Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

Chapter 2
If you have many cases to read, you can quickly scan the synopses to weed out the irrelevant
cases, but be advised that the synopsis is not part of the opinion. It is a helpful editorial
enhancement prepared by the publisher. Sometimes the court itself provides a synopsis. In that
case, you may see two synopses when you look at the document in a West reporter or on
Westlaw—one synopsis from West and one from the court.
Judge
The name of the judge who wrote the opinion is listed both in the synopsis or syllabus of a case
and on a separate line preceding the opinion. When more than one judge hears a case, the names
of judges who subscribe to an opinion (whether it is the opinion of the court, a concurring
opinion, or a dissenting opinion) are also provided. On Westlaw, the Westlaw Profiler feature
provides you with a direct link between a case law document you are viewing and a biographical
profile (where available) of the judge in the case.
Headnotes, Topics, and Key Numbers
Court decisions typically contain at least one legal issue. An issue is the question raised when the
facts of the case intersect with the rules of law. West attorney-editors identify the legal issues in
cases and discuss each issue in a headnote. Each headnote is usually one sentence. In reporters
and on Westlaw, headnotes appear between the synopsis and the opinion. A headnote in a
reporter begins with a number in boldface type followed by a topic name and key number. A
headnote on Westlaw contains additional information showing the full classification hierarchy
from the West Key Number System.
Headnotes are numbered so you can use them as you would a table of contents to the case.
Numbers corresponding to the headnote numbers appear inside brackets within the text of the
opinion. The bracketed number indicates the portion of text summarized by a particular
headnote. On Westlaw, you can jump from a headnote to the corresponding portion of the
opinion by clicking a hypertext link.
Immediately following the headnote number is the broad legal topic under which a West
attorney-editor has classified that particular headnote. Topics are the main headnote
classification. You can look in a West digest volume for the topic that you need or search cases
on Westlaw by topic.
After the topic in a West reporter, a key number is given. On Westlaw, the full classification
hierarchy appears between the topic and the key number. The key number represents a specific
aspect or subsection of a topic. For example, under topic 226, Joint Tenancy, key number 6
covers survivorship. West attorney-editors classify a headnote under all the applicable topics and
key numbers. The complete topic and key number outline is available on Westlaw in the West
Key Number Digest, which is discussed in Chapter 10.
Headnotes from cases are grouped in books called digests, where they are arranged by topics
and key numbers. Once you find a relevant topic and key number, you can continue with the
digests or search for the topic and key number on Westlaw (as explained in Chapter 10). The
lines of text in the digest are actually the headnotes themselves.
Writing headnotes is an art, not a science. Two attorney-editors may each see different sets of
legal issues in the same case. As in the debate as to whether Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire was the
20 Winning Research Skills