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Product Spotlight: Lexis+®

April 03, 2023 (5 min read)

This post was originally published in September 2020 and was updated on November 20, 2023. 

The next leap in LexisNexis® research solutions, Lexis+®, is a one-of-a-kind integrated legal research solution to take your case analysis from start to finish. The Lexis+ service builds on the existing Lexis® platform, giving lawyers access to a massive collection of online legal research capabilities, practical guidance, analysis tools and more to help streamline their research. 

User-Friendly Layout

One of the first things attorneys notice about Lexis+ is the simple interface and clutter-free design. The legal research service boasts a clean visual aesthetic, and its simplicity helps legal professionals navigate all the powerful tools and capabilities available.

Starting on the homepage, each step along the research path was designed with user experience in mind. Colors, icons, text arrangement, overall layout—every aspect of Lexis+ has been tested to ensure that this online legal research service is easy and intuitive.

Leading-Edge Analytics Plus Data-Driven Insights

The data revolution is here! Savvy attorneys are already incorporating big data into their decision-making processes to help make informed choices on their legal strategies. So, of course, Lexis+ boasts powerful data and legal analytics tools too.

In Lexis+ Research, data from Shepard's® Citations Service helps lawyers research with confidence. Draw data-driven insights on what cases to cite or uncover hidden cases to help bolster your case. 

Litigation Analytics, built into Lexis+, helps attorneys understand key factors in litigation by analyzing judges, courts, and opposing counsel. With data pulled from Lex Machina®, attorneys can craft their litigation strategy and gain a competitive advantage by looking at litigation trends, experience, and time to key events. 

Data-fueled search power and legal analytics within Lexis+ can reveal some pretty amazing details—things you may have overlooked or not explored deeply enough with a more traditional legal research service.

New & Enhanced Features

While Lexis+ may be the next step in legal research, you'll find several familiar tools built in—but rest assured, these tools have been enhanced to deliver more capabilities, speed, and insight. 

For instance, lawyers may be used to seeing Lexis Answers® on both Lexis research platforms, but Lexis+ expands Answers to provide more insight and cover more ground. Search algorithms have been fine-tuned to allow attorneys to type nuanced legal questions into the Lexis+ search box and receive better-targeted answers. Answers are no longer limited to just case law. On Lexis+, attorneys can see results from all content types of quickly answer your questions. 

Lexis+ is also the exclusive Lexis platform for recommended questions. Attorneys can enter search terms and see what questions may provide additional insight as they are researching. 

Search Term Maps functions in the same way as Lexis Answers—in Lexis+ you can now use it across ALL content types to speed up your research and quickly spot the documents that’ll help the most.

There are plenty of things that are all-new to the Lexis+ platform too, like the Shepard’s® At Risk feature. Kicking traditional Shepard’s analysis up a notch, Shepard’s At Risk helps you identify cases at risk of being overruled, where underlying points of law have been negatively treated by other decisions in the jurisdiction. It’s pretty helpful reassurance that your strategy is built on solid legal footing.

You’ll also want to check out the Missing and Must Include feature. It gives you greater control over your search by highlighting terms from your search query that are missing from a specific document in the results set. That means you’ll be able to see whether all your terms are present in a document—without having to open it.

If you do a lot of research, then you’ll probably appreciate the Search Tree feature as well. Lexis+ is essentially letting you look behind its algorithm curtain to give you customization and control over your searches. This handy visualization tool breaks down your search to show you why certain terms are missing from the results set. It even lets you select specific terms from your search to refresh/refine your search results.

Practical Guidance

You spoke, we listened. The demand for a seamless integration between online legal research and practical guidance was overwhelming. So overwhelming in fact, that it was one of the core catalysts for the development of the Lexis+ research platform.

In Practical Guidance, lawyers are able to jumpstart their research with a trove of data-driven practice resources, including annotated forms, practice notes, checklists and more. Similar to how the standalone Lexis® Practical Guidance service operates, the Practical Guidance experience within Lexis+ helps you quickly build knowledge on new or unfamiliar legal matters by leveraging the combined expertise of thousands of practicing attorneys across 20+ practice areas. 

Better still, since it’s all part of the same, interconnected research experience within Lexis+, you’re able to cover more ground with blazing-fast speed.

Brief Analysis

One of the most popular features built into Lexis+ is the new Brief Analysis tool. Here you can upload a document and have Lexis+ extract concepts, determine key facts, spot similar briefs and much more. That way, you’ll be able to build stronger legal arguments, thanks to targeted case law, practical guidance, secondary source recommendations and Shepard’s analysis that’s based on the citation patterns and legal concepts found in your document.

Plus, it’s adaptive and smart. As an example, the Brief Analysis tool will automatically narrow by jurisdiction based on the jurisdiction used in your document. Whether you're drafting your own brief, or analyzing opposing counsel's, Brief Analysis can provide customized recommendations to give you the upper hand. 

Code Compare

Lexis+ has an innovative research tool called Code Compare. It lets you quickly spot legislative changes by comparing one version of a code to another. It’s a great way to ensure you don’t miss critical updates, so you can speak confidently on the statutory landscape. The Code Compare technology has also been expanded to include court rules and legislation so you can be prepared for court and better advise clients on how legislative changes may affect them in the future. 

 

And That's Just for Starters…

Look, it would take about 3,000 more pages to describe all the capabilities of Lexis+ with any significant detail. So rather than throw more text at you, here’s an opportunity to get an instant free trial. 

Click below to sign up for a Lexis+ free trial and experience the future of online legal research.* 

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