The document provides an overview of the various types of databases available on Westlaw that can assist paralegals in their work. It describes databases containing legal forms, practice guides, litigation materials, news sources, and public records. It provides examples of specific databases in each category and how they can be searched or tools used to locate relevant information within the databases. The document is intended to familiarize paralegal students with the resources on Westlaw that will be useful to them as practicing paralegals.
Potential liability issues can arise for lawyers who perform or handle patent and trademark searches. Searches involve complex legal and technical analysis that requires careful documentation and client communication. An inadequate or negligent search could result in a malpractice claim if a pertinent patent is missed, leading to infringement claims or wasted R&D costs. While legal authorities provide little direct guidance, lawyers have duties of competence, diligence, and candor that require properly advising clients about search methodologies, limitations, and disclaimers in writing. Failure to conduct a reasonable search or keep clients informed may form the basis for a legal malpractice lawsuit.
The document provides an overview of research resources available at Heterick Memorial Library for mechanical engineering students, including assigning a personal librarian, finding books, articles, patents, and an explanation of the research process. Key databases covered are Compendex for engineering literature and Derwent Innovations Index for patents. Librarians are available for in-person or remote research assistance.
This document discusses the need for a paradigm shift in how law schools integrate patent research training into their curriculum to better prepare law students for patent practice. It outlines how currently very few law schools provide dedicated patent searching education. The UNH Law model is highlighted as pioneering in offering a two-year patent searching curriculum including a dedicated patent research class, clinics, and certificate. For a shift to occur, factors like conscious awareness, improved communication between law schools and firms, and additional resources need to be addressed. Student peer-to-peer education and embedding law librarians in firms are suggested to help bridge the gap between academic and professional training.
Once you identify a problem within an industry or industries, you should delve into it more deeply. Questions might include:
- What are the various perspectives on this issue? Who are the stakeholders?
- Who benefits from the current situation and who loses out?
- Is it widely acknowledged to be a problem? Why or why not? By all or only by some?
- When/why/how did the problem come to be?
- Are there relevant sources of federal or state law, including cases or statutes, that exacerbate, ameliorate, or contributed to the creation of this problem?
- Are there cases that acknowledge the problem? How do they frame it? - Are the approaches of various jurisdictions consistent or inconsistent?
- What, if anything, brought the problem to a head or led to awareness of it?
- Would any proposed legislation or pending cases resolve the issue?
- What is the universe of possible solutions?
- Which solution do you advocate and why?
- What values motivate that choice?
This document provides an overview of global patent mining tools and strategies. It outlines the learning objectives which include understanding patent searching vocabulary, data sources and limitations, and Professor Cavicchi's iterative hybrid patent searching approach. The document discusses the three phases of patent searches: search, analysis, and reporting. It provides examples of patent data sources and how patent data is used for various purposes like competitor intelligence, statistical analysis, and intellectual capital management. The types of traditional patent searches are also outlined, including patentability, infringement, freedom to operate, and validity searches.
This document discusses resources for empirical patent research including data sources, challenges, and tools. It provides an overview of available raw patent data sources such as national and regional patent office databases. It also outlines proprietary patent platforms and existing statistical datasets. The document notes that literature in the field is interdisciplinary and dispersed, and comprehensive searching is challenging. It recommends statistical software and working with colleagues in related fields like economics.
Join Janet Bancroft and Debora Brownyard, from the Nebraska State Court Administrator's Office, as they debut the new Nebraska Online Legal Self-Help Center and other Web Resources. This "virtual" Self-Help Center has information and links to legal resources to help you represent yourself in Nebraska Courts. Richard Leiter, Director and Professor of Law at UNL’s Schmid Law Library, will join the discussion to provide ‘insider’ tips on legal research for the non law librarian using online resources.
NCompass Live - April 6, 2011
Practical Legal Research training presented to the Legal Practice, Integrated Assessment Program and Final Year classes at the UCT Law Faculty. It covers various legal research skills, including the research process for practical legal problems.
Potential liability issues can arise for lawyers who perform or handle patent and trademark searches. Searches involve complex legal and technical analysis that requires careful documentation and client communication. An inadequate or negligent search could result in a malpractice claim if a pertinent patent is missed, leading to infringement claims or wasted R&D costs. While legal authorities provide little direct guidance, lawyers have duties of competence, diligence, and candor that require properly advising clients about search methodologies, limitations, and disclaimers in writing. Failure to conduct a reasonable search or keep clients informed may form the basis for a legal malpractice lawsuit.
The document provides an overview of research resources available at Heterick Memorial Library for mechanical engineering students, including assigning a personal librarian, finding books, articles, patents, and an explanation of the research process. Key databases covered are Compendex for engineering literature and Derwent Innovations Index for patents. Librarians are available for in-person or remote research assistance.
This document discusses the need for a paradigm shift in how law schools integrate patent research training into their curriculum to better prepare law students for patent practice. It outlines how currently very few law schools provide dedicated patent searching education. The UNH Law model is highlighted as pioneering in offering a two-year patent searching curriculum including a dedicated patent research class, clinics, and certificate. For a shift to occur, factors like conscious awareness, improved communication between law schools and firms, and additional resources need to be addressed. Student peer-to-peer education and embedding law librarians in firms are suggested to help bridge the gap between academic and professional training.
Once you identify a problem within an industry or industries, you should delve into it more deeply. Questions might include:
- What are the various perspectives on this issue? Who are the stakeholders?
- Who benefits from the current situation and who loses out?
- Is it widely acknowledged to be a problem? Why or why not? By all or only by some?
