Once a month, Robeside Assistance will feature a resource that we purchase for the library that you might not know we have. Our collection is full of great books, databases, programs, and other materials, so definitely visit us in the library if you’d like to use anything mentioned here!

This month we want to feature one of the online products available for use on the library computers, so we’re spotlighting JustisOne. If you haven’t used this before, prepare to be wowed.

Before subscribing to JustisOne, our ability to search through British case law was restricted to what was freely available on BAILII. We have British law reports dating back several hundred years, but they’re in paper format and that’s no way to research case law anymore. When we took a spin through JustisOne, we were super impressed with the clean design, the great research tools, and how innovative it is and different than other products on the market. In order to keep this post to a reasonable length, here are three of our favourite features (click on any of the pictures to make them bigger):

1. Key Paragraphs / Heatmapping

This feature is one both Brenda and I think is downright awesome. When you’re reviewing a decision on JustisOne, paragraphs that are highlighted in pink mean that those excerpts have been used in subsequent decisions. The most crucial of those paragraphs will be listed in the left pane – those are the “key paragraphs.” On the right hand side, where the actual text of the decision is, the darker the pink highlighting, the more cases that will have quoted that passage. You can click on the highlighted paragraph and open up the list of citing cases (and then click over to those cases to read those as well). Continue reading →