Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

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The Root Expander (!) Basics of Westlaw Searching To retrieve words with variant endings, use the root expander (!). When you place the root expander at the end of a root term, you retrieve all forms of that root. The root expander does not retrieve related terms that do not begin with the root word; e.g., drink! does not retrieve drunk. To search for these forms, use the universal character (refer to the explanation below). Term Retrieves drink! drink drinking drinker drinkable drinkability Note: Using the root expander (!) without considering all the word variations it may generate is a common error. For example, if you enter tax!, Westlaw may display a message indicating that tax! generates too many terms. Think about all the words that have the root tax: taxability, taxi, taxable, taxicab, taxiway, taxation, taxidermy, taxonomist, taxational, taxied, taxonomy, taxes, taxing, and taxpayer. To retrieve documents containing particular terms (e.g., tax, taxes, taxation, taxable, or taxability), use those terms in your query. (Remember that tax retrieves tax, taxes, tax’s and taxes’.) The Universal Character (*) The universal character or asterisk (*) represents one variable character. You can place universal characters in the middle or at the end of a term, but not at the beginning. When you place universal characters at the end of a term, you specify the maximum length of that term. When you place a universal character in the middle of a term, you require that a character fill that position. The number of universal characters you can use within a term is unlimited. Also, you can combine characters and root expanders in one term: dr*nk! Term Retrieves host*** kn*w all forms of the root host that have up to three additional characters, such as hosted hostess hosting know knew Choosing Connectors In addition to choosing terms for your query, you must also choose connectors to specify relationships between your search terms. Click a connector in the Add Connectors or Expanders list at the bottom of a database Search page to add the connector to your query. To view a list of connectors and brief explanations of their function in a search, click Help next to Add Connectors or Expanders at the bottom of the Search page. Winning Research Skills 85
Chapter 8 Refer to the following chart when using the Terms and Connectors search method. Connector Westlaw retrieves documents AND & OR a space Grammatical Connectors /p Numerical Connectors containing both search terms: work-place & safety containing either search term or both search terms: landlord lessor containing search terms in the same paragraph: warrant! /p habitab! AND Connector Use the AND connector (&) to retrieve documents containing two or more search terms anywhere in the document. For example, the query seat-belt & mitigat! requires that all forms of the compound term seat-belt and any word with the root mitigat appear in the document. Keep in mind that when you use the AND connector, one term may appear on the first page of a document and the other may appear on the last. For this reason, you will often find it desirable to use more restrictive connectors. +p /s +s /n (where n is a number from 1 to 255) +n (where n is a number from 1 to 255) Phrase “ ” BUT NOT % in which the first search term precedes the second search term within the same paragraph: ti(burke +p burke) containing search terms in the same sentence: danger! /s defect! in which the first search term precedes the second search term within the same sentence: capital +s gain containing search terms within n terms of each other: issue /5 fact in which the first search term precedes the second search term by n terms: 20 +5 1080 containing search terms in the same order as they appear inside the quotation marks: “constructive notice” not containing the term or terms following the percent symbol: union % “american civil liberties union” 86 Winning Research Skills
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Winning Research Skills PROFESSIONA
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ALR, American Digest System, Am Jur
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Contents Introduction - - - - - - -
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Administrative Decisions . . . . .
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Adding Related Concepts . . . . . .
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Using an Index to Retrieve Statutes
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Chapter 15 The Research Process-Con
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Chapter 1 A Short History of Legal
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A Short History of Legal Research c
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Chapter 2 After a slip opinion is m
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Chapter 2 ■ Where the official re
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Chapter 2 On Westlaw, the All U.S.