- When/why/how did the problem come to be?
- Are there relevant sources of federal or state law, including cases or statutes, that exacerbate, ameliorate, or contributed to the creation of this problem?
- Are there cases that acknowledge the problem? How do they frame it? - Are the approaches of various jurisdictions consistent or inconsistent?
- What, if anything, brought the problem to a head or led to awareness of it?
- Would any proposed legislation or pending cases resolve the issue?
- What is the universe of possible solutions?
- Which solution do you advocate and why?
- What values motivate that choice?
This document provides an overview of global patent mining tools and strategies. It outlines the learning objectives which include understanding patent searching vocabulary, data sources and limitations, and Professor Cavicchi's iterative hybrid patent searching approach. The document discusses the three phases of patent searches: search, analysis, and reporting. It provides examples of patent data sources and how patent data is used for various purposes like competitor intelligence, statistical analysis, and intellectual capital management. The types of traditional patent searches are also outlined, including patentability, infringement, freedom to operate, and validity searches.
This document discusses resources for empirical patent research including data sources, challenges, and tools. It provides an overview of available raw patent data sources such as national and regional patent office databases. It also outlines proprietary patent platforms and existing statistical datasets. The document notes that literature in the field is interdisciplinary and dispersed, and comprehensive searching is challenging. It recommends statistical software and working with colleagues in related fields like economics.
Join Janet Bancroft and Debora Brownyard, from the Nebraska State Court Administrator's Office, as they debut the new Nebraska Online Legal Self-Help Center and other Web Resources. This "virtual" Self-Help Center has information and links to legal resources to help you represent yourself in Nebraska Courts. Richard Leiter, Director and Professor of Law at UNL’s Schmid Law Library, will join the discussion to provide ‘insider’ tips on legal research for the non law librarian using online resources.
NCompass Live - April 6, 2011
Practical Legal Research training presented to the Legal Practice, Integrated Assessment Program and Final Year classes at the UCT Law Faculty. It covers various legal research skills, including the research process for practical legal problems.
This document provides an overview of resources for researching entertainment law, including primary sources like statutes and regulations, secondary sources like treatises and journals, industry associations, and law school resources. It emphasizes the wide range of topics covered in entertainment law and encourages exploring a variety of source types. Key recommendations include getting to know pricing options for legal research tools, doing comparative searches using free and premium services, and developing a personal research toolkit.
This document summarizes a webinar on integrating law school and law firm patent research. It discusses the current paradigm where law schools offer little patent research training. The UNH Law model is presented as pioneering patent research education. A need for a paradigm shift is described to better prepare law students for patent practice. Aspects of the shift include improved communication between firms, schools, and associations. Training programs like IP boot camps at firms are discussed. The webinar aims to develop a new integrated paradigm for patent research education between academic and practice settings.
This presentation was given to the Masters class for Intellectual Property Law in order to familiarise themselves with the UCT Law Library, its staff, procedures and policies and its resources. It gives an overview of the different resources, with short how-tos included on their use.
This training is presented to first year law students to familiarise them with legal resources available at UCT. The training covers how to access the different resources and conduct basic searches.
The document discusses building a legal research toolkit using open web resources to replace premium legal research services. It recommends assembling resources from dedicated IP sites, general law sites, non-legal interdisciplinary sites, and developing an information-seeking behavior focused on IP. Key components of the toolkit include news, professional organizations, law firms, law schools, trade associations, primary and secondary legal sources, and using social media and technology. The document emphasizes that open web resources require evaluating coverage, currency, accuracy, and developing strategies to stay updated as resources change over time.
Forsyth Library provides resources and assistance to help students with research from off campus through services like LexisNexis Academic Universe, which contains full text articles from newspapers and newswire services around the world that can be printed, saved, or emailed. LexisNexis allows for general news, business, legal, and medical searches and results can be sorted by relevance or date while full text articles can be viewed, printed, emailed or saved. Contact information is provided for the library for any additional questions.
Research Skills for International Law Moot Court Competition 'Phillip C. Jess...Riyad Febrian Anwar
This presentation covers the brief overview of legal research on public international law and how to conduct internet research. It also offers some insights into how to keep student research progress in check.
This document provides an overview of resources for researching international patent law. It begins by explaining the relationship between international patent law, national patent laws, and patent harmonization. It then discusses various types of secondary sources for international patent law research, including treaties and conventions, judicial decisions from organizations like the European Patent Office and WTO, and government and non-governmental organization resources. The document provides examples of specific sources within each of these categories.
Patent Database Mining and Patent Information Management spkowalski
This document describes Franklin Pierce Law Center's unique program for teaching patent searching and analysis. The program includes an introductory course called "Mining Patent Data" that teaches fundamental searching skills. It also includes two semesters of the ITTI Patent Landscape Clinic where students apply their skills to real-world projects analyzing patent landscapes for technologies relevant to global health and agriculture. The program aims to produce practice-ready patent professionals and has resulted in over 250 alumni becoming experienced patent searchers.
This presentation discusses library cataloging fundamentals. It begins with an overview of basic cataloging concepts such as organizing information in a logical way to facilitate access. It then discusses different cataloging rules for various formats and containers for records like databases and library catalogs. Finally, it touches on cataloging tools and standards like MARC and metadata, providing tips and resources for cataloging.
This document provides an overview of practical approaches for patent searching. It discusses the various parts of a patent document that are searchable fields, including the specifications, claims, abstract, drawings, and front page. It also covers understanding patent families, the searchable fields available on different patent platforms, formulating the objective or question to ask of the patent data, and who is best positioned to perform different types of patent searches. Additionally, the document discusses challenges like classification systems not being fully up-to-date, keywords being used in abstract ways in patents, and mistakes commonly found in patents. It emphasizes that patent searching is an iterative process involving continuous refinement of searches.
