Google Now Has Federal Court Opinions!

by Kemp Brinson

In a move that is bound to have Lexis and Westlaw a little concerned, Google has announced the availability of federal court opinions through Google Scholar. Lexis and Westlaw are not done for – they do provide very valuable analysis and indexing, as well as a much larger variety of materials – but this is still a pretty big breakthrough. If I were them, I’d be looking at the newspaper industry and making sure my long term business models were sound.

I did a few quick searches for some pretty obscure stuff (unpublished district court opinions) and was impressed with the coverage of the database.

When they announce that state court opinions are similarly available, I’m throwing a party. Seriously.