Award procedure
Categories and the nomination and adjudication processes
The Halsbury’s Awards are presented annually and the winners receive a trophy and a prize courtesy of LexisNexis.
Nominations are invited in the spring of the award year through advertisements and via the BIALL and LexisNexis websites and e-mail list. Nominations are not accepted at other times.
Nominations can be made by the service providers themselves, other legal information professionals who know and use the service or any legal professionals with experience of the service. In the commercial sector, where an organisation has more than one information service, nominations for the same firm can be made in different categories (ie. a London office can be nominated for the London Legal Information Services (commercial) while an office in, for example, Manchester can also be nominated for the Regional Award).
The Awards & Bursaries Committee may also submit nominations to the Adjudication Panel for consideration.
The categories:
Best Legal Information Service (Non-Commercial Sector): this is a British and Irish nationwide award for those non-fee charging operations including the academic sector, government libraries and ‘special’ legal libraries/information services.
Best Legal Information Service (Commercial Sector): this award is aimed at the commercial sector and includes Wales, Scotland and Ireland and all areas of England beyond London (ie. outside of the M25)
Best Legal Information Service (Commercial Sector) - London Only: this award is aimed at the London based Law Firm sector and other legal information services that operate commercial, fee charging, services within the capital. The reference to London can be identified as within the M25.
The adjudication panel will consider criteria such as:
- How the nominated information service has recognised particular issues and challenges facing them
- How the nominated information service has demonstrated excellence in dealing with these issues and challenges
- The contribution of the nominated information service to the legal information profession as a whole
- The level of service of the nominated information service to other Legal Information Services and those working in the legal profession
The Award Committee, who adjudicate on the nominations, is composed of senior BIALL officers, the Chair of ABC and representatives from LexisNexis.
