomberg Law will also have to modify any assignments or research exercises to include the service. In programs where training is provided outside of class time, the teacher has two potential ways to include Bloomberg Law: (1) set up mandatory training sessions and either take attendance or require certification from the service or (2) require the training sessions and leave students on their Bloomberg Law requires that law schools offer the same instructional opportunities Thus, as teachers, we may face some tough curricular decisions

2 8 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing Vol. 21 No. 1 Fall 2012 I suggest that research teachers take three steps to ensure students are getting and understanding the training they need to succeed honor to complete them. 2 Regardless of the method used to provide out-of-class training sessions, there are two obstacles to keep in mind when adding Bloomberg Law to the list of required outof-class training sessions. First, as of the writing of this article, Bloomberg Law does not have a certification process in place like Westlaw and Lexis do. Second, Bloomberg Law does not have online tutorials or training sessions, although it does have a 24/7 help function and the ability to ask a Bloomberg Law lawyer a research question. This lack of online training means that teachers will have to rely more heavily on in-person training sessions from the Bloomberg Law representatives. 3 Given the limitations outlined above, I suggest that research teachers take the following three steps to ensure students are getting and understanding the training they need to succeed in this everchanging legal research game. Each step includes an explanation of Bloomberg Law or compares Bloomberg Law to other resources. Thus, the discussion below both introduces significant aspects of Bloomberg Law and suggests teaching techniques. the student to explain one step on each line. The following is an example of a research narrative if the instruction was to find Arizona Revised Statute section on Bloomberg Law. My goal is to have students chart their missteps along with their successful steps. I also have students repeat the exercise until they reach a successful path. Step Taken 1. Log on to Bloomberg Law. 2. Type ars into the <GO> bar and click on the Citation Search option in the dropdown menu below the bar. 3. Type Arizona revised statutes into the <GO> bar and click on the Citation Search option in the dropdown menu below the bar. Result See the home page with the <GO> bar at the top. No results found. No results found. I must need to type the citation in a specific formula that I do not know. Step One: Explain Your Thinking In order to ensure that students are using the three major research services and not just copying answers from another student or tuning out during trainings, I suggest a set of exercises that forces the students to explain what they did to find an answer. To start, I assign a simple treasure hunt exercise in which I give the students a secondary source, case, or statute and have them write a narrative about how they found that document on each service. To help guide the narrative, I provide a numbered sheet of paper for each service. 4 The goal is for 2 After all, the students mainly hurt themselves when they do not take advantage of training. They flounder in the research process, which usually results in poor performance when it counts on graded assignments and in their summer jobs or internships. 3 At my school, we rely on online tutorials to both reinforce training sessions and serve as make-up sessions if a student misses a training session. This flexibility has allowed me to ease up on making in-person training sessions a mandatory component of the course. Students can train in the method that best suits their learning style or personal needs. 4 Book research could also be included. 4. Look on home page and see the Getting Started box under the <GO> bar. Click on the link to search Statutes and Regulations. 5. Choose Arizona Statutes and click the + to drill down the table of contents. 6. Click on the + next to Title 12 (Courts and Civil Procedure) and continue to drill down the table of contents (trying various options) until I find Chapter 3 (Fees and Costs) and Article 5 (Recovery of Costs). I got an alphabetical menu of options to search various jurisdictions. Federal jurisdictions are listed first, with the state jurisdictions listed alphabetically. The table of contents to the Arizona Code appears along with a search box. I see that the statutes are organized by titles. I guess Title 12 is where I will start. Voilà! I found the text of the statute. It is shorter than I expected, and there are no annotations.