ICIC 2014 Future Role of Information Professionals and Providers: Certificat...Dr. Haxel Consult
What will be the role of Informartion Professionals ? For years the Confederacy of European patent Information User Group has been working on the Certification for Patent Information Professionals. The certification for patent information specialists is an indispensable tool for guaranteeing that the patent searching profession is able to continue meeting the quality standards of the European industry, for providing recognition for people working as patent information specialists and for new entrants in the profession. In this presentation, I will explain what the Certification project is about, I will give a status update and review the plan for the future. As always, the role of Providers in this project is very important to ensure the right organizational support.
Legal Research: Advanced Techniques and Research ParadigmsNeal Axton
This presentation compares and contrasts different approaches to legal research. This presentation was given to the Advanced Legal Research Class at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota on August 23, 2013 by Neal R. Axton, JD, MLIS
The document describes Thomson Reuters Practice Point, a legal research platform that integrates various legal resources like Practical Law, Westlaw forms and secondary sources, and time-saving tools in one place organized by practice area and task. It highlights how Practice Point allows users to efficiently focus on their legal work without sorting through irrelevant information. The platform provides curated content and workflow tools to help users deliver work faster. Practice Point covers major practice areas and their key legal tasks to provide guidance for attorneys.
Green, Gold, and the red white and blue: using open access and government inf...Seth Porter, MA, MLIS
Searching as strategic exploration involves evaluating a range of information sources in a nonlinear and iterative manner. Novice learners tend to search fewer resources and use limited strategies, while experts search more broadly and deeply using various strategies tailored to the task. Developing strategic searching involves determining scope, identifying relevant parties, using divergent and convergent thinking, matching tools to needs, refining searches, understanding information systems, and managing processes and results effectively. Open access repositories, journals, government information, and think tanks can reinforce strategic searching and build information literacy by promoting critical evaluation of sources. Assignments should have students analyze sources from these venues and incorporate high-quality, unbiased results into their research.
Paralegal's Guide to the Methodology of Effective Legal ResearchMichael Kaiser, JD.
Presented by Michael Kaiser to a national audience on October 25, 2011, on behalf of the Institute for Paralegal Education.
Mr. Kaiser, founder of the Kaiser Legal Group, is a consultant and mediator. He also regularly speaks at the law school level and at Continuing Legal Education (CLE) seminars for attorneys. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Washington and his Juris Doctor from Seattle University. You may contact him at 206-660-2858 or Michael.Kaiser@Kaiser-LegalGroup.org.
This document provides an introduction and overview of resources for researching company information. It begins by introducing the librarian and contact information. It then describes the libraries at Ohio Northern University and explains how to use the university ID card as a library card. The rest of the document outlines various research tools and databases for finding company information, including catalogs, periodicals, and subject-specific databases. It provides guidance on citation styles and bibliographic management software. Finally, it discusses specific resources for company reports, histories, financial data, and international business directories.
This document provides an overview of resources available at the library for researching company information. It begins with an introduction and goals for the session. The document then reviews Boolean logic and provides examples. It outlines several databases and tools for finding company information, including Company websites, annual reports, directories, Hoover's, EDGAR, and S&P NetAdvantage. Other sections discuss print resources, annual reports, international company histories, and glossary terms. Throughout the document, specific databases are highlighted and instructions for accessing resources through the library are provided.
This document provides step-by-step instructions for conducting library research for a political science course. It outlines choosing a topic and keywords, constructing a search strategy using keywords and synonyms, selecting appropriate research tools like books, articles, and primary sources, running searches and evaluating results, and obtaining full texts and citations. The instructions are illustrated with an example research question on US policy toward China's currency.
Library Research for Legal Researchers at UCSDAnnelise Sklar
This document provides a step-by-step guide for legal researchers on how to conduct library research. It outlines choosing a topic and keywords, selecting appropriate research tools and databases, constructing search strategies, running searches, obtaining citation information, accessing full texts, and evaluating sources. Key databases for legal research include Westlaw Next, LexisNexis Academic, and HeinOnline. The guide stresses developing a focused research question and using subject headings and cited references to expand searches.
The document introduces and discusses various free online legal resources. It begins by outlining the purpose of exploring free legal sources and then describes several secondary source databases like the Legal Information Institute and SSRN Legal Scholarship Network. It also discusses primary law sources such as FDsys and Google Scholar. The document notes both the benefits of free online research, such as accessibility, but also the limitations, such as lack of annotations and difficulty validating information. It encourages using these free resources judiciously along with commercial databases.
This document provides an overview of resources for researching entertainment law, including primary sources like statutes and regulations, secondary sources like treatises and journals, industry associations, and law school resources. It emphasizes the wide range of topics covered in entertainment law and encourages exploring a variety of source types. Key recommendations include getting to know pricing options for legal research tools, doing comparative searches using free and premium services, and developing a personal research toolkit.
This document summarizes a webinar on integrating law school and law firm patent research. It discusses the current paradigm where law schools offer little patent research training. The UNH Law model is presented as pioneering patent research education. A need for a paradigm shift is described to better prepare law students for patent practice. Aspects of the shift include improved communication between firms, schools, and associations. Training programs like IP boot camps at firms are discussed. The webinar aims to develop a new integrated paradigm for patent research education between academic and practice settings.
