This document provides an overview of searching case law, statutes, and secondary sources on WestlawNext. It discusses how to search using natural language or Boolean operators, filter search results, analyze whether cases are still good law, and utilize the West Key Number System to efficiently research topics. The document also demonstrates how to browse statutes, find related cases that have cited or applied a key case, and determine the negative treatment of cases to assess if they remain valid law.
Sol Blatt Jr. Law Library, Charleston School of Law, Resources for AttorneysLisa Smith-Butler
Print and electronic resources available in the library to the local practicing bench & bar. Off campus access to a free Internet Legal Research portal created by law librarians.
Sol Blatt Jr. Law Library, Charleston School of Law, Resources for AttorneysLisa Smith-Butler
Print and electronic resources available in the library to the local practicing bench & bar. Off campus access to a free Internet Legal Research portal created by law librarians.
Apps to help attorneys, paralegals and legal professionals get the job done and stay on top of their game. Built to boost productivity, predict settlements, track time and manage your work, these apps mean business.
Practical Legal Research training presented to the Legal Practice, Integrated Assessment Program and Final Year classes at the UCT Law Faculty. It covers various legal research skills, including the research process for practical legal problems.
Paralegal's Guide to the Methodology of Effective Legal ResearchMichael Kaiser, JD.
Presented by Michael Kaiser to a national audience on October 25, 2011, on behalf of the Institute for Paralegal Education.
Mr. Kaiser, founder of the Kaiser Legal Group, is a consultant and mediator. He also regularly speaks at the law school level and at Continuing Legal Education (CLE) seminars for attorneys. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Washington and his Juris Doctor from Seattle University. You may contact him at 206-660-2858 or Michael.Kaiser@Kaiser-LegalGroup.org.
Instructions Every lawyer briefs cases differently. A case brief g.docxdoylymaura
Instructions
Every lawyer briefs cases differently. A case brief generally consists of a series of topic headings with the specific information from the case under each heading. Most case briefs contain similar information but the headings and their sequence may be different. Some professors have a preferred briefing format. You are only required to follow the general format as set forth below.
The following is adapted from
A Practical Guide to Legal Writing and Legal Method
(Dernbach, et al., 2007).
Case name
: Include the full citation, including the date of the opinion, for future reference and citation. An example would be as follows:
State v. Holloran
, 140 NH 563 (1995). Refer to Bluebook to determine the correct name for the case.
Pincites
: Include pinpoint cites (cites to a particular page in the case) throughout the case brief so you can find material again quickly within a case.
Procedural History
: What happened to the case before it arrived in this court? If it is an appellate case, list the decisions made by the lower court(s) and note what decision is being reviewed (e.g., jury verdict, summary judgment). You may need to look up procedural phrases with which you are unfamiliar.
Facts
: Include only the facts that were relevant to the court’s decision. You are unlikely to know what these are until you have read the entire opinion. Many cases may include procedural facts that are relevant to the decision in addition to the facts that happened before litigation.
Issue
: The particular question the court had to decide in this case. It usually includes specific facts as well as a legal question. It may be expressed or implied in the decision. Cases may have more than one issue.
Holding/Decision
: The legal answer to the issue. If the issue is clearly written, then the holding can be expressed as “yes” or “no.” (Be careful not to confuse the holding with implicit
reasoning
. See # 8 below.)
Rule
: The general legal principle(s) relevant to the particular factual situation presented in the case.
Reasoning
: The logical steps the court takes to arrive at the holding. It can be straightforward and obvious, or you may have to extrapolate it from the holding. Some reasoning is based on social policy, which tells you why the holding is socially desirable. Understanding the reasoning behind a decision is essential.
Disposition
: A statement of what the court actually did in the case (affirmed, overruled, etc.)
Dissent/Concurrence
: Although this part of the opinion is not considered law, it may help you better understand some information about the legal reasoning in the case. Not all cases have a dissent or concurrence, while some may have more than one.
11.
Comments
: Include your own responses to the case here. For example, does the reasoning make sense? Is the holding consistent with other cases you have read? Is the case relevant to the question you are trying to answer? This is a good place to note connections between.
OverviewWrite a 2–page executive briefing of a selected busine.docxaman341480
OverviewWrite a 2–page executive briefing of a selected business-related U.S. case pertaining to the topic of contract law.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
SHOW LESS
Competency 1: Articulate the importance, context, purpose, and relevance of law in a business environment.
Summarize the facts and ruling of a legal case.
Competency 2: Evaluate the role of contracts in commercial transactions.
Analyze how a legal case could impact businesses.
Explain how a legal case could impact a specific organization.
Competency 5: Develop information literacy skills as applied to business law.
Exhibit information literacy skills as applied to business law.
Competency Map
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Use this online tool to track your performance and progress through your course.
Toggle Drawer
ContextContracts are the heart and soul of commercial transactions. Different types of contracts bind parties together in business dealings. Review contracts that you have signed recently—a lease, an employment agreement, an extended warranty—to examine not only the language but also the scope of these agreements. Examine the language in the contract that outlines how disagreements will be resolved, and the penalties that adhere to either party for breach of the contract.
