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Editor's Notes
- NOW is the best starting point to launch the library’s databases. The direct url for NOW is https://now.ntu.ac.uk – you may find it useful to save this page as a favourite or bookmark. From this page, click to log in.
- At the sign in screen, enter your NTU username and password and click log in.
- You’ll now be taken to your NOW home page, listing all your learning rooms in the centre. Scroll down until you see the Library Search widgets on the left hand side of the screen.
- Click on Access eSearch
- This is the eSearch homepage, from where you can access the library’s databases and electronic journals. You may also find it useful to bookmark this page, or save it as a favourite.
- In the find a database box in the top left hand corner, enter the name of the database you which to search, in this case Westlaw, and then click on Find it at NTU.
- An interim screen appears, listing westlaw in the middle of the screen. Click on the name Westlaw to open the database.
- Westlaw requires you to select Nottingham Trent University from this drop –down menu of institutions, so scroll down and select it. You may be prompted to log in again – if so, just enter your NTU username and password.
- I’ve now reached the Westlaw home page. Westlaw is a vast database containing case law, legislation, journal articles and summaries, EU law and some full text commentary sources. The home page offers a basic search facility, but unless you are doing a very speculative search for everything on a particular topic, I would advise you to ignore this basic search option, as it tends to overwhelm you with results. Instead, depending on the type of material you are looking for, you will get better results by selecting the appropriate subject heading from the top menu bar, in this example, Cases.
- I’m now presented with a case law search screen offering me three basic search options – Free text (which will search for the words you type in anywhere in a westlaw record), Party Names (which will search for the words you type in only in the party names field) and Citation (which allows you to type in either a neutral or law reports citation).
- In this first example, I’m entering Reynolds v Times in the party names field. You’ll notice that Westlaw isn’t case sensitive, so you don’t need to include capital letters. Click on Search to run your search.
- Westlaw has found me two results.
- Scrolling down, I can see that the results are in chronological order, with the most recent decision (House of Lords) first, and the earlier Court of Appeal decision appearing afterwards. Westlaw offers a Case Analysis document for all case records, and will also provide full text law reports options where they are available on Westlaw. I’m going to select the Case Analysis document for the House of Lords judgment.
- On the left hand side you can see the different areas covered by the case analysis document – here I can learn about the cases history, about later cases which have referred to the House of Lords decision in Reynolds v Times, and about any journal articles which have been written about this case. The Documents on Westlaw section provides links to full text law reports versions of this judgment. Westlaw also offers a graphical history option.
- This graphically illustrates the direct history of the Reynolds v Times case. To return to the cases search screen, click on the Cases tab on the top menu bar.
- Click on the Advanced Search button to see even more case law search options within Westlaw.
- Here you can do a much more detailed search – you can search by keyword, for cases which cite a particular piece of legislation or which cite another case.
- In this example, I’m searching for cases which specifically mention Section 1 of the Defamation Act 1996
- This search has resulted in 14 results, which I could now work my way through. Now we’ll look at how to search for cases in the LexisLibrary database.
- I’ve gone back to the eSearch home page and this time entered LexisLibrary in the Find a database box.
- Click on the name LexisLibrary in the centre of the screen
- I’m now at the LexisLibrary home page. Like Westlaw, LExisLibrary also contains case law, legislation, commentary sources and journal articles. It also offers a Quick Find search option from the home page, but if you haven’t got a particular case or piece of legislation in mind, and you want to search by keyword, you will get more search options by selecting the appropriate heading from the top menu bar. In this example, I’ll click on the Cases tab.
- I’m now in the Cases search area, and am presented with search boxes which are more relevant to someone performing a search for case law. The Case name field is where you would enter your party names, the Search terms box is a free text search option, and the Summary field is where you can enter your keywords.
- I’m entering Reynolds v Times in the Case name fields – note that this is not case sensitive.
- LexisLibrary has returned 13 results where Reynolds and Times appear in the party names fields.
- Scrolling down in the list of results, I can find the ones I’m interested in. LexisLibrary lists all versions of the cases individually, including full text versions from different law reports series, and its CaseSearch results. Case Search is LexisLibrary’s database of case summaries, so I’ll click on the Case Search result for the House of Lords judgment.
- The case search document provides a summary of the case (this appears at the bottom, so you’ll need to scroll down), as well as information about the case’s history, both direct (detailing earlier court versions of this case) and its indirect history (references to other cases which refer to the decision in Reynolds v Times).
- You’ve now seen some sample case law searched in Westlaw and LExisLibrary. If you want further information on using these databases, refer to the Westlaw and LexisLibrary tutorials in the Law Guides & Tutorials section of the Legal Resources Compulsory Training Room.