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Practice Pages Introduced for Lexis Advance

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Since Lexis Advance launched in December 2011, the structure and user-interface of the legal research platform has taken many forms. The 2014 Lexis Advance updates included additional content, improved browsing features, and a more user-friendly home screen. Recently, LexisNexis released its newest research tool, Practice Pages.

The major legal research systems have in the last few years placed increased emphasis on customized pages centered around key practice areas like bankruptcy or intellectual property. WestlawNext provides an increasing number of customized pages through its Practitioner Insights, and Bloomberg Law covers a similar range of topics through its Practice Centers. Generally, these pages offer links to the leading primary and secondary sources as well as legal news and other tools. The Practice Pages introduced in Lexis Advance offer similar resources in its collection of topics.

The more interesting feature of the Lexis Advance Practice Pages is the jurisdictional pages, currently available for Texas, California, New York, and Florida.  One of the frequent complaints about earlier iterations of Lexis Advance was the difficulty in finding related materials in a single jurisdiction. The Texas Practice Page brings together direct links to case law, statutes, regulations in addition to the most used secondary sources like Dorsaneo's Texas Litigation Guide. To access these practice pages users can simply click on the "Browse" menu at the top of any Lexis Advance page and then  "Practice Pages." Users can also select any of these pages to serve as their home screen.

These jurisdiction-based Practice Pages are a welcome improvement to Lexis Advance and will allow for more efficient searching. It is interesting to note though that these jurisdictional practice pages are eerily similar to those formerly available on LexisNexis and Westlaw classic. Whether or not this is a result of the realization that a single search option for all legal material is less than optimal, the change makes for an improved product. You can learn more about this enhancement here.
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