3 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing Vol. 21 No. 1 Fall It is no surprise to research teachers that there are numerous paths to find the correct answer. This information, however, will likely be a surprise to most students. For instance, in Bloomberg Law,5 one could locate a statute by (1) using the <GO> bar and running a key word search, (2) selecting the source (Arizona statutes) first and then running a key word search, or (3) selecting the source and browsing the table of contents, which the above example shows. A teacher can either have the students repeat the exercise for each research method, or the teacher can talk briefly about the various methods and provide students with samples of each type of research narrative. When providing samples, I suggest using the best student samples for this step or samples that teaching assistants create and update. Students can then keep these research narratives as their own personal research guides to consult whenever they face similar questions in the future. In fact, I find myself referring to these guides when giving students feedback on their open memorandum research reports. A helpful follow-up assignment is to give the students a complex treasure hunt exercise. For example, I might ask the students to find a secondary source, case, or statute in each service by giving them limited information: find an Arizona case on the fireman rule with the name Grable in the title. The following is an example of how a research narrative would look for that problem if the student used Bloomberg Law. Step Taken 1. Log on to Bloomberg Law. 2. Type fireman rule Grable Arizona in the <GO> bar and click on the Court Opinions option. 3. Type Arizona case Grable in the <GO> bar and click on the Court Opinions option. 4. Look on the home page and see the Getting Started box under the <GO> bar. Click on the link to search Court Opinions, which leads to the Select Sources box. 5. Select the + next to State Court Opinions until I find All Arizona Court Opinions and then double click on this entry to add it to my selected sources. 6. Enter Grable fireman rule in the Keywords search box. Result See the home page with the <GO> bar at the top. No results. No results. I am not sure I understand what I am supposed to put as key words! I will try something else. I see that I have to read carefully. I almost skipped the Select Sources box and typed a search in the Keywords search box. The search box says that when no source is selected, it searches all sources. I see that I can enter more than one source to search. If I make a mistake or change my sources, I need to click the red x next to a selected source to delete it. No results. Now I know that I do not understand how key words work. This box must not take a Natural Language search, and I am not comfortable with Boolean Terms and Connectors (although I see a link to them under the Keywords search box). It is no surprise to research teachers that there are numerous paths to find the correct answer. This information, however, will likely be a surprise to most students. 7. Decide to try some of the other search boxes on the page after erasing the previous search. Type in Grable in the Case Name search box. Voila! I found the case, although it looks different than the case in the books. The case does not have headnotes at the top, and a Table of Cases is at the bottom of the opinion. I do like the sidebar on the right with the updating information (whether the case is still good law). 5 Because all of the electronic services change format and content as they evolve, I suggest using teaching assistants to update these exercises at least every semester.

4 10 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing Vol. 21 No. 1 Fall 2012 Unlike Westlaw and Lexis, Bloomberg topic searching is currently limited to BNA topic areas and only select cases are included in each topic. Similar to the simple treasure hunt exercise, there are numerous ways to locate the answer. Using Bloomberg Law, a researcher could (1) use the <GO> bar and run a key word search, (2) select the source (Arizona court opinions) first and then run a key word search, or (3) select the source and search by using a field search (case name), which is what the above example shows. The one research method not included on this list is searching by topic (or key number/headnote number). Unlike Westlaw and Lexis, Bloomberg Law topic searching is currently limited to BNA topic areas and only select cases are included in each topic. Students need to be aware of these types of differences in electronic research services, and many of the more careful students will note these differences in their narratives. Step Two: Compare and Contrast Even though many students may find and weigh the differences among the electronic research services themselves as they complete the treasure hunt exercises, I choose to highlight these differences during class. Because of the inevitable time limitations in first-year legal writing and research courses, I suggest presenting this information in a simple, easy-to-understand format. One option is to give students a blank chart and have them fill in the blanks themselves during training sessions. For example, the chart could present the students with questions to answer: does the service allow searching by headnotes or does the service provide a citator? Another option is to work on the chart together in class after the students have completed their training sessions. This type of guided note taking can be adapted to compare and contrast book research to electronic research or to compare specific subject area research too. The following are highlights of some important similarities and differences when researching secondary sources, statutes, and cases on Bloomberg Law. Similarities to Westlaw, WestlawNext, Lexis, and LexisAdvance Most law reviews and many news sources available Searchable by Boolean Terms and Connectors Highlighted key words Ability to save research trail Secondary Sources Differences BNA materials available only on Bloomberg Law Books available from ABA, PLI, and Getting the Deal Through Legal encyclopedias and ALR are not available Secondary sources do not appear in citator results or in a suggestion bar Can use key word to search (if multiple key words, they must appear adjacent to one another in the document to get a result), but search by Natural Language is not available Statutes and Regulatory Materials Federal and all 50 states statutes available Code of Federal Regulations and agency materials available Searchable by Boolean Terms and Connectors Searchable table of contents by using drill-down menu Ability to select jurisdiction(s) to search Browse arrows to search nearby statutory provisions Highlighted key words Ability to set up alerts Ability to save research trail Not annotated Currency information located on bottom right, but no ability to use citator to check history of statute or citing cases Can use key word to search (if multiple key words, they must appear adjacent to one another in the document to get a result), but search by Natural Language is not available

