Covering SCOTUS: Thomson Reuters' Case by Case vs SCOTUSblog, Sponsored by Bloomberg Law

On December 13, 2011, Thomson Reuters launched "a dynamic interactive online tool offering comprehensive coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2011-12 term. Case by Case: The U.S. Supreme Court, accessed at www.reuters.com/supreme-court/2011-2012, combines original reporting from Thomson Reuters News & Insights (www.newsandinsight.com) with links to an extensive collection of analysis and legal materials, including motions, briefs and opinions, all sourced from Westlaw... ." Quoting from Legal Currents. TR press release here. Like TR News & Insights this is another corporate avenue to promote subscribing to Westlaw to access cited content. I'm actually surprised the links aren't to WestlawNext as an attempt to increase WLN adoption rates.

Case in point for Case by Case. Check out the entry for Judulang v. Holder. [click on image below to enlarge] Besides the ever so brief summary of the opinion -- "comprehensive coverage", "extensive collection of analysis" really? -- (and failure to even give the case's docket number; that would be No. 10–694) the text of the SCOTUS opinion as well as Petitioner's and the Respondent's briefs are linked to Classic Westlaw. Click on the links. For example, the link to the opinion takes you to the Westlaw login page; the briefs' links takes you to web2westlaw.com which in my case produces a blank page display. I'm thinking SCOTUS briefs are not part of my plan.

So Reuters (and I say Reuters because of the domain name) is getting into the SCOTUS news and insights business with Westlaw links-to. Oh hell, why not. It's all about profit maximizing commoditization anyway, right?

Free Access and Real Expertise. Sleep well SCOTUSblog and its sponsor. You aren't going to lose one eyeball to Case by Case even if one views TR's venture as an attempt to wedge itself into this niche. Free access to public domain source materials and equally free real expertise trumps this lame attempt by Reuters. For Judulang v. Holder, 10–694, SCOTUSblog provides links to free content ... to not just the SCOTUS opinion and the opinion below, but also to the argument transcript, merit briefs, amicus briefs and the blog's coverage, including expert analysis on this page.

Take for example, SCOTUSblog's Opinion analysis: Judulang v. Holder written by Kevin Johnson, UC-Davis Law Dean and a recognized immigration law expert who, ah OK, is also a co-editor of one of our Network Blogs, ImmigrationProf Blog. In this SCOTUSblog illustration, the Judulang v. Holder opinion is linked to the Supreme Court's website and every cited opinion in Dean Johnson's analysis is linked to free BLaw text.

Got to love it when one major legal publisher tweaks the nose of another major legal publisher. And there you have it -- "'Bloomberg Law <First>,' Westlaw <Next>". There is a reason why TR Legal is known as the Land of 10,000 Invoices Licenses. Enough said. Well, not quite. See image above right on what someone in Eagan, NYC or Canada needs to do to the TR corporate guru who came up with this idea. [JH]

Click to enlarge; screen capture taken on Dec. 15, 2011