This presentation was given to the Masters class for Intellectual Property Law in order to familiarise themselves with the UCT Law Library, its staff, procedures and policies and its resources. It gives an overview of the different resources, with short how-tos included on their use.
This training is presented to first year law students to familiarise them with legal resources available at UCT. The training covers how to access the different resources and conduct basic searches.
The document discusses building a legal research toolkit using open web resources to replace premium legal research services. It recommends assembling resources from dedicated IP sites, general law sites, non-legal interdisciplinary sites, and developing an information-seeking behavior focused on IP. Key components of the toolkit include news, professional organizations, law firms, law schools, trade associations, primary and secondary legal sources, and using social media and technology. The document emphasizes that open web resources require evaluating coverage, currency, accuracy, and developing strategies to stay updated as resources change over time.
Forsyth Library provides resources and assistance to help students with research from off campus through services like LexisNexis Academic Universe, which contains full text articles from newspapers and newswire services around the world that can be printed, saved, or emailed. LexisNexis allows for general news, business, legal, and medical searches and results can be sorted by relevance or date while full text articles can be viewed, printed, emailed or saved. Contact information is provided for the library for any additional questions.
Research Skills for International Law Moot Court Competition 'Phillip C. Jess...Riyad Febrian Anwar
This presentation covers the brief overview of legal research on public international law and how to conduct internet research. It also offers some insights into how to keep student research progress in check.
This document provides an overview of resources for researching international patent law. It begins by explaining the relationship between international patent law, national patent laws, and patent harmonization. It then discusses various types of secondary sources for international patent law research, including treaties and conventions, judicial decisions from organizations like the European Patent Office and WTO, and government and non-governmental organization resources. The document provides examples of specific sources within each of these categories.
Patent Database Mining and Patent Information Management spkowalski
This document describes Franklin Pierce Law Center's unique program for teaching patent searching and analysis. The program includes an introductory course called "Mining Patent Data" that teaches fundamental searching skills. It also includes two semesters of the ITTI Patent Landscape Clinic where students apply their skills to real-world projects analyzing patent landscapes for technologies relevant to global health and agriculture. The program aims to produce practice-ready patent professionals and has resulted in over 250 alumni becoming experienced patent searchers.
This presentation discusses library cataloging fundamentals. It begins with an overview of basic cataloging concepts such as organizing information in a logical way to facilitate access. It then discusses different cataloging rules for various formats and containers for records like databases and library catalogs. Finally, it touches on cataloging tools and standards like MARC and metadata, providing tips and resources for cataloging.
This document provides an overview of practical approaches for patent searching. It discusses the various parts of a patent document that are searchable fields, including the specifications, claims, abstract, drawings, and front page. It also covers understanding patent families, the searchable fields available on different patent platforms, formulating the objective or question to ask of the patent data, and who is best positioned to perform different types of patent searches. Additionally, the document discusses challenges like classification systems not being fully up-to-date, keywords being used in abstract ways in patents, and mistakes commonly found in patents. It emphasizes that patent searching is an iterative process involving continuous refinement of searches.
ICIC 2014 Future Role of Information Professionals and Providers: Certificat...Dr. Haxel Consult
What will be the role of Informartion Professionals ? For years the Confederacy of European patent Information User Group has been working on the Certification for Patent Information Professionals. The certification for patent information specialists is an indispensable tool for guaranteeing that the patent searching profession is able to continue meeting the quality standards of the European industry, for providing recognition for people working as patent information specialists and for new entrants in the profession. In this presentation, I will explain what the Certification project is about, I will give a status update and review the plan for the future. As always, the role of Providers in this project is very important to ensure the right organizational support.
Legal Research: Advanced Techniques and Research ParadigmsNeal Axton
This presentation compares and contrasts different approaches to legal research. This presentation was given to the Advanced Legal Research Class at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota on August 23, 2013 by Neal R. Axton, JD, MLIS
The document describes Thomson Reuters Practice Point, a legal research platform that integrates various legal resources like Practical Law, Westlaw forms and secondary sources, and time-saving tools in one place organized by practice area and task. It highlights how Practice Point allows users to efficiently focus on their legal work without sorting through irrelevant information. The platform provides curated content and workflow tools to help users deliver work faster. Practice Point covers major practice areas and their key legal tasks to provide guidance for attorneys.
Green, Gold, and the red white and blue: using open access and government inf...Seth Porter, MA, MLIS
Searching as strategic exploration involves evaluating a range of information sources in a nonlinear and iterative manner. Novice learners tend to search fewer resources and use limited strategies, while experts search more broadly and deeply using various strategies tailored to the task. Developing strategic searching involves determining scope, identifying relevant parties, using divergent and convergent thinking, matching tools to needs, refining searches, understanding information systems, and managing processes and results effectively. Open access repositories, journals, government information, and think tanks can reinforce strategic searching and build information literacy by promoting critical evaluation of sources. Assignments should have students analyze sources from these venues and incorporate high-quality, unbiased results into their research.
Paralegal's Guide to the Methodology of Effective Legal ResearchMichael Kaiser, JD.
Presented by Michael Kaiser to a national audience on October 25, 2011, on behalf of the Institute for Paralegal Education.
Mr. Kaiser, founder of the Kaiser Legal Group, is a consultant and mediator. He also regularly speaks at the law school level and at Continuing Legal Education (CLE) seminars for attorneys. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Washington and his Juris Doctor from Seattle University. You may contact him at 206-660-2858 or Michael.Kaiser@Kaiser-LegalGroup.org.
