New Law lines up for judgment on the day

The New Law daily digest service is available on-line from this month.

The digest provides access to digested, indexed and cross-referenced decisions, and will complement the existing daily fax and email system. Digests are available on the day of judgment and references will be added in 24 to 48 hours.

The system is divided into two parts: daily digests and a research database. The digests cover the past 14 days and can be accessed and printed at no fee. The research database offers access to headnotes, judgments and references. Search time is charged at 50 pence per minute and a full text fee is £20 per judgment.

New Law uses its own team of qualified court reporters to report decisions from the High Court, Court of Appeal, Privy Council, House of Lords and The European Court of Justice. Practising barristers edit and index the judgments.

The cost of the service varies depending on the size of the organisation and starts at £50 a month for an individual subscriber.

Richard Susskind, a member of the management board at City firm Masons, thinks the service is a "great idea". "It is not better than Lexis and other legal technology services, but complementary," he said.

At the moment the service covers commercial, property and criminal cases. "Their challenge is to extend the service so that other niche practices are attracted to it," he said.

New Law Publishing is currently offering personal demonstrations of the system at its Fleet Street offices. For details contact Stephanie Moncrieff on 0171 405 5434.