Compare Statute Versions with Westlaw Edge

Sometimes it's hard to get a handle on what changes have been made to statutes over time. You can look at the credits at the end to see the citations to amending statutes—but what's the difference between today's statute and the statute that was in effect two, three, or ten years ago?

Westlaw Edge has a new feature that helps us sort out the changes.Suppose you're looking at 26 U.S.C.A. § 164, the part of the Internal Revenue Code that allows taxpayers to deduct some state and local taxes from their federal tax bill. You can see in the credits at the end that the section dates from 1954 and has been amended a couple of dozen times.

Credits for 26 U.S.C.A. § 164

It might take a lot of plodding to figure out the differences between any two versions.

But now there's the Compare Versions feature!

Screen snip showing  Compare Versions button

If you click on the Compare Versions button, you'll get a "redline" version showing what has changed since the last version—in this case the version that was effective between Dec. 18, 2015, and December 21, 2017.

Screen snip showing new subsection, 26 U.S.C.A. § 164 (b)(6)

It leaps out at you that § 164(b) has a new subsection, 164(b)(6), putting a lid on the amount that a taxpayer can deduct for state and local taxes.

That's pretty handy. But what if you wanted to look at older changes?

At the top of the screen, click on History, then Versions. Westlaw has 12 versions of this code section, going back to 1996. You can choose any two of the versions to compare

Screen snip showing "Add to compare" button for 1996 version of 26 U.S.C.A. § 164

If you paste a comparison into Word, you'll find that it's just like Word's compare documents feature. You can omit the redlining by choosing Simple Markup and see it again by choosing All Markup (in the Review tab of Word's ribbon).

Try out this new feature. It's handy!

By the way, in January all law student Westlaw users in the country will have access to this new feature in Westlaw Edge. We are one of the law schools that got the new features in September.