This document provides an introduction and overview of resources for researching company information. It begins by introducing the librarian and contact information. It then describes the libraries at Ohio Northern University and explains how to use the university ID card as a library card. The rest of the document outlines various research tools and databases for finding company information, including catalogs, periodicals, and subject-specific databases. It provides guidance on citation styles and bibliographic management software. Finally, it discusses specific resources for company reports, histories, financial data, and international business directories.
This document provides an overview of resources available at the library for researching company information. It begins with an introduction and goals for the session. The document then reviews Boolean logic and provides examples. It outlines several databases and tools for finding company information, including Company websites, annual reports, directories, Hoover's, EDGAR, and S&P NetAdvantage. Other sections discuss print resources, annual reports, international company histories, and glossary terms. Throughout the document, specific databases are highlighted and instructions for accessing resources through the library are provided.
This document provides step-by-step instructions for conducting library research for a political science course. It outlines choosing a topic and keywords, constructing a search strategy using keywords and synonyms, selecting appropriate research tools like books, articles, and primary sources, running searches and evaluating results, and obtaining full texts and citations. The instructions are illustrated with an example research question on US policy toward China's currency.
Library Research for Legal Researchers at UCSDAnnelise Sklar
This document provides a step-by-step guide for legal researchers on how to conduct library research. It outlines choosing a topic and keywords, selecting appropriate research tools and databases, constructing search strategies, running searches, obtaining citation information, accessing full texts, and evaluating sources. Key databases for legal research include Westlaw Next, LexisNexis Academic, and HeinOnline. The guide stresses developing a focused research question and using subject headings and cited references to expand searches.
The document introduces and discusses various free online legal resources. It begins by outlining the purpose of exploring free legal sources and then describes several secondary source databases like the Legal Information Institute and SSRN Legal Scholarship Network. It also discusses primary law sources such as FDsys and Google Scholar. The document notes both the benefits of free online research, such as accessibility, but also the limitations, such as lack of annotations and difficulty validating information. It encourages using these free resources judiciously along with commercial databases.
This document provides an overview of the legal research process and outlines key steps to take when conducting legal research using print and online resources. It begins with an introduction noting that legal research requires creativity and judgment. The document then covers translating facts into legal issues, identifying relevant statutes and case law, and expanding one's research. It emphasizes that legal research is iterative and may involve exploring different resources and paths. The document uses a hypothetical example involving an employee assault to illustrate the legal research process.
The 5-step process for researching foreign and comparative law involves: 1) Understanding the legal system's structure; 2) Identifying the needed legal document; 3) Locating primary sources; 4) Finding the full text; and 5) Consulting secondary sources if needed. Key resources include the Foreign Law Guide, WorldLII, GLIN, DoingBusiness, and subject specific compilations. The Hague Conference and State Department provide guidance on international legal cooperation and foreign litigation procedures.
This document provides an overview of how to use the LexisNexis database available through the University of the Western Cape library. It describes the three main search methods of using the table of contents, general text search, or advanced search. Advanced searches allow limiting to case law, legislation, or government gazettes. Search results can be filtered by document type. Boolean operators like AND and OR can refine searches. Saved search results and notes are stored in user folders. The legal citator tool identifies relationships between cases and legislation through signals like positive or negative treatment.
This document provides an overview of the legal research process. It begins by defining what law is, then discusses the different types of legal authorities such as statutes, regulations, and court opinions. It explains that Congress makes statutes, agencies make regulations, and courts interpret laws through opinions. The document then outlines the steps of the legal research process, including choosing search terms related to the research topic, selecting appropriate research tools like legal databases and libraries, searching and refining searches, evaluating sources, and repeating the process until enough information is found. Key legal research tools discussed are Westlaw, LexisNexis, HeinOnline, and government websites. The goal of the process is to find authorities to help answer a specific legal question.
This document provides information and resources for students participating in the VIS East Mooting Competition, including an overview of the competition problem, tips for mooting, and guides on how to research international arbitration law. It details several databases and sources for finding relevant case law, legislation, treaties, and secondary sources. Key databases mentioned include Kluwer Arbitration, Westlaw, LexisNexis, and various journal indexes. Tips are provided on effective search techniques within these resources.
The document provides guidance on conducting legal research using library resources. It outlines an 8 step process: 1) develop a research question, 2) choose relevant tools, 3) design search strategies, 4) apply limits, 5) obtain full text sources, 6) collect citations, 7) evaluate sources, and 8) repeat the process until enough information is found. Key tools mentioned include legal databases, law reviews, primary sources, and limits to refine searches. The overall process is iterative, starting with a question and searching multiple sources and keywords until quality sources are discovered.
This presentation will provide an introduction to desk research, with a particular focus on conducting market research. You will learn the best sources to use in your desk research, what desk research can be used for, and the best practices and limitations of conducting desk research.
This document provides an overview of the legal research process. It defines what law is and discusses the different types of legal authorities, including statutes passed by Congress, regulations by executive agencies, and case law interpretations by courts. It then outlines the steps to conduct legal research, including developing search terms, choosing appropriate research tools like legal databases and books, searching strategically, evaluating sources, and refining searches. The document provides examples of searching legal databases like LexisNexis and Westlaw and managing citations. The overall process is iterative, beginning with forming a research question and repeating searches across different tools and terms until enough information is found.
The document provides guidance on conducting legal research. It begins with an introduction that emphasizes legal research is both an art and a skill requiring judgment, creativity, and mastery of tools. It then walks through translating a sample fact pattern into legal issues. Specifically, it discusses identifying the relevant terms of art and "black letter law" from secondary sources to understand the general principles and parameters of the issue. The fact pattern provided involves a company driver shoving a customer during an argument, and the discussion centers on determining if the driver's actions fell within the scope of his employment, for which the company could face vicarious liability.