Read the
Assessment 2 Context
document for important information related to the following topics:
Importance of Contracts.
Consideration, Capacity, and Legality.
Breach of Contract.
Creditors, Debtors, and Bankruptcy.
The New Frontier: E-Contracts.
Toggle Drawer
Questions to ConsiderTo deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.
SHOW LESS
What is the difference between an agreement and a contract? What is the difference between an offer and a contract?
If you sign a purchase agreement to buy a house but do not give the seller a deposit, and, after signing, you change your mind before you move in, are you bound by your agreement?
If you offer $500,000 for a person's house and the person responds that he or she wants $500,001, do you have a contract?
In a contract for the purchase and sale of a house, can the parties agree that the price for the house will be the market value of comparable houses on the day of closing?
Are there situations when someone can be bound to keep their promise even though they received nothing in return for their promise?
If the parties sign a purchase and sale agreement for the purchase of a house, and the house is destroyed shortly before the deed to the house is signed by the seller, who bears the risk of loss?
In the modern world, with the growing maturity of young people, are rules protecting minors from the enforcement of contracts archaic?
Toggle Dr.
2. In this session we will explore:
• -case law searching in Westlaw.
• -statutory searching in Westlaw.
• -the West Key Number System of searching.
• -how to determine if a case or statute is still good law.
• -ALR, aka American Law Reports.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. This is what you see when you
first open WestlawNext!
The search box is designed like Google
for simplicity.
24/7 assistance
11. If you know the case citation,
type it in. No capital letters or
periods are necessary.
12.
13. Let‟s take the following fact pattern…
• While your client was stopped for speeding, New York
State Police allowed a drug dog to sniff around the car.
When the dog alerted, a search of the car was conducted.
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, did the search
violate the 4th Amendment of the Constitution?
• Jurisdiction: U.S. Supreme Court
14.
15.
16. When you click a link for a specific court,
the 10 most recent cases from that court
are automatically displayed.
17. You have the option of running a
traditional Boolean search with terms
and connectors, or a natural
language search.
Westlaw recognizes whichever
search format you use.
Here, we are using
natural language searching.
18. 71 Supreme Court cases are
retrieved. You can sort by
relevance, date or most cited.
The right column lists a sampling of related
secondary sources and briefs.
19. You can narrow your search result using
filters in the left column by jurisdiction,
date, reported status, topic, judge,
attorney, law firm, key number, party and
docket number.
20. You can see how a
specific judge has
ruled on your
issue, which can
be helpful in
litigation.
21. Out of the 71
Supreme Court cases
our search retrieved,
let‟s identify the case
that Westlaw
determines most
relevant to our fact
pattern.
22. LET‟S RUN THE SEARCH
AGAIN, THIS TIME USING
BOOLEAN CONNECTORS.
Boolean searching, while not as easy as natural
language searching, allows you to control your search
results very specifically.
23. AND, OR, NOT…
• Boolean Operators are words (AND, OR, NOT) used to
combine or exclude words in a search, producing more
focused results.
• Click HERE for a simple visual explanation of this
concept.
24. Boolean Symbols in WestlawNext
Connectors and Expanders
• & AND
• /s In same sentence
• Or OR
• +s Preceding within sentence
• /p In same paragraph
• " " Phrase
• +p Preceding within paragraph
• % But not
• /n Within n terms of
• ! Root expander
• +n Preceding within n terms of
• * Universal character
When and how should I use
these?
• When: You have a focused
search in mind.
• How: Use one, two, or more in
combination.
• How: Don‟t get overwhelmed
with trying to incorporate
several connectors or
expanders.
• You may actually ELIMINATE useful results
this way!
25. Here is our same fact pattern…
• While your client was stopped for speeding, New York
State Police allowed a drug dog to sniff around the car.
When the dog alerted, a search of the car was conducted.
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, did the search
violate the 4th Amendment of the Constitution?
• Jurisdiction: U.S. Supreme Court
28. Here we are taking the key
concepts from our fact
pattern and requiring the
phrase “search and seizure”
or the phrase “4th
Amendment” to be in each
case.
We are also requiring the
word “dog” or “canine” as well
as the phrase “traffic stop” to
be present in all of the cases
we retrieve.
29. Note that each search, natural
language and Boolean, retrieved
Illinois v. Caballes as the key
case.
Boolean retrieved 75 cases,
natural language 71.
33. Here we have a
visual history of
how your case has
proceeded through
the courts.
34. To see how your case has
been used (cited) by other
cases, administrative
materials, secondary
sources and briefs, click
on Citing References.
This is an excellent tool for
attorneys and researchers
for determining how cases
have been interpreted,
analyzed and
distinguished.
45. No flag = good law so far - Yellow flag = caution – Red flag = no longer good
law (has been overruled, overturned)
Click on the flag for specific negative history. We will see this soon.
46. Just because there is no flag…
• … does not mean this is the best case!
