Most lawyers do a fair amount of research via Lexis and Westlaw still, notwithstanding the availability of on-line and "open source" resources.  Two side comments on this.  First, from reading blogs pretty regularly, my starting point typically tends to be something mentioned in a blog in the past 4-5 years.  (More and more, I tend to start with a blog post, not with a cold Lexis search.  How Appealing really stands out here in my opinion.)  Second, I don't really trust open source materials to do things like find out where a decision has been cited by other courts.  Lexis and Westlaw are paid to compile and maintain this information (and spend tremendous resources doing so), and for the foreseeable future, they will be the principal source for this type of information.

The disconnect between Lexis/Westlaw and the blogosphere could be something that Lexis/Westlaw could address fairly quickly and cheaply.  Westlaw and Lexis both include references to treatises and other secondary sources which discuss a decision that you pull up.  For example, you find a decision, think it's interesting, and you probably want to see what leading commentators have to say about the effect of the decision.  You can do this with the click of a button.

So here's a suggestion for Lexis and Westlaw: how about including blog posts which reference a decision.  You pull up a decision, and like you click on a button to see what treatises have referenced that decision, Lexis and Westlaw should build blogposts into their databases.  The least they could do is to provide links to relevant blog posts (this could probably address up front any IP issues).  Sure, it's easy enough just to plug the decision into technorati and technorati-like engines (to find out what blogs are saying), but there's something to be said for one click.  In the heat of a research session, pulling up the browser and typing something in can be taxing.

Just a thought (sort of a technorati for the legalsphere).  The more I think about this, the more I think it's unlikely that open-source/blogosphere-based research will completely supplant Lexis/Westlaw.  It's just not going to happen in the near future.  It seems like the two should fit together (as complements to one another) in a researcher's arsenal, and it seems like there are a slew of business opportunities in this area.  My impression is that both spheres are sort of wrongly focusing on the other as direct competitors rather than as possible complements.