Medical Record Retrieval
lexisONE's new relationship with MediConnect.net will allow attorneys to securely request and receive medical records via the Internet in as little as 10 business days. From the Practice Management section of the lexisONE site, users can link to the MediConnect site for the transaction (http://www.mediconnect.net). I was relieved to see that users are required to read and accept a legal agreement that they have the requisite authority from a client to obtain the records, and to submit a copy of a written authorization.

MediConnect.net is a leading online provider of record retrieval for customers in the life insurance, property and casualty, worker's compensation, and legal industries. The basic service price is $29.95 per medical record, claims history, and billing record, and $14.95 per police accident report, up to 100 pages. Records in excess of 100 pages are billed the basic price plus an additional 10 cents per page.

"Our Internet-based record-retrieval service allows attorneys to conveniently order, retrieve, and manage medical records at a fraction of the standard time and cost," said Michael Colemere, CEO of MediConnect.net. "lexisONE users will recognize the benefit as we help to free up paralegals, convert time to a billable expense, and help attorneys prepare their clients' cases more quickly and effectively."
 

Breaking Court Decisions via E-mail
The newly announced e-mail service, which delivers summaries of breaking court decisions to subscribers, is called Lexis-Nexis Electronic Advance Sheets. Lawyers select anywhere from one to 10 courts and from one to 10 legal topics that are of particular interest to them in their practice. The service then conducts daily searches for case decisions that match those specific criteria and instantly sends an e-mail alert with a basic summary of the decision. From that e-mail summary, lawyers can determine which cases to read in full and simply click on a link in the e-mail that takes them directly to the full text of the decision.

Users can choose from among 40 topical areas. The active courts included are those that are currently contained in the Lexis-Nexis service, which includes the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, the U.S. District Courts, specialized courts (such as bankruptcy, tax, and international trade), and numerous state courts. The e-mail alert contains pertinent information such as the names of the parties, docket number, issuing court, date of the decision, topical area(s), and a brief summary of the case itself. There is no additional charge for reading the case. Some minor kinds of decisions, such as "memorandum opinions," are not included as e-mail in order to prevent users' in-boxes from being inundated. There's a free trial available for 30 days or five results, whichever comes first. The new service is available now at a limited-time introductory price of $99 per year. At that price, this looks like a real bargain.