Casetext and Westlaw are cloud-based legal research platforms enabling you to easily carry out the process of retrieving and identifying legal information required to support legal decision-making.
At their core, these platforms can analyze socio-legal and other repercussions of procedures and regulations and are essential to individual lawyers and law firms regardless of their practice areas. The techniques and patterns of legal research can be long and tedious sometimes.
Truthfully, these legal research tools can turn the odds in your favor in most cases and circumstances. Casetext views itself as a modern legal search technology that can help you find cases other platforms cannot.
Casetext enables you to find legal information quickly and confidentially. Westlaw also considers itself the standard for legal research that provides precision in your research.
Casetext and Westlaw are great tools with unique characteristics. But since you can only use one platform at a time, let us put them to the test to see which one stands out against the other.
Casetext vs Westlaw – What Are They?
Casetext
Casetext is a robust cloud-based legal research platform that uses cutting-edge technology to offer you the best legal results for your practice.
The platform is trusted by over 10,000 firms and solo practitioners, most of whom choose the tool for its fast search and efficiency, advanced filters, artificial intelligence, and good law check.
Casetext was founded in 2013 by a team of litigators who believed that legal research would be better if a proper balance was realized between the need for quality legal information with smart technology.
It offers an intelligent approach and superior technology to improve your law practice. Its more brilliant AI capability helps you find cases you’d miss on other platforms and lets you stay ahead of the competition.
Casetext is also known for its exceptional support through its accessible and highly-qualified network of reference attorneys. Casetext’s research experts won’t stop until you get value for your money.
Casetext’s mission is to expand access to justice and improve the practice of law. The platform believes legal research should not be costly and prides itself on offering innovative tools at better prices for everyone.
It has a sophisticated and externally-audited data security program to protect your documents. Additionally, all records passing through their AI technology are encrypted in transit, immediately deleted, and never retained.
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Westlaw
Westlaw provides the fastest and most precise way to find legal information.
The online research service and proprietary database is home to authoritative content and the most comprehensive collection of legal information for lawyers and legal professionals. Westlaw is supported by Thomson Reuters and is available in over 60 countries.
Its information resources are made of over 40,000 databases of case law, administrative codes, public records, state and federal statutes, law journals, newspaper and magazine articles, treaties, and legal forms, among other resources.
Westlaw was created in 1975 by West Publishing. West Publishing has had its headquarters in Eagan, Minnesota, since 1992.
In 1996, Westlaw was acquired by Thomson Corporation and maintained its reputation as home to secondary legal information sources such as journals, legal encyclopedias, and treaties.
Secondary research sources are a great starting point for research, especially when dealing with an unfamiliar area of law.
Westlaw can help you streamline legal research, simplify litigation, and provide legal guidance. Law firms and individual lawyers prefer Westlaw for its ability to offer faster, practical solutions and deliver high-quality legal services.
Its advanced technologies give it new capabilities to provide advanced speed, accuracy, and confidence in your legal research.
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Casetext vs Westlaw – Getting started
Getting Started on Casetext
If you are new to Casetext, you can get a detailed guide to the tool’s unique capabilities and features built to benefit millions of lawyers and non-lawyers alike on its website.
You need to understand that on Casetext, accessing the law is free. The entire tool is a conglomerate of millions of laws and statutes that are updated daily.
With Casetext, you can search for statutes, case law, and legal commentary from the search bar on any page. Once you access all its features and understand how they have been built for every case, you’ll better understand the tool’s advanced and unique research capabilities.
You’ll also understand summaries from subsequent cases, sentence-level insights, citing cases, and critical passages from cases, and share, save, and download cases for later access.
A community of thousands of people wants to hear from you. Understanding the dynamics of Casetext can help you build your profession and reputation using its high-quality content.
All the content you publish on the tool will be accessible and visible on your profile. Therefore, you can showcase your knowledge and provide more information about your practice.
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Getting Started on Westlaw
Westlaw provides a complete guide on getting started with a tool that you can download in PDF format. The guide introduces you to the functionality and basic features of Westlaw, including how to use its homepage and browse its content.
From the manual, you will also learn how to view and narrow down your search results, browse documents in a search result, check citations in KeyCite, and print documents.
Getting started on Westlaw also means learning to use folders to organize and manage your legal research, create and manage alerts, and use Westlaw’s iPad app.
As you plan to reap the benefits of Westlaw, it’s essential to note that the tool provides complete coverage of statutes and regulations in 50 states, the District of Columbia, and other territories.
It’s the best choice for a comprehensive legal research tool, as its database is thorough and accessible.
Even if you are unfamiliar with legal research tools, you’ll still find it easy to navigate through Westlaw and experience a seamless process; thanks to its intuitive interface, if you are unsure whether to commit to the tool or not, sign up for a 14-day free trial.
Casetext vs Westlaw – Features
Casetext
SmartCite Report
SmartCite Report allows you to upload a brief and immediately generate a detailed and organized report. Cases cited in your brief are usually assigned a red, yellow, or orange flag and are included in your report alongside your target information and a link to treating decisions.
