Fascinating tidbits from the ABA 2006 Legal Technology Survey Report, courtesy of Rick Bales of our sister Workplace Prof Blog:
- Over 2500 lawyers responded to this year’s survey, representing a broad spectrum of practice styles and areas
- More than 50% have been in practice for 20 or more years
- 93% say they do their legal research online
- 42% start their research with "fee-based resources" (e.g., Westlaw, LEXIS), 25% use a "legal-specific search engine" (e.g., FindLaw), and 24% use a general search engine (e,g,, Google)
- 87% — the highest in an ABA technology survey — use free online sources in their research
- But 83% also use fee-based resources to conduct research (use of these databases for treatises and secondary materials increased from 30% two years ago to 41% today)
- Of those who use the fee-based resources, 53% use Westlaw and 37% use LEXIS
- 58% report they regularly use print resources, down from 75% in 2003
