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The
Arkansas Bar Association will soon provide you free
legal research on the Internet.
Imagine having access
to legal research on the Internet that you can reach
by logging on from anywhere-at no cost to you. Is
that appealing? It's about to happen. In about four
months, members of the Arkansas Bar Association will
have that advantage through Arkansas VersusLaw.
For over a year our
Association has been exploring the options for providing
electronic legal research to members, free of charge.
Last fall a Task Force was appointed by then President
Cherry to pursue the matter in depth. The Task Force
invited Lexis-Nexis, Thomson-West, LOISlaw, Casemaker
and VersusLaw to make presentations about their services
and to make proposals about furnishing their services
to the Arkansas Bar Association. (Casemaker is an
electronic legal research service organized by the
Ohio Bar Association.)
With the exception of
one company which chose not to participate, these
providers furnished passwords to members of the Task
Force to try out and study each service for 30 days.
On two separate days, presentations were made by the
four providers. They also answered many questions.
At a later meeting, the Task Force heard the reports
of those members who had made more in-depth studies
and comparisons.
One provider could not
offer the product desired by the Association. Another
provider's proposal was too expensive. Casemaker and
VersusLaw were both in the range the Task Force considered
feasible. After considerable discussion, the Task
Force concluded for several reasons that VersusLaw
was the best overall value for Arkansas lawyers. For
example, VersusLaw had court decisions from all state
and federal appellate courts and was willing to include
new research components for Arkansas lawyers.
Unlike the other providers,
VersusLaw did not require that the Arkansas Bar Association
use it exclusively. The Association has the opportunity
to contract with other service companies to provide
add-on enhancements that could supplement VersusLaw
for those members who have the need for broader services.
The supplemental service could be acquired without
the expense of the basic service. (Our Association
has a current member benefit with Lexis-Nexis, and
members will receive more information on enhancements
in the near future.)
A subcommittee of the
Task Force was then appointed to negotiate and be
involved in drafting an acceptable Letter of Intent
with VersusLaw. Their efforts were soon successful.
A contract was then negotiated and agreed upon subject
to approval by the Board of Governors of the Association
and the officials of VersusLaw. The contract draft
was accepted by both parties and executed on July
24, 2002.
What Arkansas VersusLaw
will provide is a fully searchable, online law library
including:
(a) Court decisions
from the appellate courts in all 50 states;
(b) Decisions from all
federal appellate courts;
(c) Decisions from various
federal district courts (including Arkansas Federal
District Court decisions);
(d) The statutes from
all 50 states;
(e) Any other product
which is subsequently added to VersusLaw's basic full-text
legal research service.
VersusLaw will improve
its product by:
• increasing its coverage of
Arkansas appellate courts decisions back to the year
1900;
• including the official legal
citations and official pagination of the individual
cases; and
• including Arkansas Court
Rules.
VersusLaw plans to have
added all the required coverage to its database within
six months. When available, Arkansas VersusLaw will
be on the Arkansas Bar Association website and will
be reached by a link to VersusLink by Arkansas Bar
Association members only. Members will authenticate
their membership by using their Association user name
and password. (Members will secure their password
on the Association's redesigned website at www.arkbar.com.
The new website is now operational or will be shortly.)
In addition VersusLaw
has committed to provide quality customer service
support for questions ranging from technical issues
to substantive legal research questions five days
a week from 7:00 AM until 5:00 PM (PST) on regular
business days. Also, VersusLaw will provide some reference
material. Its personnel will be available to attend
the annual meeting of the Association and one other
event of the Association each year to conduct training
sessions.
VersusLaw agreed to
furnish its service in Arkansas to the Arkansas Bar
Association exclusive of any other Arkansas-based
organization. The term of the contract is four years
with five one-year renewal options exercisable by
the Association.
There are other certain
Arkansas practice enhancements that VersusLaw has
agreed to provide if either VersusLaw or the Association
is able to satisfy copyright issues. If those materials
can be included, they will be very valuable additions
for Arkansas Bar Association members.
This service will obviously
be a significant money saving advantage for our members.
It should also help to improve the quality of legal
research in places where such a resource is not now
available.
It was and is the purpose
and intent of the Association leadership to provide
this service as a very valuable benefit for our members.
Thank you to the Task Force members for their most
important contribution of time, effort and wisdom
to this project and also to the Board of Governors
for their foresight, support and approval of this
major undertaking. The Task Force was composed of
Price Marshall, chair, Karen Halbert, Melva Harmon,
Rick Holiman, Philip Kaplan, Jack McNulty, Charles
Morgan, Chris Travis, Danyelle Walker, and ex officio
members, Tom Daily, Mike Crawford, Tim Holtoff, Tim
Tarvin, Bill Wright and Lynn Foster.
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