Robyn Rebollo is the Law Librarian for McGuire, Woods, Battle and Boothe LLP in McLean, VA.

(Archived August 15, 1998)

H ave you unsuccessfully searched on Westlaw, Lexis, and other primary sources in your library for the one case that would support your own argument? Well don’t give up yet! There is now an impressive legal research service available on the internet called the Brief Reporter. Recently listed as one of the Sixty Cool Sites by the American Bar Association’s Tech Show 98, it is an excellent resource for obtaining well-written briefs on a variety of subjects. The Brief Reporter obtains briefs from reputable attorneys throughout the country. Lawyer editors summarize key points of law and index and abstract each brief to ensure great brief summaries. Using the Brief Reporter is quite simple. Briefs are arranged under sample legal topics. Some of these include Americans with Disabilities Act, Bankruptcy, Community Property, Contracts, Damages, Discovery, Employment, Environmental Law, Freedom of Speech, Immunity, Insurance, Jurisdictions, Legal Malpractice, Medical Malpractice, Negligence, Patents, Real Property, Sexual Discrimination, Statute of Limitations, Trademarks, Witnesses, and Workers Compensation. There is also a general index arranged by alphabetical order. In addition to the indexes, the Brief Reporter contains a general search engine. Searching the Brief Reporter database is free. Search results give you pertinent information about the full text version of the brief. This includes the name of the case, jurisdiction, date, and a brief synopsis. Another recently added feature is the Brief Reporter’s Personal Notification Service. This is a free service for all registered users, which sends you a weekly email of abstracted briefs and indexes that match your personal notification profile. Setting up a profile is easy. When you perform a search on the Brief Reporter, at the top of your results is an option to add the search to your Personal Notification Service Profile. Downloading a full-text brief is approximately $40.00 for non-subscribers and $10.00 for subscribers. You may access the Brief Reporter at http://www.briefreporter.com