This premium feature requires you to be logged in to your Casetext account, and you can easily access it on Casetext’s homepage.
SmartCite has many elements that you would expect from any traditional citator. According to Casetext, SmartCite is an umbrella name representing several features and is well integrated with the tool’s artificial intelligence search (CARA).
This integration is essential when dealing with hundreds of citation cases. Rather than going through all the cases, you can upload a document through CARA. Through CARA, the document will be refined to prioritize the results of what you are looking for.
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Annotated Statutes
Casetext features annotations like key referencing passages and cases that apply to state statutes, rules, and regulations to help you understand how courts use and interpret them.
You can access annotations through the web page for the statute, law, or regulation you are researching from the page’s “annotations” tab found in the menu bar.
You’ll notice that portions of texts are highlighted in green and pink. The green text represents the key referencing passages, while the pink portion refers to parts of the rule, statute, or regulation.
On the search bar, search through the annotations using keywords. Aside from annotation, you can also access articles authored by attorneys and law firms discussing your statute.
These articles can be found through the tab “Attorney analysis,” which appears in the menu bar above the statute’s web page.
Key Passages
Key passages are sentences of paragraphs marked in green that you’ll come across as you scroll through the text of an opinion. Key passages refer to sections of opinion cited by multiple cases to help you see frequently discussed segments of a case.
Key passages correspond with green bubbles in the margin of your page to simplify the process of finding them.
To identify cases that cited a passage in question, you need to place your cursor anywhere in the green highlight and click on the highlight. A list of pages of the cases you are looking for will pop up, and you can filter the list down until you find the “see and filter all citing cases” button.
You’ll then be redirected to a separate page to filter the list of those cases. You don’t need to do anything to turn on this feature, as it automatically appears.
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Favorite Jurisdiction/AutoSaving
Casetext makes it easier to search any jurisdiction through favorites or AutoSaving. Casetext automatically saves your searches when you apply a jurisdiction selection, and you can access your selection in future sessions.
But if your research dictates you to search different jurisdictions based on the matter you are researching, you can use the favorites feature. You can save the various jurisdiction filters as favorites and apply them with a single click.
Westlaw
HighQ
HighQ is one of Westlaw’s exciting features that lets you discover modern and adaptable ways of finding legal solutions.
This feature simplifies your legal processes by connecting your firm with clients using intelligent solutions that improve client satisfaction, unmatched leverage expertise, and increase profitability. Westlaw offers different HighQs based on your needs.
HighQ for law firms can help you reach the peak of your practice productivity using automated workflows, secure collaboration, and document automation.
HighQ for the corporate legal category can propel you to an ideal height of efficiency by streamlining legal workflows and simplifying the management of contracts.
Lastly, HighQ for government legal platforms can transform your department using an integrated legal operations focal point. HighQ offers secure cloud storage and seamless integration and is optimized for mobile.
Fast-track Drafting and Contracts
Westlaw helps you put contracts and legal forms on the fast track. You can maximize your accuracy and efficiency with little effort through drafting assistance.
The drafting assistant helps you review documents for potential errors, build a table of authorities, validate your format, analyze the language of your document clause by clause, and update the good-law status of your citation.
Another valuable tool under this feature is the form builder. As the name suggests, this tool is the most convenient, easy-to-use online document assembly tool that speeds up the form-building process.
The form builder enables you to finish your legal forms faster and move to the next assignment, and the tool is available for law firms and departments.
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Regulation and Compliance Management
Westlaw allows you to navigate the global regulatory environment and build a culture of compliance for your practice.
As various sectors, including finance, banking, and insurance, continue to experience unprecedented incidences of regulatory change and complexity, Westlaw uses regulatory intelligence to gather, monitor, and analyze regulatory insights.
It also tracks developments in the ever-changing legal environment.
The tool provides practical, interactive, cost-effective training accessible from anywhere and anytime through compliance learning.
Westlaw features market-ready courses to help educate your employees about the need to change behaviors and manage risk. Compliance learning offers global solutions, easy implementation, and delivery, and it is entirely customizable.
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Case Notebook
Case Notebook helps you analyze, organize, and share key case documents with the utmost efficiency. The tool is centrally searchable and accessible to help you improve your case management.
Case Notebook has an intuitive structure to help you quickly locate essential information in court exhibits, research, transcripts, and other legal documents. It also enables you to achieve enhanced legal case analysis and collaborate with your litigation team.
With Case Notebook, you can be sure that your litigation case management will be handled consistently across the team using centralized issue codes and tracking of authors’ annotation.
Case Notebook also has built-in Live Note and stream capabilities that allows you to follow live transcripts of proceedings and legal depositions and even stream them to remote participants.
Casetext vs Westlaw – Pricing
Casetext Pricing
Casetext offers every firm’s modern writing and research solutions with no hidden fees. It offers plans including a monthly plan, a one-year plan, and a two-year plan. You can save up to 55% off when you choose the two-year plan.
