Auto-Link Case and Statute Citations

If your firm uses Lexis, there is an easy to link to cases and statutes cited in a brief. The Shepard’s BriefLink tool is available on the Lexis Advance site. It works very well and is easy to use. You just go to the Lexis Advance Research menu, select ‘Shepard’s BriefLink’ and upload your Word document. There really isn’t much to it. It runs through the brief quickly. I did notice that it messed up a link to the New York CPLR (Civil Practice Law and Rules) in the TOA of the sample brief I used, but this can be easily corrected.

Some courts are considering making it mandatory to include hyperlinks to each cited case and statute in any filed brief. This tool also saves paralegals the trouble of having to look up citations one by one when cite checking a brief.