As the economy continues to struggle, Walsall Council is under tremendous pressure to cut costs and work more efficiently, like every other council in the country.
The Council’s legal team were doing all of their legal research using books until 2013. Faced with shrinking budgets and growing demand for legal services, Walsall Council’s Head of Legal, Tony Cox, had a feeling that moving from a paper library to an online one could bring better value for money.
“We knew that some other local authorities in the area already had an online tool for legal research,” Tony explains. Not everyone on Tony’s team was convinced, at first.
“Some of our fee earners were skeptical, having tried other products before.” Tony explains, “So we decided to start with a trial.”
Any early doubts have long since disappeared.
“Now that they’ve tried LexisPSL and LexisLibrary first hand, they find it incredibly useful. We’ve got twenty plus fee earners using LexisNexis resources – and I use them daily, myself.”
“It’s saving us hours in legal research and case preparation time, which allows us to do more fee earning work.”
Rapid, relevant results
Before LexisLibrary, Tony and his team had to research cases in print – often from several different sources. Now they can find everything they need in one place, including commentary from LexisNexis’ expert lawyers and contributors.
“It gives us a really broad coverage of the law, as well as the specialist areas we have to deal with: contracting, procurement, employment law, governance. I’ve found some fairly obscure case law on LexisLibrary, very quickly.”
And with LexisPSL, it’s easy for Tony and his team to get their hands on the precedents they need—fast. And he finds it particularly reassuring to know that everything’s up-to-date and in line with the latest legislation, which is constantly shifting.
“It’s updated with the latest changes, almost as soon as they happen. And I also get regular emails about any changes in local government law, straight to my inbox.”
The Personal Touch
Tony says one of the most valuable ‘extras’ is the training and support you get as a LexisNexis customer.
“LexisNexis actually came in to our office and trained our fee earners, face to face. The feedback from my team was that the training was excellent and very useful. We monitor our usage, so we know that usage went up after the training – which means we’re getting even better value for money.”
“And LexisNexis is always happy to go the extra mile. I asked them if they could produce an article for a legal publication for me at short notice, and they made it happen.”
“And LexisNexis is always happy to go the extra mile. I asked them if they could produce an article for a legal publication for me at short notice, and they made it happen.”
The Bottom Line
Tony says he can’t put an exact figure on the number of hours or pounds they’ve saved so far.
“It’s hard to quantify, right now. But at a guess, I’d say it’s probably more than 50% faster, at times. It’s literally that quick.”
We’ve found to be an essential practical tool. We’re very satisfied.”
LexisPSL has evolved into Lexis+® UK
All our practical guidance tools and content are now fully integrated with legal research on Lexis+ UK, see the practical guidance and the underlying law it supports all in one place.
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