LexisNexis(tm) U.S., a leading provider of legal, news and business information services, today announced it would partner with Microsoft® to add free legal research to the 2003 release of Microsoft Office. LexisNexis will provide a legal research option on Microsoft"s new Research Task Pane featured in Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003, and Microsoft Office Access 2003.
The Research Task Pane allows users to highlight words or phrases in a document and search several online research databases from directly within the program. Users selecting LexisNexis will be able match their search term against the company"s free database of summaries of court decisions found on its LexisONE legal portal. For a fee, users can then expand their research using the LexisNexis Shepard"s® Citation Service to determine the validity of a case.
"The ability to access legal research directly from a Word document or PowerPoint presentation can be an incredible time-saver for both business and legal professionals. Business professionals now have quick access to information that can tell them the litigation history of a new business partner, for example. And legal professionals not only can quickly check a citation but in future releases they will be able to access the full benefit of their LexisNexis subscription as they generate documents," said Ann Fullenkamp, senior vice president and publisher at LexisNexis.