# Westlaw — user reviews > 86 indexed App Store user reviews of Westlaw by Thomson Reuters, rated 2.30/5 from 121 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/westlaw/id380675076/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/westlaw/id380675076.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 24 · 4★ 9 · 3★ 12 · 2★ 11 · 1★ 65 ## Newest reviews (17 of 86) ### 3/5 — Outdated *2025-02-19, version 7.5.0* This app is outdated and slow, making it not a particularly useful tool. For the price, it seems like Westlaw should have a modern app that is usable ### 3/5 — Outdated *2024-10-30* Why can’t we access Precision or PracticalLaw on the app? It’s almost mid-21st century. We should be able to access all features via mobile devices. ### 2/5 — Still no improvements. *2024-10-24, version 7.3.0* Still going strong without a single improvement in 10 -years. ### 2/5 — Constant error messages *2024-09-03* The app had been working fine. However, over the past few weeks, the app will provide an error message and urges me to “try again”. Trying again never works. The only solution is to restart the app, re-set-up the search, and hope that the problem does not recur. It continues to happen more frequently, rendering the app largely unusable. ### 4/5 — Dark Mode *2023-08-14* Please, for the love of God (and every young, embryonic attorney who is burning the midnight oil to stay caught up and pass exams)—enable dark mode. Please. Otherwise, the app is great. Anyone complaining about doing “extensive research” on their phone is comical. But for reading cases at night while in law school—it gets the job done. My only complaint is the bright white light hitting the back of my retina at the wee hours while I’m trying to read cases in bed before crashing into my pillow. Dark mode. Please. Thank you. One more time for giggles—Dark mode!! 📚💤 ### 1/5 — No dark mode *2022-09-25, version 7.2.0* Plus, it’s mission impossible to pull up 1.163(j)-4(b). I even tried Treas Regs 1.163(j)-4(b) ### 2/5 — Athens log in *2022-05-22* Cannot log in via Athens from this app ### 3/5 — Current issues *2021-12-04, version 7.1.1* 1. Cannot adjust font size 2. Must set citation format *each time* you copy. **Developer response:** Thank you – we appreciate the feedback! FYI, in the iPad app, you can change the text size by tapping on the 3-dot Tools menu located in the top right corner of any document and then selecting Set Display Options. ### 2/5 — Use your web browser instead *2021-11-12* I used this app for nearly a year and conducted extensive legal research on it. I have deleted it and will go back to accessing Westlaw via a web browser. It is a shame, as I really wanted to keep this app. There are some benefits to using this app over a web browser: - Login is a cinch. - App loads relatively quickly. The shortfalls are numerous: - Citations are limited. Though you get full citations on the web, this app limits case citation to a single one. For those of us following local rules or who wish to use the Bluebook, this makes legal research very inefficient. - Following procedural history is nearly impossible. While analyzing a case, you may wish to review a lower court's disposition, such as to learn more about the facts or understand the reasoning. This app is frequently unable to load that case. Instead, one is met with an error page and an 800-number. - Following stare decisis is nearly impossible. Same reason as above. One clicks on a case cited in an opinion and is disappointed by the 800-number. - Same issue as above with statutes and statutory history. - Trying to select text is a headache. As we all know, Westlaw imposes a popup when text is selected. On a web browser, it is easy to work around. On this app, it frequently blocks selected text and the popup even becomes selected itself. So, goodbye, Westlaw app. **Developer response:** We’re sorry to hear you’re experiencing some issues with the Westlaw app. There are no known issues at this time with document linking or selecting text, and parallel citations are available in the “All Citations” section of each case within the app. Thousands of Westlaw users rely on the award-winning Westlaw app for their legal research on the go, and we’d love to get to the bottom of what’s happening with your sessions. Please contact Technical Support at 1-800-WESTLAW (1-800-937-8529). ### 1/5 — I way to log in? *2021-11-08, version 7.1.1* Can not log in using institution? ### 1/5 — Unusable for students *2021-07-04, version 7.1.0* Do you guys seriously not read these reviews? Surely enough people have pointed out that this app is completely unusable if you have an institutional login provided by your university. I am studying with the Open University and have access to Westlaw as part of that (via OpenAthens). But I cannot use that with this app. Why is this, and when will you remedy it? Me v Westlaw [2021] UKAS 1 ### 1/5 — Devolved Over Time *2021-03-30* This app used to be functional for basic research, but it’s gotten worse with each update. Good luck trying to find what you need if your search returns more than a few cases. You can no longer sort the