Conducting comprehensive jury verdict and settlement research [JVSR] has always been difficult, and even with the advent of the Internet, it's still not an easy task. However, the Internet has improved access with Web sites for free and fee-based collections.

But there's truth to the old adage, "You get what you pay for". What follows is a review of notable JVSR sources. Keep in mind one must always stay alert for newcomers, most of which will almost certainly publish directly to the Internet.

Where to Start
If you are looking for one of the most cited articles on the Internet devoted to JVSR, look no further than "Jury Verdict Research Using the Internet," (www.legalonline.com/august97/jury.htm) by Robert Ambrogi. This article is published by American Lawyer Media, publisher of the Pennsylvania Law Weekly. Ambrogi has written the definitive "review of the literature" for conducting JVSR. It is the most comprehensive collection of Web sites and other sources on jury verdict research including Internet, fee-based, free and traditional resources. The scope of sources listed here helps to confirm the ambiguity of doing JVSR. While it was posted to the Internet in 1997, it is still a great starting point for finding all the resources on this topic.

The Sites
When asked to do JVSR, often the first place to search is the Verdicts library on Lexis-Nexis (www.lexis.com). It is an expensive database costing $120.00 per search in the transactional format. The trick with searching this database is first knowing the proper search strategy. Second, you must also be aware that this service includes the National Jury Verdict reporter. Many of the cases reported in the state reporters are repeated in the national reporter. It is therefore important to spend some time weeding out duplicate cases while online.

The Lexis-Nexis service is superior to some of the Internet offerings because of its powerful search strategy. Searches can be limited using the "greater than" and "less than" signs to more precisely select monetary criteria for your search. Various segments of the cases reported can be searched, e.g, "causes of action". The Internet offers access to JVSR as well. The searching is not nearly as powerful nor is the coverage as broad as Lexis.

The more notable sites are reviewed below. The National Law Journal's jury verdicts and settlements database (www.ljextra.com/cgi-bin/vds) is often referred to as perhaps the most comprehensive collection of cases on the Internet - if you can get at the results. Searching seems effective only if broad terms describing case types like "medical malpractice," "personal injury" or "wrongful death" are used.

It also appears that searches cover what was reported in the National Law Journal from 1999 to present only. If you are looking for something like the "settlement amounts between $500,000 and $1 million awarded to attorneys in Pennsylvania" you had better stick to the Lexis database. The National Law Journal database also lacks the ability to determine the coverage and methods of how information is collected and updated.

MoreLaw Inc. (www.morelaw.com), a Web site of 8,000 cases, may be more useful to attorneys looking for awards in Pennsylvania. This site accepts advertising but there is no charge to use it. It was originated in 1996 by a Tulsa, Okla., trial attorney. The search page consists of drop down boxes allowing you to select a date, state or field search. For example, if you want to see awards from Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas from 1998 to current, select your date and select "court" in the field search. Type in Philadelphia and a list of 45 cases will be retrieved.

We would like to see information on how often and from where the materials are collected. This is important information to know when evaluating any Web site. Watch this site - there is an indication that more powerful search features are going to be introduced in the near future.

The Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association (www.philatla.org) has a Web site that has the right idea but needs to fine tune its search capability. Scroll down the home page and find the newly added search engine. This allows you to do some primitive searching of The Verdict Newsletter. By primitive, we mean if you search, for example, for "burn injuries" and "$1 million" you get all cases that mention any truncated form of "burn" including "burner" and any truncated form of injury including "jury" separately or together in a case. We tried to find a help file to tell us if there were any search connectors we should use, but found none. The bottom line is this site could be helpful for local verdicts and settlements, if you have the patience to weed through the broad-based search results.

Of course, a survey of JVSR would not be complete without mention of PaLAWnet (formerly www.palawnet.com), the official Pennsylvania Web site of American Lawyer Media. The cases collected for PaLAW-net.com are compiled from the "Verdicts & Settlements" in the Law Weekly going back to 1994. Searching is fairly sophisticated offering Boolean, proximity and phrase searching. This Web site costs $50.00 a month per attorney/user.

Other States
The BLUESHEET (www.bluesheet. com) is a fee-based Web site ($350.00 per year) reporting civil cases from Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The archive contains Southeast Texas Jury Verdicts and Settlements from 1994 to the present. For the rest of Texas, the database has verdicts and settlements for the two years and 10 months; one year and 9 months for New Mexico. The online database is updated every two weeks. The downside is that it won't be of much use to attorneys looking for award status in Pennsylvania. But this is a Web site that is on the right track and could serve as a model for other regional fee-based JVSR newcomers.

The National Association of State Jury Verdict Publishers, or JuryVerdicts.com, certainly sounds promising. This is the Web site of the National Association of State Jury Verdict Publishers (NASJVP), an organization of publishers of jury verdict summaries from throughout the United States. The home page provides a graphic map of the United States. Move your cursor over the state of your choice and retrieve a list of jury verdict publishers that publish in that state. Unfortun-ately, there is nothing listed in Pennsylvania. Other states have links to publishers that, for a fee, will provide subscriptions to their traditional resources or searches of their Web sites.

Conclusion
So what do all these resources mean for doing JVSR in Pennsylvania? Our recommendation is to continue using the sites described, but regularly consult Legalonline.com for any new offerings. Happy hunting!