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Are you sure? I have not used Westlaw or Lexis, but from a quick search, both of them appear to offer services – albeit distinct from their 'main' services – t

by comex 8y ago

Are you sure? I have not used Westlaw or Lexis, but from a quick search, both of them appear to offer services – albeit distinct from their 'main' services – that provide access to court dockets and corresponding documents [1] [2], which would account for the rest of what's in PACER. [1] https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/products/courtlink-for-corporate-or-professionals.page https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/products/courtlink-for-corp... [2] https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/westlaw/dockets https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/westlaw/dockets

rayiner 8y ago
You’re right, I forgot West/Lexis have docket tracking. I assume that gets data from PACER, but it also gets data from court “runners” (people who go to courts to get filings). That being said, despite that the overlap between West/LEXIS is very small. The docket tracking is an adjunct service that you use in the unusual situation where you’re keeping tabs on a case you’re not participating in. Its not real time (day after) which is a big thing because the PACER/ECF notification is the official notice that triggers time periods and deadlines. It’s also vastly more expensive than PACER (like $50 per document). That doesn’t address OP’s point, which is West/Lexis’s market dominance. And that is based on those systems having 200+ years of human annotated and indexed case law. PACER doesn’t have that data.