This document provides step-by-step instructions for conducting library research on human rights. It outlines choosing a topic and keywords, constructing a search strategy using databases and keywords, choosing the appropriate resources like books, scholarly articles, primary sources, and statistics, running searches and trying different tools, getting accurate citations, obtaining full texts when available, and evaluating sources. The overall process described is selecting a research topic, developing search strategies, searching library databases and catalogs, obtaining and citing sources, and assessing source credibility.
NARA Records Management Training - MIST Instructional Design ProjectAmanda Dinscore
This training was developed for NARA by a group of students in the Master's of Instructional Science and Technology (MIST) program at CSU Monterey Bay.
The document provides instructions on how to operate an iPad, including how to turn it on and off using the power button, how to return to the home screen using the home button, and how to access common apps like Safari, the App Store, Notification Center, and Control Panel using gestures. It also provides care instructions to clean the screen with a soft cloth and not to use liquids, and it notes that iPads purchased through Brown Mackie come with AppleCare+ warranty coverage including accidental damage insurance.
Sign into your Student Portal at My.BrownMackie.edu and click on Microsoft Office 365 to access your student email account. From there, you can add your student email to your iPad for mobile access to your email and Office 365 apps.
This document provides an overview of copyright law and fair use guidelines for educational institutions, specifically for-profit colleges. It discusses key aspects of copyright like public domain, fair use, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The document also examines how these laws apply to different educational content sources, such as videos from YouTube, Netflix, library databases, and personally owned content. Factors like purpose of use, amount of content used, and commercial nature are addressed.
This document provides guidance for instructors on how to effectively manage difficult situations with students. It outlines several challenging student scenarios such as students having technology issues, being disruptive talkers, lacking motivation, trying to leave class early, being overly friendly, complaining, falling asleep, becoming upset or aggressive. For each situation, it suggests potential instructor responses ranging from addressing the issue directly with the student, engaging other students, following up later, or getting assistance from other staff if needed. The overall aim is for instructors to encourage positive behavior, demonstrate professionalism, hold students accountable, and ensure all students can learn.
This document discusses strategies for promoting critical thinking in the classroom. It recommends that teachers transition from simply supplying answers to asking open-ended questions that have no right or wrong answers and encourage exploration. Questions should require students to synthesize information and understand how different concepts fit together. The document also identifies barriers to critical thinking like too much memorization and not enough conceptual learning. It provides strategies for critical thinking like assessing students' prior knowledge, setting learning purposes, and using questioning techniques that encourage elaboration, disagreement, summarization, and examining assumptions.
Microsoft 365 provides students with five downloads of Office for PC, Mac, or mobile devices, one terabyte of OneDrive cloud storage, Outlook email, and access to Office Online. Students can access Microsoft 365 through the Student Portal at http://My.BrownMackie.edu or the Microsoft portal at http://Portal.office.com. Faculty have access to Microsoft and Adobe software at substantial discounts by verifying their eligibility at http://edmc.onthehub.com.
- Brown Mackie College students access their eTextbooks through VitalSource licenses. Student books have a temporary 15-day license that allows for class drops/adds, then switch to a long-term license on the 16th day. Faculty books are accessed with an eText code from campus iPad support.
- To access eTextbooks on an iPad or computer, students login to their student portal, click "eText", then the textbook title. The book will be available for 5 years once loaded.
- A series of steps are outlined for downloading the VitalSource app and accessing/downloading available eTextbooks on the iPad.
To enable eCollege access on an iPad, open the Settings app, go to the Safari section, and change the "Block Cookies" setting from its default to "Never" which allows cookies and allows users to access eCollege.
This document provides instructions for students at Brown Mackie College to access the student WiFi network and AirEDU connection on their iPads:
1. Go to Settings > WiFi and select the STUDENT_WIFI network, then enter your email username and password.
2. To access AirEDU, go to Safari and enter the LibraryGuides URL. Tap "Download AirEdu Configuration File" and follow the prompts to install and create a passcode.
3. Go to Settings > AirEDU and tap "Accept" to connect. You can then add a bookmark to the iPad modules website for easy access.
The document provides an overview of the basic features and care instructions for an iPad. It describes the home screen, power button, home button, volume buttons, cameras, ports, and speakers. It also recommends using a soft cloth to clean the screen and not using liquid cleaners. It advises never leaving the iPad unattended and how to use iCloud to find a missing iPad.
This document provides instructions for using various features and functions of the iPad, including how to access the internet browser Safari, settings, app store, notification center, control panel, spotlight search, app switching, selecting apps, closing apps, and returning to the home screen. It outlines gestures like swiping in different directions from various parts of the screen to activate these features.
This document provides tips for student success on tests. It begins by emphasizing the importance of asking for help if a concept is not understood. It then lists the top 10 test-taking tips, which include having a positive attitude, making a study plan, getting enough sleep the night before, eating breakfast, managing time during the test, and reviewing answers before finishing. Additional tips are provided for multiple choice tests, overcoming anxiety, and effective studying strategies like spacing out study times and focusing on key concepts. The overall message is that being prepared and using effective test-taking strategies can help students succeed.
This document provides an overview of terms and connectors searching on Westlaw. It begins with an introduction to Boolean logic and terms and connectors searches. It then discusses constructing effective search queries using key terms, alternatives, and connectors. The document explains commonly used connectors like /p, /s, and &. It also covers other search techniques like phrase searching with quotation marks and field searching. The conclusion emphasizes that terms and connectors searching is based on simple logical rules rather than mathematics.
