Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

Chapter 1
A Short History of Legal Research
Our short history of legal research begins with the earliest days of the American republic. Finding the
law was pretty simple for the small group of lawyers who practiced 200 years ago. Almost all the
information they needed was contained in the American edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries on
the Laws of England—the great multivolume, comprehensive law text of the 18th century. With
Blackstone, a desk, and an inkwell, you were a lawyer.
The Development of Legal Publishing
By the end of the 19th century, even the most erudite attorney could know only a fraction of the law.
Responding to the need for a way to manage the growing body of legal information, large legal
publishing companies developed. Many of today’s legal publishers, such as West, began their work
during this period.
Between 1875 and 1900, legal publishers introduced the types of law books you’ll find in the library
today, such as regional reporters, case law digests, and citators. They also developed updating and
supplementing tools such as pocket parts, advance sheets, and looseleaf services.
During the second half of the 20th century, publishers turned to technology as the body of cases,
statutes, and regulations grew. One of the first solutions, for example, was to use microfiche for
mass storage. A filing cabinet of fiche could replace a whole library of books. This technology,
however, never really took hold. It was difficult to use and offered little in the way of enhanced
value.
Computer-Assisted Legal Research
Much legal research now takes place online, where information and services are linked and available
anytime, from virtually any location, with the click of a mouse or the touch of a button.
Computer-assisted legal research systems such as Westlaw were introduced in the 1970s and gained
wide acceptance in the 1980s. Westlaw databases contain millions of documents, and nearly every
word in these documents is a possible search term and indexing term.
Westlaw was built using a search method called Boolean logic. This method of finding information is
based on the theories of George Boole, a 19th-century mathematician. Boolean logic involves
choosing key words or terms and specifying the relationship the terms have to each other by placing
connectors between terms.
Winning Research Skills 3