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Chapter 2 Systematic editorial trea
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Chapter 2 A Westlaw Citation If an
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Chapter 2 Parts of a Case Understan
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Chapter 2 If you have many cases to
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Chapter 2 Using Case Digests Digest
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Chapter 2 Using the Descriptive-Wor
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Chapter 2 Figure 2.9: Headnote para
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Chapter 2 Using the Table of Cases
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Chapter 2 Case Citation Research As
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Chapter 3 Fundamentals of Statutory
Page 50 and 51: Fundamentals of Statutory Law Legis
Page 52 and 53: Fundamentals of Statutory Law For s
Page 54 and 55: Fundamentals of Statutory Law When
Page 56 and 57: Chapter 4 Fundamentals of Administr
Page 58 and 59: Figure 4.1: Authority and source no
Page 60 and 61: Fundamentals of Administrative Law
Page 62: Fundamentals of Administrative Law
Page 65 and 66: Chapter 5 Series Years Coverage ALR
Page 67 and 68: Chapter 5 references to West topics
Page 70 and 71: Chapter 6 Getting Started on Westla
Page 72 and 73: ■ Cookies enabled ■ JavaScript
Page 74 and 75: Getting Started on Westlaw 3. Selec
Page 76 and 77: Getting Started on Westlaw Receive
Page 78 and 79: Getting Started on Westlaw Deliveri
Page 80 and 81: Chapter 7 Retrieving a Document on
Page 82 and 83: Retrieving a Document on Westlaw by
Page 84 and 85: Using the Citation Field Retrieving
Page 86 and 87: Retrieving a Document on Westlaw by
Page 88 and 89: Chapter 8 Basics of Westlaw Searchi
Page 90 and 91: Figure 8.2: Westlaw Directory Basic
Page 92 and 93: Basics of Westlaw Searching (BERKLA
Page 94 and 95: Step 4: Enter Your Description or Q
Page 96 and 97: Figure 8.6: Thesaurus page Basics o
Page 98 and 99: Basics of Westlaw Searching Common
Page 102 and 103: Basics of Westlaw Searching OR Conn
Page 104 and 105: Basics of Westlaw Searching Restric
Page 106 and 107: Document Ranking Basics of Westlaw
Page 108 and 109: Chapter 9 Browsing Documents on Wes
Page 110 and 111: Your Search Result Display Browsing
Page 112 and 113: Browsing Documents on Westlaw Full-
Page 114 and 115: Browsing Documents on Westlaw ■ f
Page 116 and 117: Browsing Documents on Westlaw To us
Page 118 and 119: Browsing Documents on Westlaw Movin
Page 120 and 121: Browsing Documents on Westlaw When
Page 122 and 123: Figure 9.13: Profile of an attorney
Page 124 and 125: Chapter 10 Searching Case Law Datab
Page 126 and 127: Digest (di) Opinions (op) Citation
Page 128 and 129: Restricting Your Search by Field Se
Page 130 and 131: Searching Case Law Databases on Wes
Page 140 and 141: 2. At the Custom Digest search page
Page 144 and 145: Chapter 11 Searching Legislative an
Page 146 and 147: Searching Legislative and Regulator
Page 148 and 149: Field abbreviation Restricting Your
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Searching Legislative and Regulator
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Using an Index to Retrieve Statutes
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Chapter 12 ■ citations to session
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Chapter 12 KeyCite Status Flags A K
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Chapter 12 documents, such as brief
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Chapter 12 Restricting Citing Refer
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Chapter 12 To access KeyCite Locate
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Chapter 12 Limit by Jurisdiction To
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Chapter 12 abbreviation in the Publ
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Chapter 12 2. A list of the types o
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Chapter 12 Figure 12.16 shows an ex
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Chapter 12 under which the notes of
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Chapter 12 Your list of citing refe
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Chapter 12 To restrict the citing r
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Chapter 12 Creating a KeyCite Alert
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Chapter 12 Table of Authorities The
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Chapter 12 case containing the cite
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Chapter 12 Figure 12.32:Citations l
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Chapter 13 Secondary Sources, News,
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An example of an ALR annotation is
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Secondary Sources, News, and Nonleg
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WestClip Secondary Sources, News, a
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Chapter 14 Delivering Documents on
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Selecting Default Delivery Settings
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Each entry in the Print/Delivery Ma
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Chapter 15 Step 3: Budget Your Time
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Appendix A West Digest Topics and T
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213 Innkeepers 216 Inspection 217 I
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Appendix B Federal Courts of Appeal
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Appendix C State Courts Information
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Index -A- abbreviations 84 accessin
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multiple database searching 75 Rece
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statutes and regulations indexes on
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previous section 94, 101, 134 prici
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United States courts of appeals 12
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