The Total Litigator feature in Lexis attempts to provide litigation support to the researcher. Instead of simply finding cases and statutes (authority), Total Litigator helps the researcher locate articles, checklists, forms, expert witnesses, and other tools to assist in trial preparation.
Two suggestions for getting familiar with Total Litigator:
Browse
The best way to get familiar with this feature is, as always, to just browse. It is free for you right now, so spend a lot of time navigating.Print and Organize a Notebook
As you browse, be ready to print! There are tons of interesting and helpful articles and other material. Create a notebook that is well organized for you own future reference. It will be a great desk-book when you go to work for a law firm.Following are the major features of Total Litigator. (Note that the features within Total Litigator change frequently, and thus may be retitled or replaced from time to time. So go with the flow!) Note that some features require additional subscription fees and/or enrollment, so may not be available to you.
If the researcher has a docket number of an active case it may be found by entering the docket number here. (Requires subscription.)
Choose whether you want to Get a Document, Get and Print a document, Shepardize a citation, get legal news, or other features. Try choosing Get a Document by Cite, and enter this citation: 1 S.W. 3d 1
Actual daily litigation news reports. Generally covers big litigation cases nationwide, or for the featured states (such as California and New York). It's free for you now, so give it a try!
Text version of today's legal headlines.
This is basically a sales site and portal to litigation software and support services.
This basically provides tools for law firms to determine whether a case is worth taking on. Search expert witnesses, judges, arbitrators, evaluate damages, and much more. For example, try clicking on the Damages Evaluation tool. Enter Injury Type as "personal injury," enter Jurisdiction as "New York," enter County as "New York," and click Search. You will be able to browse what some cases were able to get in terms of damages.
Some nice tools to help with your legal writing. With Drafting Resources you can find forms and templates. With Briefs, Pleadings & Motions, you can locate documents actually used in cases. For both of the above tools, simply click on the tool and select from the options presented, from top to bottom. (Note that the Docket Number Search and File and Serve Documents features require additional subscriptions.)
Allows you to search for articles or examples related to discovery. Maybe the best feature are the E-Discovery articles. Try this:
- Click on E-Discovery.
- Select Step 1: Practice Area.
- Select Step 2: General Litigation Procedure.
- Select Step 3: General.
- Select Step 4: All.
- Select Step 5: Electronic Discovery Documents.
- Click on Search
- Click on any results that interest you.
Remember to print any interesting "White Papers" (which are articles) that you think are worth keeping.
Nicely designed short cuts to standard research sources. Some may find the drop down method of searching here easier to use than the standard Search Tab.
Investigatory tools. Locate experts, witnesses, copyrights, patents, and other tools (some of which require subscription, but not all). You can even investigate experts and witnesses the other side is using. Give it a try!
Some nice tools, some of which are simply quick-access links to standard research tools, but many of which will be new to you. For instance, say your attorney wants help preparing jury selection questions (voir dire). Try the following:
- Click on the Jury Selection Tools link
- For Step 1: Choose Florida
- For Step 2: Choose LN Practice Guide: FL Trial & Post Trial Procedure
- For Step 3: Click on Easy Search and enter the query "personal injury"
- Click Search
- Click on any of the results. You will most likely find samples of voir dire questions, and you are a hero to your lawyer!
- Now, try it again using your own jurisdiction instead of Florida (unless you are in Florida, of course!)
Shortcuts to several forms of alerts. Some require additional subscriptions.
That's it! Remember, these tools are updated and changed frequently. Also, the best way is to get in there and search. Get comfortable with the tools. Keep notes about each section and which ones you find helpful, or not helpful. Print out useful documents and create a notebook. This is free now. It won't always be!