Lawtel
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Lawtel is a subscription-based online legal research tool that provides subscribers with access to a range of legal information from tracking progress on legislation through to case summaries and an articles index. It also provides access to directories of solicitors and barristers.
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[edit] History
[edit] The Prestel years
Lawtel was created in 1980 by a Liverpool solicitor, Graham Ross, and demonstrated at the second annual conference of the Society for Computers and Law, where he was a speaker. Subsequently that year he was joined by a retired barrister, Gerald Impey. Together they set up a Manx company 'Lawtel Limited', from which Ross resigned a year later. Impey remained as majority shareholder and Lawtel Editor in Chief until the business was sold to UK-based Centaur Communications Limited in 1994; after the sale Impey stayed on as a Lawtel editor until his death in November 1999. The original Lawtel operated on the Prestel platform, a teletext style service, however in 1991 a text-based service was developed with assistance from Context Limited (now Justis Publishing Limited [1]). This new service, which was hosted by Context, replaced the original Prestel system.
[edit] Centaur - the Lawtel revolution
In 1994, Lawtel was acquired by Centaur Communications Ltd. Context Limited continued to host the service until 1995, when Centaur developed an internet-based platform for providing access to Lawtel.
[edit] Sweet & Maxwell
In 2002, Lawtel was acquired by Sweet & Maxwell. Most of the senior staff were made redundant at this time, however Lawtel continues to remain a separate service within the Sweet & Maxwell portfolio.
[edit] The impact of Lawtel on legal publishing in the UK
Laurence Eastham, Editor of the Society of Computers and Law journal C&L, commented upon the sale of Lawtel to Sweet & Maxwell that:
"Lawtel undoubtedly made others improve, and move more rapidly than might otherwise have been natural to them. A large number of practising solicitors have been recruited to the need for updated online information by Lawtel... [i]n short, they made a difference" C&L August/September 2002, p.2
