Legal research frequently commences with assessing underlying federal and/or state statutes. Researching statutes has traditionally been both a laborious and a challenging aspect of legal research, regardless of whether being undertaken by law clerks, paralegals, professional researchers, or by attorneys themselves. While paper-based law libraries have become largely superseded by universally-available electronic libraries, researching the statutory basis for legal controversies has largely remained a daunting chore. Consider and contrast the functionality and feature sets of two popular but diametrically opposed currently-available protocols for performing statutory research: MyTexasBar and Westlaw Graphical Statutes.
Complimentary legal research is provided through the State Bar’s MyTexasBar website. Members of the Texas Bar may freely invoke the Casemaker search engine to conduct case law and statutory research. To invoke research pertaining to statutes using Casemaker, the “Texas statutes” option is selected in the Collections window and then particular search criterion is entered in the Basic Search window.
Consider a timely example of Casemaker’s statutory functionality. MyTexasBar may be invoked to review a recent development in the law in Texas: guidelines for records retention and disposal under the Business & Commerce Code. To gain insight into the new provisions, search criterion “disposal of business records” may be specified. In response to searching based upon this search criterion, Casemaker displays a results screen indicating that 31 matching documents (“hits”) were found and then lists the hits in descending order by individual rank (%). Thus, the first hit listed for this search is shown as “BUS. & COM. 35.48" with a rank of 72.3%; the hit is described as:
BUSINESS AND COMMERCE CODE - TITLE 4. MISCELLANEOUS COMMERCIAL PROVISIONS -- CHAPTER 35. MISCELLANEOUS § 35.48. RETENTION AND DISPOSAL OF BUSINESS RECORDS. SUBCHAPTER D. MISCELLANEOUS (a) In this section: (1) “Business record” means letters, words, sounds,
The section sought in this example corresponds to the first hit listed. Once a hit of interest is obtained via Casemaker, the actual statutory language may be retrieved by clicking the section number indicated in the results. While, at first blush, obtaining this statutory language appears to be easy enough to achieve and is free of charge, this protocol suffers from the customary search deficiency of failing to afford the searcher more than the literal language of the cited statute — in its current version.Diametrically opposed to this conventional protocol for conducting statutory research is Westlaw’s new “Graphical Statutes” research tool. Thomson Reuters has broken through the tedium of statutory research by converting it into an intuitive, comprehensive view that not only delivers the current version of a statute, but also delivers all previous versions of the statute — and tracks all amendments to the law, references and links to materials indicative of relevant legislative history, includes links to relevant case law, and even links to contemplated future amendments. Realizing that Westlaw is fee-based (not free-based) legal research, how extensive are the benefits associated with this novel graphical presentation of cited statutes? That is, why should the reasonable attorney or reasonable law firm pay for what ostensibly can be obtained free of charge?
There lies the rub: Westlaw Graphical Statutes transcends preconceived notions of what constitutes statutory research. Graphical Statutes provides in a single graphical view a diversity of pertinent documents and case law that normally cannot be obtained without conducting extensive and even more tedious statute-based legal research. Seeking to track history of a statute is a disquieting, elusive adventure that typically entails navigating through and among non-linear historical and political maneuvers typically manifest by a plethora of reports and a series of related amendments and several revisions thereto. Prior to having the opportunity to invoke Graphical Statutes, researchers were compelled to seek advanced techniques and know-how in order to obtain such information, if actually obtainable with resources at-hand. Then, considerable time was typically expended seeking and retrieving such supplemental information.
The Rosetta Stone for Westlaw Graphical Statutes corresponds to a hierarchical block diagram which resembles a conventional top-down organization chart superimposed on a time line. As shown, Graphical Statutes displays blocks representing (i) the current version of a statute; (ii) prior versions of the statute; (iii) a future version of the statute; (iv) links to enacting public laws; (v) links to amending public laws; (vi) relevant legislative history materials and links thereto, e.g., bill drafts, reports, journals and the Congressional Record, if applicable; (vii) case law that negatively affect the statute; and (viii) legislation that has been enacted but not yet codified. How is the Graphical Statutes feature invoked?
