One semester of Westlaw Trivia to go

I commented once before on Westlaw & Lexis's various ploys to get you "hooked" onto their systems. I suspect that by your second semester first year, you pretty much have a preference one way or the other and tend to gravitate toward that one the rest of your career. Regardless, the spring semester always seems to be less flashy as far as what you can win as opposed to the fall.

For example, this semester's Westlaw trivia has only 50 questions. Each is worth 15 points, so the max you can win is 750 points (which Westlaw states is about $12.75). For logging in 5 days a week, you can earn 50 points a week, which over the course of five months can give you a thousand points or so. For 1750 points, you can't even get a DVD from Westlaw. Now, obviously they have gimmicks throughout the semester that can get you more points, but it is safe to say that if you were saving up your points for an ipod, you may be better off just ordering it from Amazon.

Lexis's points gimmick this semester isn’t much better, but you can certainly earn more than 1750 points. Their passport game is a little stinger with its points, but if you were to fulfill all of its requirements and play “fact or fiction” every day, you can earn over 5200 points. Granted, this doesn’t get you much more than a few songs on itunes, but at least they are trying to grab a larger share of the market in more innovative ways than Westlaw.

Of course, if Westlaw partnered up with Google somehow, there would be no stopping them. The flip side is that there would probably be a lot more clever pro se arguments. Or not.

If either Westlaw or Lexis wanted to sponsor this entry for say, a semester's worth of tuition, I will gladly endorse one over the other. I may even wear a shirt that says "I heart (insert service here)."

Tags: Westlaw, westlaw trivia, lexis, lexisnexis, fact or fiction