Quick and Dirty Westlaw For Legal

Research for Paralegals

Customizing Westlaw

① Go to TABS

② CLICK on “Add Westlaw Tabs”

③ Add New York Tab

Doing Research on

Westlaw

Finding Things On Westlaw

Finding Things On Westlaw

You are looking for law

Two ways to find it:

1) QUICKIES: Retrieve it by the cite; or

2) RESEARCH: Find it by a query

Quickies

You can do this if you know the cite

An attorney asks you to get a copy of:

CPLR 3211

People v Price, 14 NY3d 61 (2010)

You can do the equivalent of getting the law off of the Westlaw bookshelf: Find by citation

Quickie 1

FIND BY CITATION

Gets a document (case, statute, secondary source)

TYPE: 367 US 643

Your Turn 1

FIND: “384 US 436”

WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE CASE?

Your Turn 2

FIND: “34 AD3d 1249”

WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE CASE?

Find Statutes

FIND STATUTES: New York Penal Law § 120.00

In the “Find by Citation” box, type the statute citation

FORMULA: <state abbreviation> <statute title> <section number>

Find Statutes

FIND STATUTES: New York Penal Law § 120.00

In the “Find by Citation” box, type the statute citation

FORMULA: <state abbreviation> <statute title> <section number>

TYPE: “ny penal law 120.00"

Your Turn 1

FIND: New York’s Domestic Relations Law § 170

Your Turn

FIND: New York’s CPLR 3211

Quickie 2

KEYCITE BY CITATION

Is a case or statute good law?

Retrieve more recent cases

TYPE: 367 US 643

You Found The Law!

Is all law on Westlaw “good law”?

NO!

When a case get reversed, it does not disappear

When a case gets overruled, it does not disappear

When a statute is found unconstitutional, it does not disappear.

Is This Case Good Law?

KeyCite: Kopsachilis v 130 East 18 Owners Corp., 43 AD3d 744

In the “KeyCite this Citation” box, type the cite: 43 AD3d 744

KeyCite Status Flags

RED FLAG

the case is no longer good law for at least one of the points of law it contains.

YELLOW FLAG

the case has some negative history but has not been reversed or overruled.

BLUE H

indicates that the case has some history.

GREEN C

case has citing references but no direct history or negative citing references.

THE STAR TREATMENT: Depth of Treatment Stars

EXAMINED

The citing document contains an extended discussion of the cited case or administrative decision, usually more than a printed page of text.

DISCUSSED

The citing document contains a substantial discussion of the cited case or administrative decision, usually more than a paragraph but less than a printed page.

CITED

The citing document contains some discussion of the cited case or administrative decision, usually less than a paragraph.

MENTIONED

The citing document contains a brief reference to the cited case or administrative decision, usually in a string citation.

Your Turn To KeyCite 1

KEYCITE: Rose v Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 53 AD3d 80

Your Turn To KeyCite 2

KEYCITE: People v Hunter, 41 AD3d 885

Research!!!

OUR EXAMPLE

ISSUE: May a prayer or benediction

be given at a school graduation?

TWO SEARCH OPTIONS

1) NATURAL LANGUAGE:

Throw a bunch of words together,

choose a database, and

see what happens!

2) TERMS AND CONNECTORS:

Find terms

Connect them

Choose a database

Terms & Connectors

CREATING A TERMS AND CONNECTORS SEARCH

POWER: Terms and Connectors searching is the most powerful and precise way to search Westlaw.

CONTROL: Using these techniques allows you to take full control of the powerful search engines built in to these systems.

CREATING A TERMS AND CONNECTORS SEARCH

THE FORM: The Westlaw Search Form takes you step-by-step through the process of creating a search on Westlaw.

Step One: The Issue Statement

STEP ONE

1. Define your issue carefully.

a) State it precisely in one sentence.

b) Avoid being narrower or broader than is necessary.

STEP ONE

1. Define your issue carefully.

EXAMPLE: you are seeking cases on prayer at public school graduations

i. TOO BROAD: “when is religion permitted in public schools”

ii. TOO NARROW: “may a student say the Lord’s Prayer at a public school graduation”

Step Two: Find The Key Terms

STEP TWO

2. Circle the key terms in your issue statement.

a) Key terms are words most closely related to your issue.

b) Exclude words so common that they are likely to turn up in many documents unrelated to your issue.

c) ISSUE: May a prayer or benediction be given at a school graduation?

FIND TERMS: May a prayer or benediction be given at a school graduation?

FIND TERMS: May a prayer or benediction be given at a school graduation?

ELIMINATE COMMON: May a prayer or benediction be given at a school graduation?

FIND TERMS: May a prayer or benediction be given at a school graduation?

ELIMINATE COMMON: May a prayer or benediction be given at a school graduation?