• A case like Roe v. Wade – (Supreme Court of the United
States January 22, 1973 - 410 U.S. 113)
• A very famous U.S. Supreme Court case in the 1970s has
a yellow flag because some courts have not agreed with
certain aspects of the Court‟s ruling – but this case has
been cited over 22,000 times!
• If later cases have „cited‟ to (referred to) a case thousands
of times, even if there is some negative treatment, this
case is still good law, and very, very important!
• Bottom line: don‟t be afraid of cases with yellow flags!
47. SO LET‟S CHECK THE
NEGATIVE TREATMENT
for Illinois v. Caballes
48.
49. The most negative
treatment is displayed at the top of the
list. A red flag
warns that the case is no longer good law
for at least one of the points
it contains. A yellow flag warns that the
case has some negative history but
has not been reversed or overruled.
50. The green depth of treatment bars indicate the extent
to which citing cases discuss the cited case.
The headnote numbers indicate which headnotes
(points of law)
the citing case is discussing.
52. 1. A court issues an opinion in a case.
2. A copy of the case is obtained by West,
where attorney-editors read the cases and pick
out the points of law or legal issues in the
case.
3. These legal issues or points of law are
summarized in a “headnote” and assigned a
topic and key number.
53. Headnote 6 of Illinois v. Caballes is
discussed extensively in State v.
Griffin.
54. So is the case good law or what?
• The main ways to access KeyCite information are:
• while viewing a case with a KeyCite flag, click the flag.
• type kc or keycite followed by the case citation.
59. Terry v. Ohio
Let‟s find a New York case
that has applied the
landmark Supreme Court
case, Terry v. Ohio.
Police may stop a person
if they have a reasonable
suspicion that the person
has committed or is about
to commit a crime, and
may frisk the suspect for
weapons if they have
reasonable suspicion that
the suspect is armed and
dangerous, without
violating the Fourth
Amendment prohibition on
unreasonable searches
and seizures.
60.
61.
62. Some courts located in New York
(and in all of the United States) are
federal courts, which is why you see
both Federal and State court listings
under New York. It may seem
confusing at first, but it is the U.S.
court structure.
The following slide contains a very
simplified version of the U.S. court
structure. For further
clarification, ask your professor or a
librarian.
64. By selecting All New York
State Cases, we ensure
that we are getting cases
from NY trial courts,
appellate courts and most
importantly, NY‟s highest
court, the
New York Court of
Appeals.
66. We retrieved 610 New York cases containing Terry v. Ohio.
Note the cases can be sorted in order of relevance (most
extensively discussed)date (most recent first), most cited (referred
to most by other cases) or most used (similar to most cited, but
refers to Westlaw usage).
Most relevant or most cited are key cases.
67. Which case do I choose?
• After you have identified your issue and your key search
terms (or natural language terms), and retrieved a list of
cases, your challenge is then to determine which case(s)
you should use.
• This is where you need to take some time. Work with a
librarian, ask your professor, and balance whether the
case is still good law, and whether it closely follows your
fact pattern.
• This may sound overwhelming, but it can be done, with
practice and help!
70. 1. A court issues an opinion in a case.
2. A copy of the case is obtained by West,
where attorney-editors read the cases and pick
out the points of law or legal issues in the
case.
3. These legal issues or points of law are
summarized in a “headnote” and assigned a
topic and key number.
72. Click on “Tools” to access
the Key Number System.
Let‟s start from the
Home screen to see
how the Key Number
System works.
73.
74. Browse the list of topics to find the topic
related to your issue.
75. Click on the topic, e.g., searches and
seizures, to display the topic page, which
contains the key numbers (subtopics) classified under
that topic.
76. At the topic page, you
can zero in on key
numbers that match your
issue.
1.
2. (Select jurisdiction)
77. By selecting the general topic searches and seizures (topic #349), and
then within that topic selecting the key number(s) associated with
your specific legal issue(s), you are able to easily search for cases that
discuss these legal issues.
90. Scroll down to the bottom of the statute.
You will find a Practice Commentary at the
end of each statute, written by practicing
attorneys. These commentaries give practical
advice for interpreting the statute.
91. This is a very extensive Practice Commentary
at the end of the statute. These are extremely useful for
interpreting statutes and cases that have applied the statutes.
92. You can view a statute‟s history, how
other cases have interpreted the
statute (Notes of Decisions), law review
and journal commentaries, cross-
references, library references, treatises
and practice aids, and more.
93. IS YOUR STATUTE STILL
GOOD LAW?
The same steps for cases apply to statute: while
viewing a statute with a KeyCite flag, click the flag; or
type KC or KeyCite followed by a citation in the search
box at the top of the page and click Search.
95. American Law Reports
• American Law Reports (ALR) delivers an objective, in-
depth analysis of your specific legal issue, together with a
complete list of every case – in every jurisdiction – that
discusses it.
• With thousands of attorney-authored articles covering the
entire breadth of U.S. law, ALR saves you time by taking
you deeper on a topic, faster.
• Use ALR to:
• Quickly get up to speed in an unfamiliar area of law.
• Locate all relevant case law in one easy step.
• Determine which cases are controlling and understand why.