Case Reporters, RIP?

A Canadian law blog has put up an interesting post cheering what it sees as the impending death of the printed case reporter, since these are often full of public information but sold by private publishers for profit. Of course, the author doesn't mention the things that private publishers often add to cases that are a major convenience (at least for American attorneys), like headnotes. And saying that "Westlaw, Canada Law Book, Carswell - are on the precipice of corporate death" is a real overstatement. But it is true that there is a trend for law firms and law schools to cancel their subscriptions to printed case reporters. For about a decade, U.S. law librarian email lists have had regular postings of entire 100+ volume sets of case reporters, as "free to a good home" because they are being discarded.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat