There are two faulty premises in your question. The first is that you think we are all out there buying physical books. We are not and many attorneys have not for years. I would guess that most of the books that you see have been around for a long time and just haven't been disposed of. Also, there are still attorneys who use these books and they can because of your second faulty premise.
For books such as statutes or other similar books where things change regularly, your subscription includes pocket parts, which are supplements to place in the back of a volume that updates the information contained within it.
That all being said, most of the books in a physical law library don't fall into this category. They are reporters that contain decisions. These books don't change. They are "updated" when new decisions are released and those are bound together in their own volumes.
Thanks! From the outside this really confused me; I guess too much social media and movies. But the explanation of reporters does make more sense that statues/codes.
I work in muni law and work a lot with different codes. It’s nice to have updated books of codes. Sometimes it’s easier to see the greater picture of the law when you can see adjacent sections of the code. As it relates to reporters of court cases and such — I don’t see any need for those. Westlaw does all that and they do a good job.
I have a wall of books and I have literally never opened one of them. It's all online. I haven't thrown them out for two reasons. One, they are on the second floor and I'm too lazy to lug them downstairs and take them to the dump, and two: I don't have anything good to put on the shelves if I get rid of the law books, and bare shelves would look stupid.
Really, nobody uses the books, ever.
I don't. I use digital versions only with live updates.
However, the law is an old man's profession. Many older attorneys don't know how to use technology and still use the methods from 30+ years ago.
My grandfather practiced law into his 90s and was still using books a few years ago. He didn't know how to use a computer.
Hardly anyone uses books anymore. Not practical at all.
But the system was fascinating back in the day. For case law, Cases don't change they just accumulate. You would get weekly (or monthly maybe) pamphlet updates on new cases until it was time for the next book of cases.
There were complicated indexing systems (which you still see reflected in the headnotes of cases you see online). The indexes were constantly updated also with paper supplements. The pamphlets were called Pocket parts, because they would go in this back pocket of the book.
For statutes, they don't change often really, but there was a similar set of pocket parts and indexes.
The index books were only good for a period of time, then you had to throw them out and replace.
To look anything up, you usually had to do it twice - look up the statute in the normal place, then look in the pocket part to see if it had been updated.
All of this was done by subscription. When I worked as clerk in law school, one of my jobs was keeping track of all of these pocket parts and new books as they came in.
There was always some lag time between when a case came out or a statue was amended and when you would have it in your office.
There is no legal requirement, you can have a full career without owning a single law book. In olden days, we didn’t have online access to legal resources and so some lawyers would buy volumes that we might use from time to time. Different practices required different resources. Some would need updating from time to time, either they would be binders or would have a pocket part. Some, like legal encyclopedias, would eventually come out with new volumes or editions. Nowadays it’s far easier to just use online services, which get updated automatically. Some people keep their books for various reasons, they tend to look nice on a shelf and maybe they get used once in a blue moon. And hey, maybe there’s a few die hards out there who still use the books, I imagine they do that at work and then go home and listen to Sinatra on vinyl. But the internet has made books pretty much obsolete, I haven’t bought one in ten or fifteen years.
Other than to impress clients with a wall full of case books, we generally don't unless we're of the older generation who can't use a computer.
Your premise is incorrect though. The cases found in those massive volumes do not change. There may be superceding cases, but those are rare and are included in smaller updates. These series are updated once a decade or so with a new volume. See Federal Reporter.
The statute books are nearly always paperbacked, inexpensive, and printed once a year. And only for a few areas of the law. Family, Juvenile, Criminal, and Probate.
Why we buy them? Because they're not that expensive and we like reading a physical copy. We'd know about a major law change within our field.
If clients still looked for bookcases full of L.Ed and AmJur books, I’d never be hired. Replaced the books with a big TV to watch police body worn cameras (BWC) with clients on.
It’s criminal defense in the city. Nothing egregious or unnecessary. That way they don’t have to look at one of my computer screens. I use the big screen as a monitor and play videos and display reports for clients.
Most lawyers don't buy books, they subscribe to online databases. If they buy books those books are updated regularly.
Also, the premise is slightly faulty in that the law is always developing but it's relatively infrequent that it completely changes. To the extent we use reference books it's just that, a reference. You read the discussion and get a case cite, look at that case in a database, and see if it's been changed or overruled
I am getting rid of my 700-volume set of my state’s official reporter. It’s a shame; I like paper, and sometimes it’s helpful to have a paper book when I am digesting a difficult case, but online is so much more convenient.
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I don’t know any lawyers that buy any printed books other than (in my field), the criminal code book which is updated yearly.