result, or search within the result. Worthless for anything but looking up a particular case with a citation. **Developer response:** We’re sorry to hear you’re struggling to use the Westlaw app. Both the iPad and iPhone apps support sorting and filtering of search result lists from the “3-dot” menu in the header, including the ability to search within results for additional terms. Please contact Technical Support at 1-800-WESTLAW (1-800-937-8529) if you need additional assistance. ### 1/5 — Greedy ppl *2020-11-06, version 7.0.0* Inaccessible for students. ### 1/5 — Change went from 5 to 1 *2020-09-01, version 7.0.0* Why have an app if no one in your organization understands the app and can assist with it. Please fix it back the way it was prior to this terrible update. ### 1/5 — Truly terrible *2020-07-22* The Westlaw website is bad, and this app somehow manages to be even worse. It is very slow, documents often don’t load, and the interface is poor. Of course, the necessity of an app at all is a problem. There should be no reason why the website itself can’t be programmed to work in Safari on an iPad. ### 1/5 — Worthless *2020-07-05, version 6.4.1* Dockets are not available. ### 1/5 — Don’t bother *2020-05-28, version 6.4.1* Very poor functionality. Better to use the laptop and save the phone for a mobile hotspot. Keeps signing out. Difficulty signing in. Can’t scroll through results. Filters don’t work. Poor design. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Used to be mediocre, but now basically doesn’t work *2026-04-30, version 7.5.5* In my experience, this app has gone way down hill on the backend. Three years ago was a passable-if-inferior version of Westlaw’s web browser that you could use for long trips to the bathroom or on the go. Now it’s basically non-functional. Logging in takes me multiple tries — I’ll input my username and password, get taken to a totally separate login screen for my specific government branch, input my login credentials again, get taken to a separate screen asking which of my two plans I want to use, then get taken to the main page, only for it to immediately say “your session has expired,” forcing me to do all of the above AGAIN. If that weren’t annoying enough, when I try to search a case by it’s reporter — literally the easiest way to find the exact case you’re looking for — the app spends a minute or two trying to load search results before taking me to a page saying “your browser isn’t properly configured for Westlaw. Try a different browser instead.” I’m literally using the Westlaw app, how is the browser not right? In fairness, there will be a little link in the corner saying “looking for Westlaw Advantage Mobile?” But when I click the link, it doesn’t load anything. Basically, it takes forever to log in and then won’t let me search a single case by reporter number. This app is broken, full stop. ^The funniest thing: I tried submitting everything I wrote above through the app’s “Feedback” feature, but it said “error submitting feedback” and then logged me out 💀 Also, there’s tons of other substantive issues I haven’t even mentioned (app logs you out of westlaw on computer; search filters are way less accessible than on web browser for seemingly no reason; no ability to open different “tabs” like you can on a web browser, etc.). Westlaw could be a thousand times more convenient if it had a working phone app, but instead they gave us a wildly inferior version of the website and have apparently let it rot to the point of uselessness. Please improve your app. We all want it. ### 1/5 — Worse Than Useless *2026-03-14* The app is incapable of saving my login info, which means I have to reenter every time. Unbearably slow once you actually get into it. Continually crashes or shows blank pages. It’s faster and easier for me to use Google searches on my phone to look up statutes and regs than this app. I’ll likely be deleting the app and then proceeding as if it doesn’t exist, which seems to be how the company is treating it, too. ### 1/5 — Smoldering Garbage Heap *2026-03-07* This app is active trash. It patently refuses to remember my login, which is a problem since it makes me login twice. Attempting to access account info will often direct you to pages which you cannot exit out of and have to force quit to return to the home page (where then have to login again 🤣). Navigation to specific statutes or cases is fine, but forget trying to research since case synopses are often no more two or three words. For the cost of their product, this app ought to be the most sophisticated on my phone. Instead, I’m constantly debating deleting it so I don’t have to look at it and be reminded of how useless it is. Rant complete. ### 1/5 — Practical Law doesn’t load *2026-01-27, version 7.5.4* You can’t use browse content to view the materials on Practical Law. I’ve reached out to support but their only advice was to “clear cookies and cache” (I’m not sure how browser settings would implicate issues with the app) ### 1/5 — The app crashes constantly *2024-09-18* This app has some amazing features. Unfortunately, it is incredibly slow, it crashes