Thusday's session:
password: 533370JLREL or 533370UPAJCL
Client ID: training
searched for "potomac river" with natural language in database called: ALLCASES-OLD
Problem of knowing what you are getting and how comprehensive it is. Each service has its strengths and neither appears to be fully comprehensive. Both should be used for historical research.
In Westlaw you apparently cannot obtain more than 100 hits regardless of how many cases may contain the natural language word or phrase you are looking for.
Results:
While enormously helpful in terms of identifying cases that relate to the Potomac, neither service provides access to the briefs in the cases or to how to find the briefs, yet it is in the briefs and the evidence presented in a case wherein the that historical value of the case lies.
For example:
Let us take Morris v. United States (1899) in which the the appellant's lawyer won his argument with regard to the sovereign rights from which the client claimed title, but lost the case because the opposition was able to establish that those rights had been transferred with the creation of the District of Columbia leaving his client without benefit of those rights.
In order to read Leo Knott's brief, you must travel to the Library of the Supreme Court, or sometime in the near future, to the Maryland State Archives web site where you will find a facsimile on line for review.