Save time and help sharpen case strategy with briefs, pleadings and motions

Civil practice attorneys are increasingly accessing briefs, pleadings and motions online to help inform sound case strategy. These court documents can reveal what arguments prevailed, how they were structured and what types of facts attorneys need to prove. Court documents can also contribute to more efficient legal research.

Save research time: Lawyers can jump-start research by using briefs, pleadings and motions to uncover how other litigators have framed similar, successful arguments and use them as models for structuring arguments and drafting documents.

Understand the entire case history: By accessing all documents related to a case, researchers review underlying facts and better understand earlier decisions.

Develop stronger strategies: Research in briefs, pleadings and motions can help attorneys gain a better understanding of emerging issues or unfamiliar areas of law, develop winning pleading and motion strategies and gain a competitive edge by identifying actions the opposition might take.

Rely on an extensive and growing collection

The LexisNexis® briefs, pleadings and motions collection includes actual filings from state trial and appellate courts, U.S. district and appellate courts, and federal bankruptcy courts across the United States. It includes millions of briefs, pleadings and motions. A few notes on the collection:

• In recognition of increased demand, LexisNexis has added more than 1,500,000 new briefs, pleadings and motions to the Lexis Advance® service since 2015 and is committed to continued expansion

• Because legal professionals usually are seeking recent briefs, pleadings and motions, in most states, the LexisNexis collection includes documents from 2000 forward

• With the addition of filings from the CourtLink® service, in many states LexisNexis has the most extensive collection of litigation-related documents, including briefs, pleadings and motions*

Accessing briefs, pleadings and motions

Here’s one way to easily access this content.

1. On the Lexis Advance home page, go to the Explore Content pod and select the Content Typetab.

   

2. Click the Briefs, Pleadings & Motions link.

   

3. Enter your search in the red search box at the top of your screen and click the magnifier icon on the right to search.

   

4. An alternate option is to start by clicking the Advanced Search link on the Lexis Advance home page ...

   

5. … and use form-based searching, which can include segments (document parts) to help you find specific types of results quickly.

   

About This Document: linking to related court materials

Many briefs, pleadings motions and full-text cases on the Lexis Advance service provide quick links to related court materials via the About This Document box. You can easily navigate back and forth between most types of court materials.

More information

For more information, call 800.543.6862 or contact your LexisNexis representative.

*Based on internal benchmarking studies from September 2017.

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