Development of Online Legal Information System : Lawyers' Perceptions

The study ascertains the perception of academic and practicing lawyers about awareness of legal information resources and problems faced by them in accessing legal information resources. Their perceptions about the development of open access legal information system were identified in developing an open-access online legal information system. A structured open-ended questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. Researcher collected 216 filled questionnaire from academic lawyers and 181 questionnaire from practicing lawyers working in eight institutions in Delhi (India). Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and results are presented in tables and figures. The study found significant difference in the responses of academic and practicing lawyers. 28 (13.0 %) academic lawyers and 28 (15.5 %) practicing lawyers rated online legal information resources poor. More academic lawyers were very satisfied compared to practicing lawyers in using commercial resources. It was ascertained that more number of practicing lawyers expressed 'somewhat satisfied' in using open access resources. Academic lawyers, 51 (28.7 %), expressed 'completely dissatisfied' and 33 (21.9 %) practicing lawyers stated 'completely dissatisfied' in using the open access resources. Practicing lawyers have highlighted that poor details on online legal information is a major hindrance in using legal information resources while academic lawyers mentioned several login requisites as one of the major problems. The outcome of the study can be used to develop suitable online legal information resources.