The document provides an overview of statutory research, outlining the legislative process, anatomy of statutes, and methods for conducting print and online statutory research. It discusses how bills become laws and are incorporated into statutory codes, the structure and features of annotated statutes, and techniques for updating and expanding statutory research using tools like KeyCite and legislative history. The document is intended as an instructional aid for understanding and navigating the complex world of statutory law.
The document provides an overview of secondary legal sources including the American Law Reports (ALR), legal encyclopedias such as American Jurisprudence and Corpus Juris Secundum, restatements of the law, legal periodicals, texts, law dictionaries, and uniform laws. It explains that secondary sources explain and interpret primary law but are never binding. It also discusses how to use and update sources such as ALR articles.
The Key Number Digests contain the headnotes (digest paragraphs) and their corresponding topic and key numbers from every case in the National Reporter System.
KeyCite is a tool for checking the status of cases, statutes, and other legal authorities. It allows users to see if an authority is still good law, find other cases or materials that have cited the authority, and monitor authorities for future changes. KeyCite provides comprehensive histories and citing references for cases and statutes. It uses symbols and graphical displays to quickly convey the legal status and precedential value of authorities. KeyCite Alert monitors selected authorities and notifies users of any changes that may impact the authority's validity.
This document provides tips for conducting cost-effective online legal research on Westlaw. It discusses choosing the most appropriate pricing option (hourly vs. transactional), formulating efficient search strategies, selecting the smallest relevant database, and optimal printing methods. The document advises utilizing services like Westlaw reference attorneys, print directories, and Find by Citation to save money on research.
This document provides an overview of advanced natural language and terms and connectors searching techniques in Westlaw. It discusses how to manipulate natural language searches by adding alternative terms, excluding terms, and conducting field searches. It also covers best practices for using terms, expanders, connectors and fields to refine terms and connectors searches, including how different connectors are processed. The document aims to help users get the most out of natural language and terms and connectors searching in Westlaw.
1. A PARALEGAL STUDENT‘S LOOK AT
WESTLAW FOR THE PRACTITIONER
West‘s Instructional Aid Series
2. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Legal Forms
• Practice Guides & Aids
• Litigation Materials
• News Databases*
• Public Records Databases*
* Some news, company and securities information databases, along with most public record
databases are not available to paralegal students
2
3. INTRODUCTION
• As a paralegal student, you have been trained to perform
pure legal research. Most of your research has been in
case law, statutes, or secondary sources.
• As a paralegal, you will conduct many sorts of non-legal
or quasi-legal research every day.
• You will need to know how to do such things as
–
–
–
–
–
–
draft an eviction notice
find a company‘s registered agent for service
track down a potential witness
assess the financial strength of a company or an individual
evaluate a proposed stock offering
conduct a ―due diligence‖ review
3
4. INTRODUCTION
• Westlaw contains more than 30,000
databases, many of which are unfamiliar to
paralegal students. Most of these databases can
be of enormous help to the practicing attorney.
• A few of the databases introduced in this tour of
Westlaw are not available to paralegal students
due to West‘s contracts with third-party publishers.
• This tour is intended to give you an overview of
what materials and services you can expect from
Westlaw as a practicing paralegal. It is not intended
to be Westlaw tutorial.
4
5. INTRODUCTION: CUSTOMIZABLE TABS
• Topical tabs include popular areas of the law as well as tabs
created based on current events.
• Jurisdictional tabs will highlight all of the resources from a
particular state
• The Paralegal tab places the databases paralegals use most
in one convenient place.
• All tabs can be customized by moving, adding or deleting
links.
You can select up to 50
customizable tabs by clicking
Add a Tab link, select the
Add Westlaw Tabs and
checking the selections you
want.
5
6. INTRODUCTION: CUSTOMIZABLE TABS
EXAMPLE
Tabs have helpful tools on the
left, a search box on the top and
databases below. Users may
move tools and databases to
suit their workflow.
6
7. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Legal Forms
• Practice Guides & Aids
• Litigation Materials
• News Databases*
• Public Records Databases*
* Some news, company and securities information databases, along with most public record
databases are not available to paralegal students
7
8. LEGAL FORMS
• There are hundreds of databases that contain
forms on Westlaw.
• Many of the forms can be downloaded to edit
easily.
• The forms multi-base is Forms-All ( FORMS-ALL).
• National forms databases include
– American Jurisprudence Pleading and
Practice Forms (AMJUR-PP)
– Federal Procedural Forms (FEDPROF)
– West‘s Legal Forms (WEST-LF)
8
9. LEGAL FORMS
• Many of the forms databases are state-specific.
– Arizona Legal Forms (AZ-LF)
– Colorado Forms (CO-FORMS)
– Personal Injury Forms: Illinois (PIFRM-IL)
• Forms databases may also be specific to an area
of the law.
– Complete Manual of Criminal Forms (CMCRF)
– Doing Business on the Internet: Forms and Analysis
(DOBUSNET)
– Uniform Commercial Code Official National Forms
(UCC-ART9FM)
9
10. LEGAL FORMS
• Quick links to these forms can be found under the
Forms and Checklist heading on the Paralegal tab.
10
11. LEGAL FORMS
• You may search forms databases, like
FORMS-ALL using Terms & Connectors,
Natural Language or an easy to use template.
Here we have typed our search into the
template.
11
12. LEGAL FORMS – FORMFINDER
• An easy way to search for forms for a specific state
or topic is to select the Formfinder tool located at
the top of your screen.