WHAT YOU ARE LEFT WITH: prayer or benediction, school, graduation

WHAT YOU ARE LEFT WITH:

prayer or benediction,

school,

graduation

Step Three: Westlaw Forms

STEP THREE

3. Write these key terms in the Terms boxes at the top of the Westlaw Search Form.

a. If two or more key terms both relate to only one aspect of issue, list them vertically, as alternatives.

b. EXAMPLE TERMS:

i. prayer or benediction

ii. school

iii. graduation

Step Three: Alternative

Terms

STEP FOUR

4. Consider whether alternative terms might appear in a relevant document.

For example, if your issue involves an attorney, likely alternatives would be lawyer or counsel

Consider synonyms (car/automobile) and antonyms (admissible/inadmissible).

STEP FOUR

4. Consider whether alternative terms might appear in a relevant document.

Consider also broader or narrower or related terms (car/vehicle/truck/motorcycle...).

STEP FOUR: OUR EXAMPLE

5. List the alternatives to your key terms in the columns below each key term.

OUR EXAMPLE:

i. prayer or benediction or invocation

ii. school

iii. Graduation or commencement

Step Six: Use Wildcards!

STEP SIX

6. Use truncation (!) or the universal character (*) to account for variations of key terms.

EXAMPLES:

discrim! retrieves discriminate, discriminating, discriminated....

kn*w retrieves know or knew.

test*** retrieves test, tested, testing, testify... but not testimony or testamentary

STEP SIX: OUR EXAMPLE

6. Use truncation (!) or the universal character (*) to account for variations of key terms

* !

STEP SIX: OUR EXAMPLE

6. Use truncation (!) or the universal character (*) to account for variations of key terms.

OUR EXAMPLE:

i. pray! or benediction or invocation

ii. school

iii. Graduat! or commencement

Step Seven: Connectors

STEP SEVEN

7. Use connectors to specify the relationship between key terms.

Primer on Connectors

CONNECTORS

Connectors are the way to glue different terms together

All the connectors are either a form of OR or AND

OR

AND

• &• /s• /p• /n

OR

“OR”

USE: A space

EXAMPLE: car automobile vehicle

Means: Find a document that has the terms car OR automobile OR vehicle in it.

AND

“AND”

USE: &

EXAMPLE: narcotic & warrant

MEANS: Find a document that has the terms narcotic AND warrant in it

MORE “AND” CONNECTORS

TERMS IN THE SAME PARAGRAPH

USE: /p

EXAMPLE: hearsay /p utterance

MEANS: Find a document with with hearsay IN THE SAME PARAGRAPH as utterance

MORE “AND” CONNECTORS

TERMS WITHIN THE SAME SENTENCE

USE: /s

EXAMPLE: warrant /s arrest

Arrest warrant

Warrant of arrest

Court issued a warrant for his arrest.

NUMERICAL CONNECTORS

/n

Search terms within n terms of each other (where n is a number from 1-255):

Queens /2 county

Queens County

County of Queens

CONNECTORS IN BRIEF

RULE: All connectors are either OR or AND

OR:

OR

AND:

&, /p, /s, /n

The difference with the different ands is how much control you want to use

MORE

EXACT PHRASE

USE: “[Insert phrase]”

EXAMPLE: “Rule against Perpetuity”

Step Eight: Using

Connectors Effectively

STEP EIGHT

8. HOW TO EFFECTIVELY USE CONNECTORS

Use the [or] connector between alternative.

Use the & connector or its variant forms: /p or /s or /#, (where # is a number, e.g., /2) between your groups of ␣␣ ␣key terms. When in doubt, start with a grammatical connector (/p or /s).

STEP EIGHT

8. HOW TO EFFECTIVELY USE CONNECTORS

Westlaw processes connectors in this order:

Or, /n, /s, /p, &

Step Nine: Filing Out the

Form

FILLING OUT THE FORM

INSERT THE TERMS HERE

FILLING OUT THE FORM

INSERT THE ALTERNATIVES HERE

FILLING OUT THE FORM

CHECK THE CONNECTORS

BACK TO EXAMPLE

ISSUE: May a prayer or benediction be given at a school graduation?

TERMS:

i. Pray! or benediction or invocation

ii. school

iii. Graduat! or commencement

BACK TO EXAMPLE

Terms Pray!/p

school/p

Graduat!

Alternatives

or or

benediction commencementor

invocation

SEARCH QUERY

Pray! Benediction invocation /p school /p graduat! commencement

Step Ten: Choosing

Databases

DATABASES

Now that you have determined the TERMS AND CONNECTORS and have a search query, the question is: Where do you look?

In Westlaw, you need to search in databases.

Databases are various groupings of documents

EXAMPLES:

New York Statutes US Supreme Court Decision

You get to choose where Westlaw looks

DATABASES

WHAT YOU WANT DATABASE

New York Cases New York Cases

New York StatutesNew York Statutes Annotated

US Supreme Court Decisions

Search for DatabaseSCT

Corpus Juris SecundumSearch for DatabaseCJS