The two-year plan is further divided into a Starter plan that lets you do more intelligent searching at $90 per month when you need it. If you carry out systematic legal research, then the Advantage plan is the best plan for you at $100 per month.
But if you only want to search your documents, you can get everything in the Advantage Plan plus more at $225 per month with the Pro Plan.
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Westlaw Pricing
Westlaw is known for its robust research features powered by the most advanced AI. Its pricing plans are designed to fit the sector of your practice.
You can choose between a plan for your law firm and a plan for general counsel, including content made for small and medium-sized businesses and non-governmental organizations.
Once you select the sector that fits your practice, Westlaw customizes your plan and provides you with essential features alongside authoritative content you can trust.
The Westlaw Edge Single State Primary Law plan will cost you $141.70 per month, the Westlaw Edge All States Primary Law plan goes for $193.50 per month, and the Westlaw Edge All States and Federal Primary Law plan costs $243.75 per month.
Casetext vs Westlaw- Similarities and Differences
Similarities
Both Westlaw and Casetext are cloud-based legal research platforms that help you identify and retrieve legal information to support your practice. The two tools use AI technology to streamline legal research processes while maintaining accuracy and efficiency.
Casetext and Westlaw are both suitable for law firms and individual practitioners. Their software and databases give you access to a breadth of case law and can help you do more with less, even when you step out of legal research.
Both platforms offer valuable insights to help you quickly respond to your clients with accurate answers. Casetext gives you access to tools that can help you quickly evaluate a statute or a case. The tool offers insights about law, like case summaries authored by top-tier judges.
On the other hand, Westlaw provides critical insights and accurate content to help you practice law with the utmost confidence. Westlaw’s content and products are curated and maintained by experienced legal professionals with deep expertise in all areas of law.
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Both Westlaw and Casetext offer training on their top features and research tips. If you are new to Casetext, you can register for its introduction course, a 60-minute webinar, to guide you in researching the tool and its features.
Casetext training also has an on-demand video section where you can train with a reference attorney for 60 seconds. Alternatively, you can request to have one-on-one training with Casetext’s reference attorney.
Westlaw training and support help you leverage AI-powered features and best-in-class legal content to save time, build confidence, and gain strategic insights.
You can register for Westlaw’s training webinars with expert trainers, after which you’ll gain the confidence to research faster.
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Differences
Casetext’s speed of search and user interface is way ahead of Westlaw’s.
Casetext does what Westlaw does but at reasonable rates. However, Westlaw commands a more significant customer base than Casetext and is available in 49 countries.
Casetext is only available in the United States of America, and the tool commands a market share in the legal research category and project collaboration.
Westlaw summarizes cases using an anonymous editor. On the other hand, Casetext summarizes cases straight from the judges themselves and offers top-rated customer support.
Casetext has all the features you’d find with Westlaw but in their improved versions. While Westlaw charges you for additional secondary sources, Casetext gives you free access to resources from other databases.
Download the Casetext guide to understand how to access secondary sources in your practice areas.
Casetext has an excellent citator and more flags. With Westlaw, you’ll only find a typical citator of red, yellow, and green flags. To get the orange flag on Westlaw, you need to upgrade to Westlaw Edge, which is a bit costly.
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Casetext has all flags, including orange flags. The orange flags tell you when a case is yet to be overturned while relying on one that was overturned. Casetext goes beyond flags to offer a concise summary of essential treatment.
Casetext vs Westlaw – Pros and Cons
Casetext Pros
- Casetext is rich in features
- It offers excellent customer support
- The platform is easy to use and gives you value for your money
- It is ideal for those who want to search for their documents and serves all clients at the highest possible standard
- Casetext has all you need to research smarter and faster
- It has an excellent search capability made possible by pairing a comprehensive database with cutting-edge search technology
Casetext Cons
- It does not have old opinions
- Not all cases are available on Casetext
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Westlaw Pros
- Westlaw’s key cites feature allows you to carry out quick and efficient searches
- Headnotes let you quickly read through crucial aspects of cases
- Westlaw has a flagging system that ensures the case is still good law
- It enables you to achieve organized research, thanks to its ability to highlight and comment on cases
- Westlaw is easy to use, logical, and clear to follow
- Its navigation is reasonably intuitive, and it also offers immigration information
Westlaw Cons
- Westlaw does not link statutes in the same way immigration lawyers cite them
- You may find some features and functions unfamiliar if you are used to other platforms
- Some of its resources are not the best
Verdict: Casetext vs Westlaw – Which is Better?
Casetext and Westlaw will take care of your legal research needs and more. While they both have unique features and characteristics that may just fit your practice needs, Casetext is the best option with tremendous time-saving tools.
Casetext offers a clean and easy-to-use interface and will help you access cases you cannot find on Westlaw.
If you have been using Westlaw, Casetext is a viable replacement and an affordable and ideal tool for law firms and solo practitioners.
