Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

Chapter 7
Using the Title Field
The title field (ti) is useful when you are searching for case law documents and other types of
documents such as articles from law reviews and other periodicals.
Follow these steps:
1. Access the appropriate database. The Search page is displayed.
2. Click the Terms and Connectors tab if it is not already selected.
3. Type your query, restricted to the title field, in the Search text box. The format used to restrict a search
to the title field is similar to that used to restrict a search to the citation field: ti followed by your search
terms in parentheses.
4. Click Search Westlaw.
For example, to retrieve the Stanford Law Review article “Standing Upright: The Moral and
Legal Standing of Humans and Other Apes,” access the Stanford Law Review database
(STNLR). At the Search page, click the Terms and Connectors tab, if necessary. Then type
ti(moral & ape) in the Search text box and click Search Westlaw.
Tips for Restricting Your Search to the Title Field
Situation Tip
The title contains common terms. Avoid using common terms (e.g., appellee,
appellant, defendant, plaintiff, co., corp., inc., and
limited). Include in your title field search the most
distinctive terms available. For example, to
retrieve the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit decision in A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster,
Inc., use this search in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit Cases database (CTA9):
ti(a&m & napster). Note that the v. from the case
title is replaced with the AND connector (&).
Both parties in a case have the same name. Use the paragraph connector (+p). For example, to
search in the Florida Family Law Cases database
(FLFL-CS) for a case entitled Anson v. Anson, type
ti(anson +p anson).
You are searching for a phrase within a title. Place quotation marks around the phrase in your
search. Westlaw will retrieve only those
documents that contain the terms in the same
order as they appear inside the quotation marks. If
you do not include quotation marks, Westlaw will
read each space between the terms as or. For
example, to retrieve the U.S. Supreme Court case
New York Times Co., Inc. v. Tasini, access the All
U.S. Supreme Court Cases database (SCT) and
type the following query: ti(“new york times” &
tasini)
72 Winning Research Skills