Graphical Statutes may be conveniently invoked by clicking the icon.*
Alternatively, the power of Graphical Statutes may be invoked, while viewing a statute, by clicking the Graphical Statutes option located on the Links tab. Upon being thus invoked, a graphical view of the statute and its comprehensive history is displayed. The timeline located atop the graphical view shows the effective dates for each version of the statute. The presence of arrows on either side of the timeline indicates that additional effective dates are available, but are not presently being displayed due to on-screen space limitations. Displaying earlier effective dates is achieved by clicking the Left-Arrow; similarly, displaying later effective dates is achieved by clicking the Right-Arrow. Leaping to the beginning of the timeline is achieved by clicking the Left-Fast-Backward Arrow; similarly, leaping to the end of the timeline is achieved by clicking the Right-Fast-Forward Arrow.
Thus, the block diagram shown illustrates how Westlaw Graphical Statutes depicts the genesis and state of Texas law relevant to the retention and disposal of business records under Section 35.48 of Title 4 (Miscellaneous Commercial Provisions) of the Business and Commerce Code. Once this code section has been retrieved by Westlaw, and the Graphical Statutes icon has been clicked, a graphical view of the Retention and Disposal of Business Records statute and its comprehensive history is displayed. The timeline located atop the graphical view shows the effective dates for each version of the statute from September 1, 1995 to September 1, 2005. For the current version displayed in the right-most portion of the graphical display, proceeding top-down, there are blocks corresponding to the 2005 Act enacted by the 79th Legislature; Reports manifest on May 20, 2005 as Texas Bill Analysis of House Bill 698 and another Texas Bill Analysis manifest on May 7, 2005; Journals manifest on May 30, 2005 as Texas Senate Journal, Regular Session, 83rd Legislative Day, and as Texas House Journal, Regular Session, 82nd Legislative Day; and Bill Drafts manifest on each of June 18, 2005 and May 30, 2005, respectively. The display indicates that versions earlier than year 2000 may also be obtained, if necessary, by clicking the left-most top-level block entitled “Prior Text.” A handy feature of Graphical Statutes is that as the mouse-pointer traverses a block, the text is enlarged and fully displayed. If the cited contents of the block is of interest, then clicking within the block immediately delivers the version of the statute. Presence of the symbol indicates that even more information is available about the statute.
What benefits are afforded by Graphical Statutes? First, this treasure trove of statute-related information is presented simultaneously and graphically in a single screen (shown for convenience in this example as an upper portion and a lower portion of the same screen). The full gamut of available research materials is shown in an easy-to-understand block-diagram format. Second, all of this supplemental information is only a click away, i.e., readily available and instantaneously retrievable. Imagine that a mere click instantaneously presents the searcher with such esoteric documents as bill drafts and legislative committee reports, prepared by either the Senate or the House. Third, Westlaw Graphical Statutes functions hand-in-glove with its sister application, Graphical KeyCite, which enables the searcher to ascertain precedential authority of statutes and case law based upon current events reported in near-real-time. Similar to Graphical Statutes’ presentation, Graphical KeyCite displays interdependency among precedential authority in an easy-to-understand block-diagram format. In this context, Graphical KeyCite devolves to being a superb tool for further exploring statutory citations in Texas Statutes Annotated and/or United States Code Annotated, among others. Westlaw’s published annotated codes and the like afford profound insight into and interpretation of statutory provisions via editorial commentary, notes analyzing and interpreting court decisions, and other pertinent references. In its time-honored protocol, KeyCite uses red and yellow flags to signal the severity of treatment history for statutes and precedents.
Hence, Westlaw draws upon the computer industry standard graphical user interface to provide attorneys and their staffs an online legal research engine that reduces even demanding comprehensive statutory research into a virtually effortless endeavor. Is the cost of invoking Westlaw Graphical Statutes justified for conducting statute-related research? Surely, there is no reasonable doubt of the affirmative!
*Illustrations (click to view larger)
MyTexasBar free Legal ResearcCasemaker:
Illustrations of Westlaw Graphical Statutes & Graphical KeyCite:
Al Harrison is a patent attorney practicing intellectual property law in Houston, with Harrison Law Office, P.C. He is an ex-officio member of the council of the Computer & Technology Section and a member of the Lawyer Practice Management Committee of the State Bar. He is a frequent speaker at seminars and courses under the auspices of the State Bar and the Houston Bar Association.
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