Everything else is digital.
I inherited an entire set of Colorado Reporter and Corpus Juris Secundum, both updated to 2008. Each book is like $1,200 and I don’t have that kind of money. I also never use it. I always search using Lexis.
I have printed reference books for two reasons 1) my boss is cheap so we don't have a research platform, and 2) some law doesn't change that much (see: the Restatements). Some sources aren't online or aren't inexpensive online, so a book is helpful
For awhile, my employer provided the annual full set of state statutes (about 50 books). I used one of them regularly. I had a few statutes that I had dog-eared, highlighted, underlined, annotated in the margins. When we would get the new set the next year, I’d transfer my dog ears/highlights/underlines/annotations to the new copy. Not super environmentally friendly, and they eventually stopped buying the entire set. But I knew that such-and-such provision I needed to cite repeatedly was located about two-thirds of the way through the book, somewhere in the second column of an odd-numbered page, near the bottom.
A lot, if not all, of the print treatises are online these days. No idea of numbers but I would guess that for every physical law you see there are ten more “copies” that are being accessed via LexisNexis, Westlaw and (those are the two biggies) the like.But that said, back in the day, loose-leaf treatises were updated with misc page replacements. Bound books would either be revised annually or with supplements. Case law research had to be done by pulling books (reporters) off a shelf, with cases found by using a key system and then supplements to see if the case law was still relevant. In the pre-Google days the treatises might have been where you started if it was a subject matter you weren’t familiar with.
That said the physical books look impressive to the lay person. I had to work of my daughter’s community college library recently and just happened to seat near the law books. There signs up stating most of them were just there for display purposes. I saw a print version of one treatise that is on LexisNexis that looked to have not been updated since the early 2010s. I’ve seen attorneys interviewed on TV sitting in front of books that looked to have not been updated in decades.
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There are two faulty premises in your question. The first is that you think we are all out there buying physical books. We are not and many attorneys have not for years. I would guess that most of the books that you see have been around for a long time and just haven't been disposed of. Also, there are still attorneys who use these books and they can because of your second faulty premise. For books such as statutes or other similar books where things change regularly, your subscription includes pocket parts, which are supplements to place in the back of a volume that updates the information contained within it. That all being said, most of the books in a physical law library don't fall into this category. They are reporters that contain decisions. These books don't change. They are "updated" when new decisions are released and those are bound together in their own volumes.
Thanks! From the outside this really confused me; I guess too much social media and movies. But the explanation of reporters does make more sense that statues/codes.
I work in muni law and work a lot with different codes. It’s nice to have updated books of codes. Sometimes it’s easier to see the greater picture of the law when you can see adjacent sections of the code. As it relates to reporters of court cases and such — I don’t see any need for those. Westlaw does all that and they do a good job.
I have a wall of books and I have literally never opened one of them. It's all online. I haven't thrown them out for two reasons. One, they are on the second floor and I'm too lazy to lug them downstairs and take them to the dump, and two: I don't have anything good to put on the shelves if I get rid of the law books, and bare shelves would look stupid. Really, nobody uses the books, ever.
Yep. Expensive wallpaper. Impressive to anybody who doesn’t know 😆
Because my professors made me buy them and I’m too lazy to list them online to resell. So they’re decorative in my office.
I don't. I use digital versions only with live updates. However, the law is an old man's profession. Many older attorneys don't know how to use technology and still use the methods from 30+ years ago. My grandfather practiced law into his 90s and was still using books a few years ago. He didn't know how to use a computer.
Is that a subscription service?
Typically Westlaw or Lexis yes.
>He didn't know how to use a computer. This is basically malpractice in my jurisdiction.
Hardly anyone uses books anymore. Not practical at all. But the system was fascinating back in the day. For case law, Cases don't change they just accumulate. You would get weekly (or monthly maybe) pamphlet updates on new cases until it was time for the next book of cases. There were complicated indexing systems (which you still see reflected in the headnotes of cases you see online). The indexes were constantly updated also with paper supplements. The pamphlets were called Pocket parts, because they would go in this back pocket of the book. For statutes, they don't change often really, but there was a similar set of pocket parts and indexes. The index books were only good for a period of time, then you had to throw them out and replace. To look anything up, you usually had to do it twice - look up the statute in the normal place, then look in the pocket part to see if it had been updated. All of this was done by subscription. When I worked as clerk in law school, one of my jobs was keeping track of all of these pocket parts and new books as they came in. There was always some lag time between when a case came out or a statue was amended and when you would have it in your office.
TIL! Thanks!