constantly, and it has limited information compared to the online version of westlaw’s database. It’s a shame ### 1/5 — Time waster *2024-08-26* It has taken less than a day to download, use and delete. The functionality is too narrow; the app does not appear to allow me to sort cases (say by highest court/newest). It returns content that does not meet my search terms. Example, I search for A and B; I get content with A but not B, vice versa, and neither! The ability to go from one document to the next in the results list seems slow to me. ### 1/5 — No support for UK Westlaw. *2024-01-08, version 7.3.0* UK westlaw is poorly usable on mobile devices through the website. I thought the app would be better only to find out it’s US-only. ### 1/5 — Waste of storage *2023-05-21, version 7.3.0* I cannot use my UK institutional log in. I have seen a review where Thomson Reuters replied to a review and I think there needs to be UK support as well as US support. It would be helpful! Until this happens, it’s a one star review from me. Not impressed in the slightest. ### 1/5 — Nonfunctional *2022-12-16, version 7.3.0* The app will not allow me to download courses I’ve purchased. ### 1/5 — Not Compatible with Westlaw UK *2022-12-03, version 7.3.0* There is no app available if you use Westlaw UK which is a big let down as I am a UK law student and regularly use Westlaw. Would definitely suggest to the developers that a version compatible with Westlaw UK is needed. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Good for students in a pinch *2022-02-16, version 7.2.0* If you don’t have access to a computer, this app works perfectly fine. I would not advise highlighting or making notes, but in terms of accessing cases and adding them to designated folders there’s really no difference between this and the regular website other than this being slower to navigate. **Developer response:** Thank you – we appreciate the feedback! ### 5/5 — Good! *2021-08-25* Can’t speak to how it was before, but as of this review the app, in my opinion, is almost as readily accessible as is the website. ### 5/5 — Needs a lot of TLC *2021-04-26, version 7.0.3* As a final year Law student with an English degree and five years of experience working in online comms, I can offer a descriptive list on the many aspects of this app requiring some TLC. Starting with the login issues mentioned in all the reviews. Is there someone at Reuters reading the comments and open to working together to improve this? This app is necessary! Cheers! P.S. I don’t care if this sounded like a a cover letter - just looking to fix this. ### 5/5 — Does what it needs to do *2019-12-13* Works well when I need to pull up research quickly ### 5/5 — You’re good people *2019-10-25* The app is fully functional and allows me to have a case loaded on my iPad while I draft on my computer. However, I would like to see Westlaw updated to take advantage of the multiple windows iOS 13 makes available. It would be much more powerful if I could have notes of decisions in one window and open specific cases side by side, for example. ### 5/5 — Magnificent *2017-10-26, version 5.1.0* Honestly, the first product that I can call utterly perfect. Thank you. ### 5/5 — The Westlaw App is Awesome *2017-08-20, version 5.0.1* The Westlaw App is a must for legal researchers and practicing lawyers. With ease of use and simplicity the application provides the most comprehensive legal research tool available. ### 5/5 — Law Student *2017-06-25, version 4.2.2* It is much easier to use the app than the website, and finding the information is the same. ### 5/5 — So happy *2015-10-15, version 3.2.0* I am a 2L and just got an iPad to allow me to be more flexible in where and how I work. This app allows me to do that and more. I just started using it, but am so impressed and happy with its functionality. Some of the beyond-basic features that I was not expecting: option to save documents offline, wireless printing, truly intuitive interface, incredibly fast, great search functionality. I haven't come across a feature yet that I needed that wasn't there. Only note is that the highlight feature is a little weird to get used to. Sometimes it only gives copy options at first and not highlight/note options for text. But once you get used to it, not a problem. Great app!! ### 5/5 — Great App, but for the cost of Westlaw it better be... *2013-12-11, version 2.9.2* This app is truly amazing. The notation options, the folders, the offline sync - at this point I can't think of anything different I would do. But as I eluded to in my title, for the obscene amount of money that I pay Westlaw every month for the privilege of having access to public documents, this app had better be amazing. To their credit, I have several other apps for which I subscribe to a service and they are subpar in every regard (I won't name names. Yet...) Bravo for getting this right. The entire Westlaw Next feature is so much nicer than the original Westlaw we had back in law school, I can't even imagine trying to use a mobile app with Westlaw classic... --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-29.*