Search Case Law and Legal Journals with Google Scholar
Google Scholar now includes case law and legal journals as part of its online collection of searchable scholarship. Users can either select “legal opinions and journals” when they initiate a basic search or use the advanced search to filter by state or federal court opinions. The results set includes a variety of useful metadata, including the case cite and “how cited,” a list of opinions that cite the source case. The collection also includes law review and journal articles, although these results are primarily links to HeinOnline, which requires a subscription. -M
Update: Here's the official post from the Google Blog.
I am interested to hear if legal aid orgs and attorneys move any notable amount of their legal research from Westlaw/Lexis to Google Scholar. I'm someone who's much more comfortable with a Google search interface (and use G-Scholar for journal research already); it seems possible/likely that the usability of Google, even with a more limited database of materials, will often result in more fruitful searches for novice users than Westlaw/Lexis.
I'm also curious to see if legal aid will be more likely now to link to significant case law for general public reference, much as important statutes are commonly linked (I think this would be great). Thanks!