Small law firms need to be able to assist clients with the best legal advice on a disparate range of matters - irrespective of their specific area of specialisation or expertise. This requires access to a comprehensive legal library and up to date legal resources, enabling practitioners to conduct research as required.

Cognisant of the challenge of balancing the need for reliable legal resources with cost, LexisNexis - in consultation with small law firms - launched Lexis Library Time Select, an innovative new offering allowing firms access to the country’s most authoritative works and primary sources, while being billed based on the time spent doing research.

“Not knowing where their next pay cheque is coming from is often the standard for small law firms,” says Raffael Beires, General Manager of Legal Information and Compliance for LexisNexis South Africa. “They may have been drafting a commercial contract yesterday, be assisting with a divorce today and be an executor of an estate tomorrow.”

Failure to conduct proper research for a case can have devastating consequences – both for the client and the legal practitioner. This need for diligent research has traditionally cost legal practitioners many non-billable hours searching through legal journals for case law and precedents.

The development of technology has resulted in information overload in vastly increased volumes of data, much of which is not from reliable sources. A trusted online legal source such as Lexis Library enables practitioners to expedite their legal research with the assurance of reliability, yet small law firms are often not willing to pay for content that they do not need consistent access too.

“At LexisNexis we wanted to be able to support small law firms across their varied case load by providing a comprehensive library to help them cast their net in terms of work that they can do, whilst making this tool an unquestionable return on their investment – by simply charging them in a way that corresponds with the way they earn – time,” says Beires.

Subscribing to a time rated system such as Lexis Library Time Select limits the risk of selecting irrelevant content, avoiding time wastage and limiting cost to within budgetary prescriptions. Small law firms using Lexis Library Time Select can include client specific research sessions into their consultation and document preparation time.

Users have access to a fuller and more content rich library for a minimal price, with those new to the product being given the option to trial the package with a complimentary two-hour session.

The three packages on offer, Time Select 10, 20 and 30, and the option to upgrade as needed, gives clients financial control with flexibility to adapt to the needs as their business needs change.