Keeping track of changes in statutes and precedents as well news and views from legal periodicals has presented a particular challenge for many law practices. Furthermore, as documentation grows, so does the complexity of managing a legal office. Legal database software serves to structure information in a way that makes specific data easily retrievable.

Legal database system technology has been around since the late sixties with pioneering legal database system companies Lexis (now Lexis-Nexis) and WESTLAW. While these pioneers are still around, there are other types of law database products available for attorneys, law firms and even law students, such as:

1. Standalone legal database case management software
2. Standalone legal office management database software
3. Standalone law database software aimed at industry-specific practices
4. Searchable online law database services

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Explore and compare the features of the leading full-service law case database software services

Start with Lexis-Nexis and WESTLAW full-service law database program services

I recommend: Lexis-Nexis offers legal information databases aimed at full service corporate law firms, firms with specialized practices and small law firms. Their Concordance database is aimed at litigation professionals. WESTLAW offers more specialized legal database software and services along with its overall online legal research database tool, WESTLAW Advantage. Their specialized legal database tools include WESTLAW Legal Calendaring; West's BriefTools to monitor legal citations; and WESTLAW Regulations Plus, its federal statutes and regulations database.

Explore and compare the features of law case management and law office database software

The flow of law office database data which deals with office management issues can be unwieldy for even a typical small law firm.

I recommend: Request a free demo of Needles Case Management Software for Law Offices. See screenshots of the case management law office legal database programs in practice. Learn about all the features of AbacusLaw Law Practice Management Software and request a free product demo. Legal Files offers Legal Case Management Software and MyLegalFiles, their online legal case management database.

Explore and compare the features of court rules law office database programs

Because the external flow of emerging legal data into a typical small law firm can be even more unwieldy than office management issues, law office database programs can become necessary.

I recommend: Lexis-Nexis InfoPro, their information database service for legal information professionals includes Zimmerman's Research Guide, a leading federal court rules resource. WESTLAW offers its state-by-state State Court Rules database service. CompuLaw Vision legal database software includes its extensive court rules database and rules-based calendar system.

Customize your own law office database software

If you have a technical orientation, leading legal database software products can help you build your own law database.

I recommend: Oracle is one of the pioneer developers of relational database software, and is still a database software industry leader. Another industry leader Microsoft offers its SQL Server 2008, a relational database product built with IBM-developed SQL database language. IBM offers Lotus Approach, its own relational database software product. Filemaker Pro is a pioneering relational database software product, a subsidiary of Apple.

Learn a law office database software language

Also if you have a technical orientation, you might want to create your own legal database software application from scratch.

I recommend: Microsoft Developer Network offers its law office database software application building program, Visual FoxPro 9.0. EMS Database Management Solutions has its EMS SQL Management Studio legal database system development tools for the SQL language. They even offer a set of free database builder tools.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  There are many free online law database software application of varying qualities. Consider most as research starting points only.
• •  As with all information resources, always verify data by cross-referencing.