Westlaw and LexisNexis will redesign their websites this year to make computerized legal research easier for their clients. Currently both sites are commonly used by the legal community to find computerized documents. Lawyers and researchers who pay to use these services should find more attractive interfaces, more relevant search results and additional tools to share documents and collaborate with others according to both companies. These changes were implemented in reaction to lower priced and even free competitors that have come on the market in a tough economy. Westlaw and LexisNexis hope to attract a younger generation of tech savvy lawyers to their redesigned sites.

Westlaw will launch its upgrade on February 1. LexisNexis has not yet announced an implementation date. Lawyers and researchers use Westlaw and LexisNexis to locate various legal documents, public records and analysis. An individual lawyer may pay $100 a month for a limited version. A large law firm pays millions of dollars to the companies for unlimited access. Both companies report more than $1 billion a year in profit.