[{"description":"CALL member Erica Friesen, Research and Instruction Librarian & Online Learning Specialist at the Lederman Law Library at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario recently wrote an article on \" Thoughts on the New Lexis+ Brief Analysis Tool: For Law Students and Novice Researchers \". It originally appeared on Slaw.ca on September 28, 2022. It is republished here with permission of the author. New academic year; new legal research tools. Something new always comes out right as another cohort of students is gearing up to begin their law degree. And, as with many new product launches these days, “artificial intelligence” is often a prominently displayed term with accompanying materials. As legal publishers continue to launch AI-driven research tools in Canada, what do students and other novice researchers need to know to be prepared for their first forays into legal research? Lexis recently launched the latest version of their legal research platform, Lexis+ Canada, for Canadian law schools. It features significant updates that employ artificial intelligence, including a “Brief Analysis” tool in line with similar products offered by Westlaw Edge (on the US platform) and vLex (already available in Canada). According to Lexis+, this tool helps researchers “expedite completion of briefs and other legal documents.” Once your document is uploaded, it spits out a report including the following categories: 1) recommended cases, 2) cases and legislation cited in your document, 3) jurisdiction, and 4) extracted and recommended concepts. While I do not intend to comment on the utility of this tool for practitioners, I have no doubt that students beginning law school or working in summer or articling positions are bound to encounter this new feature sooner or later. When you do, you may have questions: should I be using this tool? How or how not? The landing page for this tool in Lexis+ contains no information on how this tool works and the Lexis+ Canada “Help” database so far contains minimal documentation. Confusion or uncertainty is understandable with such opacity. To gain some insight, let’s run an experiment: take two case comments written by different authors on the same Supreme Court case from 2004. [1] An older decision means that we should retrieve an abundance of recommendations from the intervening 18 years. Both comments include an overview of the area of law at the time of this decision as well as an analysis of how this particular decision would change the area of law. Once Lexis analyzed these documents, I exported the resulting report and compared the results for each comment. Here are the two documents, in case you’d like to run the experiment yourself: Comment A: Teresa Scassa, “Recalibrating Copyright Law?: A Comment on the Supreme Court of Canada’s Decision in CCH Canadian Limited et al. v. Law Society of Upper Canada ”, Case Comment, (2004) 3:2 CJLT 89. Comment B: WL Hayhurst, “The Canadian Supreme Court on Copyright: CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada ”, Case Comment, (2004-2005) 41 Can Bus LJ 134. Recommended Cases “Recommendations” is the section of the Brief Analysis report that lists additional case law for you to consider adding to your legal document. Brief Analysis recommended 58 unique cases in total between Comment A and Comment B. However, only 10 of those cases were the same between the two documents (after adjusting for “recommended” cases that were actually cited in the other document). See Figure 1 . Key takeaway: Legal research and writing is an art, not a science. AI-driven tools like these run on the material that you upload, so you can expect substantially different results depending on the quality of analysis and the decisions you made in producing the original document. This does not mean that there is no value in using the tool, but you cannot expect it to help you build something from nothing. Recommendations are based on the content in the document,","id":3241473,"source":"Canadian Association of Law Libraries / L'Association canadienne des bibliothèques de droit CALL/ACBD Blog","titre":"CALL Member Article: Thoughts on the New Lexis+ Brief Analysis Tool: For Law Students and Novice Researchers","url":"https://www.callacbd.ca/CALL-Blog/12957419","pubDate":"Mon, 26 Oct 2026 07:55:49 +0100"},{"source":"Canadian Association of Law Libraries / L'Association canadienne des bibliothèques de droit CALL/ACBD Blog","description":"Alexandra Farolan, Library Assistant | Courthouse Libraries BC  1.       Tell us a little about your educational background and how you entered the legal information industry.   I am currently a Library Information and Technology Diploma student at Langara College. Prior to this, I worked on two certificate programs through the British Columbia Institute of Technology (Office Administrator with Technology and Medical Office Assisting). I worked as a registration and health records clerk for a few years in the hospitals. Managing patient records introduced me to the processes of information preservation and confidentiality which in turn piqued my interest in legislation pertaining to freedom of information. I've also had some personal experiences which have lead to my overall interest in examining opportunities in the legal industry. I generally find knowing more about my rights is empowering and being surrounded professionally in an industry that serves those who advocate and rally for rights is something I am excited to contribute to. 2.       How has being involved in CALL helped you professionally (e.g. scholarships & grants, continuing education, networking)? I joined CALL in January 2020 so I am definitely still green, but I've found the professional development opportunities and connecting with other members to be incredibly supportive and educational. There are many opportunities here in the association to be a part of and to contribute to. I have really enjoyed being paired up as a mentee in the mentorship program as it has provided me in gaining more insight and perspective on the industry and provides opportunity for professional rapport. Being the Members and Projects Profiles Coordinator has been more challenging than I anticipated and meeting deadlines might be something to work on...In saying that, it has been great to learn and connect a bit more with our members where I otherwise may not have!   3.       What was your first library-related job? Not a job, but I was part of a volunteer program in 2004 to 2005 called Katimavik where people ages 18 to 23 would live with each other and volunteer in the community across three provinces. I had two library volunteer rotations: Bibliothèque Publique De Tracadie-Sheila in Tracadie-Shelia, New Brunswick and the Jasper Municipal Library in Jasper, Alberta. I enjoyed putting the books back on the shelves and seeing what people were reading. I also learned some basic library protocols such as processing materials to send to other branches, checking materials out to clients, and minor repairs. I also worked with a great team at Indigo Books in morning operations from 2018 to 2020. I've been in my role as a library assistant with CLBC for a little over a year which has provided much learning experience in processing and cataloging legal materials and professional development examining important topics including but not limited to, systemic racism, understanding trauma, Indigenous human rights, etc.           4.    What’s one blog, website, or Twitter account that you can’t go one day without checking?     As an information junkie, it is difficult to pick one. Here are a few links currently on rotation :  rightsofchildren.ca https://vimeo.com/courthouselibrary https://www.eddiemoorejr.com/21daychallenge  - \"For 21 days, do one action to further your understanding of power, privilege, supremacy, oppression, and equity\"  and  Ruby Ibarra  - She is a Filipina-American rapper that started a scholarship called  Pinays Rising  which was created to support fellow Filipina-Americans who demonstrate excellence in arts and/or social activism in pursuing higher education. 5.       What are three things on","id":3241442,"titre":"Five Questions with Alexandra Farolan","url":"https://www.callacbd.ca/CALL-Blog/10557789","pubDate":"Mon, 26 Oct 2026 07:55:45 +0100"},{"description":"This summer our law library intern (shout out to Bailey Kaye!) is reviewing our archival casebook collection for a digitization project. Among them was a casebook for exchange students arriving at Dalhousie Law School in 1978. It outlined an introduction to the common law, as provided by the Sir James Dunn Law Library. In this casebook, the Sir James Dunn Law Library included a helpful list of general information about library etiquette. Let’s review how you were to conduct yourself in the law library of 1978, shall we? The one rule that has survived nearly word-for-word, across nearly fifty years . . . [more] The post Briefcases & Cigarettes: The Law Library of 1978 appeared first on Slaw","id":3110437,"source":"Slaw","titre":"Briefcases & Cigarettes: The Law Library of 1978","url":"https://www.slaw.ca/2026/08/21/briefcases-cigarettes-the-law-library-of-1978/","pubDate":"Sat, 22 Aug 2026 07:56:57 +0200"}]