Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

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Secondary Sources, News, and Nonlegal Materials on Westlaw Most students have no problem finding the entertaining information. Our goal is to help you incorporate nonlegal materials into your class work. For example, you may want to research nonlegal materials in situations like the following: ■ When Relevant Case Law Is Scarce You may be surprised by how often you are unable to find a case exactly on point. That’s because a published opinion rarely accompanies the resolution of a legal dispute. Most often, parties settle out of court, submit to alternative dispute resolution, or simply drop their suit. Even if they go to trial, a written opinion may be unnecessary, as when a jury resolves a factual dispute. If a written opinion is issued at the trial level, it is usually just filed in the courthouse and not published. News reports about unpublished decisions and out-of-court settlements may help you spot a trend or develop arguments. ■ When You Are Developing a Public Policy Argument When you construct a legal argument in law school, you are expected to base it on the facts of the controversy and relevant legal precedent. However, there is also a long tradition of public policy argument in American law. Public policy arguments are frequently based on legislative facts. Named after the informationgathering a legislative body typically performs when considering legislation, the term also refers to information deemed to be within common knowledge. For example, a party urging a court to adopt a strict liability standard may offer evidence that strict liability leads to efficient resource allocation. The opposing party may offer evidence that strict liability would render its industry uncompetitive. At other times a party may wish to debate whether custody modifications cause children psychological trauma, whether spraying aerial herbicide creates health risks, or whether the death penalty deters crime. None of these arguments arises from the specific acts of parties from which a dispute arose. Instead, they are generalizations designed to focus the court’s attention on the broader context and impact of its ruling. When you think legislative facts might help you bolster an argument, consider the fact-finding capabilities of Westlaw. Newspaper databases, for example, are excellent sources for viewpoints on a wide variety of issues. Newspapers have long played an important role as a public forum and are a good source for gauging public opinion. Winning Research Skills 183
Chapter 13 ■ When You Are Investigating Areas of Emerging Law Believe it or not, spheres of human activity that the government does not regulate still exist. However, legal professionals often advise clients on how to proceed within these areas. Keep in mind that your role as an attorney will involve more than simply finding the law and reporting back to your client. Clients will rely on you for advice in predicting how a court or lawmaking body will react to a new enterprise they are contemplating. For example, how would you advise a client who is planning to start a business developing a high-yield biofuel crop using genetically engineered plants? What issues might arise if the genetically engineered plants “escape” your client’s field or if intensive cultivation strains an underground aquifer? Lawyers must sometimes be futurists, alert to both risks and opportunities. The Tabbed Business and News Page The tabbed Business and News page (Figure 13.4) includes the Shortcuts section that provides links to additional research tools, the Resources section that enables you to easily identify and access databases containing relevant information, and the ALLNEWS Search section in which you can quickly enter a Terms and Connectors or Natural Language search and run it in the All News database (ALLNEWS), which contains thousands of publications from NewsRoom. Figure 13.4: Tabbed Business and News page 184 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
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Fundamentals of Statutory Law Legis
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Fundamentals of Statutory Law For s
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Fundamentals of Statutory Law When
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Chapter 4 Fundamentals of Administr
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Figure 4.1: Authority and source no
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Fundamentals of Administrative Law
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Fundamentals of Administrative Law
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Chapter 5 Series Years Coverage ALR
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Chapter 5 references to West topics
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Chapter 6 Getting Started on Westla
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Getting Started on Westlaw 3. Selec
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Getting Started on Westlaw Receive
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Getting Started on Westlaw Deliveri
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Chapter 7 Retrieving a Document on
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Retrieving a Document on Westlaw by
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Using the Citation Field Retrieving
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Retrieving a Document on Westlaw by
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Chapter 8 Basics of Westlaw Searchi
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Figure 8.2: Westlaw Directory Basic
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Basics of Westlaw Searching (BERKLA
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Step 4: Enter Your Description or Q
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Figure 8.6: Thesaurus page Basics o
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Basics of Westlaw Searching Common
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The Root Expander (!) Basics of Wes
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Basics of Westlaw Searching OR Conn
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Basics of Westlaw Searching Restric
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Document Ranking Basics of Westlaw
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Chapter 9 Browsing Documents on Wes
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Your Search Result Display Browsing
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Browsing Documents on Westlaw Full-
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Browsing Documents on Westlaw ■ f
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Browsing Documents on Westlaw To us
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Browsing Documents on Westlaw Movin
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Browsing Documents on Westlaw When
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Figure 9.13: Profile of an attorney
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Chapter 10 Searching Case Law Datab
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Digest (di) Opinions (op) Citation
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Restricting Your Search by Field Se
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Searching Case Law Databases on Wes
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Chapter 11 Searching Legislative an
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Searching Legislative and Regulator
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