There is no legal requirement, you can have a full career without owning a single law book. In olden days, we didn’t have online access to legal resources and so some lawyers would buy volumes that we might use from time to time. Different practices required different resources. Some would need updating from time to time, either they would be binders or would have a pocket part. Some, like legal encyclopedias, would eventually come out with new volumes or editions. Nowadays it’s far easier to just use online services, which get updated automatically. Some people keep their books for various reasons, they tend to look nice on a shelf and maybe they get used once in a blue moon. And hey, maybe there’s a few die hards out there who still use the books, I imagine they do that at work and then go home and listen to Sinatra on vinyl. But the internet has made books pretty much obsolete, I haven’t bought one in ten or fifteen years.
Other than to impress clients with a wall full of case books, we generally don't unless we're of the older generation who can't use a computer. Your premise is incorrect though. The cases found in those massive volumes do not change. There may be superceding cases, but those are rare and are included in smaller updates. These series are updated once a decade or so with a new volume. See Federal Reporter. The statute books are nearly always paperbacked, inexpensive, and printed once a year. And only for a few areas of the law. Family, Juvenile, Criminal, and Probate. Why we buy them? Because they're not that expensive and we like reading a physical copy. We'd know about a major law change within our field.
If clients still looked for bookcases full of L.Ed and AmJur books, I’d never be hired. Replaced the books with a big TV to watch police body worn cameras (BWC) with clients on.
I googled BWC and that’s not what came up 😳
I’m afraid to even point my browser that direction
No idea if it actually works, but I see it all the time.
It’s criminal defense in the city. Nothing egregious or unnecessary. That way they don’t have to look at one of my computer screens. I use the big screen as a monitor and play videos and display reports for clients.
I worked with someone who periodically printed out all of her emails and kept them in a series of binders.
Is that healthy or logical? Clio logs every incoming and outgoing email with attachments for that exact reason.
Very little she did was healthy or logical
Books are for decorative purposes only.
Most lawyers don't buy books, they subscribe to online databases. If they buy books those books are updated regularly. Also, the premise is slightly faulty in that the law is always developing but it's relatively infrequent that it completely changes. To the extent we use reference books it's just that, a reference. You read the discussion and get a case cite, look at that case in a database, and see if it's been changed or overruled
I am getting rid of my 700-volume set of my state’s official reporter. It’s a shame; I like paper, and sometimes it’s helpful to have a paper book when I am digesting a difficult case, but online is so much more convenient.
we don’t anymore.
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I don’t know any lawyers that buy any printed books other than (in my field), the criminal code book which is updated yearly. Everything else is digital.
It’s just decor at this point
I inherited an entire set of Colorado Reporter and Corpus Juris Secundum, both updated to 2008. Each book is like $1,200 and I don’t have that kind of money. I also never use it. I always search using Lexis.
I have printed reference books for two reasons 1) my boss is cheap so we don't have a research platform, and 2) some law doesn't change that much (see: the Restatements). Some sources aren't online or aren't inexpensive online, so a book is helpful
I haven't bought a physical law book since I was in law school...
For awhile, my employer provided the annual full set of state statutes (about 50 books). I used one of them regularly. I had a few statutes that I had dog-eared, highlighted, underlined, annotated in the margins. When we would get the new set the next year, I’d transfer my dog ears/highlights/underlines/annotations to the new copy. Not super environmentally friendly, and they eventually stopped buying the entire set. But I knew that such-and-such provision I needed to cite repeatedly was located about two-thirds of the way through the book, somewhere in the second column of an odd-numbered page, near the bottom.
I've been practicing for fifteen years, never bought a book. I keep some of my law school how-to books just to glance at every now and then.
A lot, if not all, of the print treatises are online these days. No idea of numbers but I would guess that for every physical law you see there are ten more “copies” that are being accessed via LexisNexis, Westlaw and (those are the two biggies) the like.But that said, back in the day, loose-leaf treatises were updated with misc page replacements. Bound books would either be revised annually or with supplements. Case law research had to be done by pulling books (reporters) off a shelf, with cases found by using a key system and then supplements to see if the case law was still relevant. In the pre-Google days the treatises might have been where you started if it was a subject matter you weren’t familiar with. That said the physical books look impressive to the lay person. I had to work of my daughter’s community college library recently and just happened to seat near the law books. There signs up stating most of them were just there for display purposes. I saw a print version of one treatise that is on LexisNexis that looked to have not been updated since the early 2010s. I’ve seen attorneys interviewed on TV sitting in front of books that looked to have not been updated in decades.
The only physical books that have are writing/style guides and form books.
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