5 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing Vol. 21 No. 1 Fall Federal and all 50 states available Searchable by Boolean Terms and Connectors Searchable by various fields, such as case name, judge, and date Ability to select jurisdiction(s) to search Highlighted key words Ability to set up alerts Ability to use citator to find cases (BCite) and ability to filter the citator s results, such as by date or key word (Ecosearch) Ability to save research trail Cases Opinion usually starts immediately following caption and attorney information with no intervening headnotes or key numbers Select cases are given BNA headnotes and topic classifications that correspond to the Bloomberg BNA headnotes and Classification Outlines (intellectual property, labor, employment, health, trade, environmental, and communication) Navigation bar at the top of the case with direct links to majority opinion, dissenting opinion, and Table of Cases Table of Cases (giving list of all cases cited in the chosen document) located at end of each opinion with citations and links Citator results automatically listed in bar to right of case (BCite) Citator does not include references to statutes or secondary sources Notepad available for taking notes in bar to right of case Can use key word to search (if multiple key words, they must appear adjacent to one another in the document to get a result), but search by Natural Language is not available In addition, advanced writing and research courses can explore the concept of compare and contrast on deeper levels. For instance, a class in advanced research can run an exercise on choosing an electronic research service for a fictional law practice that focuses in a specific area. This exercise can be done individually or in groups, with each group tackling a different scenario. Students will have to look at the specific coverage and cost of each service, as well as the firm s budget and size, when deciding what services they will choose. This exercise is a good one to introduce along with time-billing exercises. Currently, Bloomberg Law is offering its entire library to every user. This unrestricted access to content without incurring extra costs differs from the current pricing structure of both Westlaw and Lexis. Regardless of how I present the differences among the services, students will naturally want (and push me to give!) an answer to the unanswerable question of which service is best. One way I deal with this question is to point out that best depends on context, which leads to the next step: focusing on unique content and features. Step Three: Focus on Unique Content and Features Each electronic research service aims to provide unique content and features, and these features are what I prefer to focus most on during class. Bloomberg Law has two unique features that are worthy of extra class time during the firstyear course: (1) its integration of Bloomberg BNA practice materials and (2) its ability to access federal docket materials, similar to Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER). Bloomberg BNA is a network of more than 2,500 reporters, correspondents, and leading practitioners deliver[ing] expert analysis, news, practice tools, and guidance 6 through its news materials and books. Most legal research teachers are familiar with some Bloomberg BNA materials, such as United States Law Week, and they may already use Regardless of how I present the differences among the services, students will naturally want and answer to the unanswerable question of which service is best. 6 Bloomberg BNA About Us information, available at (last visited July 11, 2012).

6 12 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing Vol. 21 No. 1 Fall 2012 A docket exercise is not one legal research teacher have been able to offer before. these subject-specific materials to create cuttingedge problems and to help upper-level students who are writing research papers. Because Bloomberg Law now integrates these news materials on its service and makes them searchable by key word, first-year students may find these resources helpful for their projects, too, especially when working on a legal writing project that incorporates policy. The Bloomberg BNA materials go beyond the traditional scholarly law review and offer insight into current legislative and court developments as they occur. Students can sign up for news notifications and listen to podcasts from leading practitioners. In addition, Bloomberg Law includes a database of contributed law firm newsletters. As for the federal docket material, this material fits best during the semester students are introduced to federal law research. A helpful exercise would be for students to use Bloomberg s Docket Search to locate a pleading in a specific case, such as a complaint. Docket Search provides access to filings from all of the federal courts. A docket exercise is not one legal research teachers have been able to offer before, mainly because of the logistics and cost involved. Most states do not have specific court documents available online, even for purchase, and PACER charges 10 cents per page for federal court filings. Bloomberg Law offers unlimited docket searching as well as the ability to set up alerts. Finally, Bloomberg Law has some other resources that students may find helpful and that are unique to the service: SCOTUS blog Podcasts on various topics, including succeeding at summer jobs Entire text of Thinking Like a Writer: A Lawyer s Guide to Effective Writing and Editing, by Stephen Armstrong and Timothy P. Terrell (PLI 2009) Transactional Law center that includes EDGAR and a database of searchable documents and clauses, with the ability to compare clauses side by side Financial information and litigation data on public companies Patent search database People search database Build a Citation service that allows students to enter in key information to create a case law citation conforming to Bluebook (although the service does not supply references to the specific rules to verify the result) Bloomberg Law also keeps student passwords active over the past summer, which gives students the opportunity to use and explore the service when Westlaw and Lexis are either unavailable or limited. Conclusion In conclusion, I would be hard-pressed to deny that Bloomberg Law will change the legal research game, given its collection of well-respected, unique resources now available to students electronically. As teachers, we are just now starting the conversation on how best to integrate Bloomberg Law into our legal research and writing curricula, and I am positive that this conversation will only grow more robust as more law schools add the service and the service continues to evolve. Game on! 2012 Tamara Herrera