12
13. LEGAL FORMS – FORMFINDER
• Select a topic from the pull-down menu.
• More specific subtopics may be chosen.
• Select a jurisdiction by checking the boxes.
13
14. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Legal Forms
• Practice Guides & Aids
• Litigation Materials
• News Databases*
• Public Records Databases*
* Some news, company and securities information databases, along with most public record
databases are not available to paralegal students
14
15. PRACTICE GUIDES & AIDS
• A wide variety of practice guides and materials are
available on Westlaw.
• Some practice databases are state-specific, some
are topical, and some are general in nature.
• Practice aids include
texts, treatises, forms, practice guides, CLE course
materials, and other materials. Often several types
of practice materials are included in a database.
• The Legal Practice (LAWPRAC) database contains
documents from periodicals focusing on the
practical aspects of lawyering such as law office
management, lawyer hiring and training and law
office automation.
15
16. PRACTICE GUIDES & AIDS – GENERAL &
TOPICAL
• American Jurisprudence Proof of Facts (AMJUR-POF)
• Practising Law Institute (PLI)
• Williston on Contracts(WILLSTN-CN)
• Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice (NORTON-BLP)
• Wage and Hour Law: Compliance and Practice
(WHLCP)
• Federal Practice and Procedure® (Wright & Miller)
(FPP)
• Moy‘s Walker on Patents (MOY-PAT)
• Attorneys Medical Advisor (MEDADV)
16
17. PRACTICE GUIDES & AIDS – STATE
• Texas Practice Guide Multibase (TXPG-ALL)
• Georgia Analytical Practice Library (GAPRACLIB)
• The Rutter Group: California Practice Guides (TRGCA)
• Trawick‘s Florida Practice and Procedure (FLPRACPROC)
• Illinois Law and Practice (IL-LP)
• New York Jurisprudence (NYJUR)
• Baldwin‘s Ohio Practice Series (OHPRAC)
• Michigan Personal Injury Texts & Legal Forms
(MIPI-TLF)
17
18. PRACTICE GUIDES & AIDS
To locate Practice Guides click
Treatises, CLEs, and Other
Practice Materials section of the
directory. Browse through the
partial list provided or use the
search box to find a particular title.
18
19. PRACTICE GUIDES & AIDS – SAMPLE
SEARCH
• Here is an example of a result of natural language
search in the very useful database, LAWPRAC.
• Natural Language search: guide for counsel in cases
to be argued before the supreme court
19
20. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Legal Forms
• Practice Guides & Aids
• Litigation Materials
• News Databases*
• Public Records Databases*
* Some news, company and securities information databases, along with most public record
databases are not available to paralegal students
20
21. LITIGATION MATERIALS
The Litigation tab gathers resources to use
throughout stages of the litigation. Sub-tabs
organize these databases for easy access.
21
22. LITIGATION MATERIALS – JURY VERDICTS
AND SETTLEMENTS
• Jury verdicts and settlements documents can help evaluate the
value of a case.
• They may give the names of parties, lawyers, and experts, the type
and extent of injury, information about the injured, and the final
award (if any) by either jury verdict or settlement.
• Jury verdicts can be found on the Litigation tab under the Dockets,
Trial Filings & Jury Verdicts sub-tab.
22
23. LITIGATION MATERIALS – JURY VERICTS
AND SETTLEMENTS
• Jury Verdict databases offer template, terms and
connectors or natural language searching.
• From the template you can add key terms you are
searching for such as the injury or description of the
plaintiff.
• You may also choose a range of damages awarded.
23
24. LITIGATION MATERIALS – JURY
INSTRUCTIONS
• Jury Instructions can be found on the Litigation tab.
• Jury Instruction Filings are actual proposed
instructions submitted by attorneys.
• Model or Pattern Jury Instructions are sample
instructions found in a treatise.
24
25. LITIGATION MATERIALS – DOCKETS
• Federal and many State Dockets are available on
Westlaw.
• You can access dockets from the Litigation tab or the
Court Docs link located at the top of every screen.
• Templates make searching in docket databases easy.
25
26. LITIGATION MATERIALS – BRIEFS
• Attorneys use briefs to find support for their
positions in a case.
• Briefs can be accessed from the Legal Research
sub-tab of the Litigation tab or the Court Docs link.
• From the Court Docs link, if you do not see the
specific court you want, click More.
26
27. LITIGATION MATERIALS – FILINGS
• Filings provide examples of actual motions
attorneys have filed.
• Filings can be found on the Litigation tab or
from the Court Docs link.
27
28. LITIGATION MATERIALS – EXPERT
WITNESSES
• The Expert Center conveniently places all of Westlaw‘s
expert resources in one place. You may access it with a link
at the top of your screen.
• Search through Experts‘ resumes to find the type of expert
you need or a specific individual.
• On the left, access the Profiler tool to quickly find an
individual.
28
29. LITIGATION MATERIALS – EXPERT
WITNESSES
• When you find an individual in the PROFILER-EW
database, you may find court documents,
testimony or jury verdicts associated with that
expert from the Links For tab.
• From the Links For tab you may also generate
several different types of Expert Reports.
29
30. LITIGATION MATERIALS – EXPERT
WITNESSES
• Expert testimony can assist in identifying important
questions to ask experts at trial.
• Expert Witness Documents (EW-DOCS) contains expert
witness transcripts, affidavits and reports
• You can access EW-DOCS from the Court Docs
database or the Expert Center.
30
31. LITIGATION MATERIALS—WESTLAW
JOURNALS
• Westlaw Journals, formerly
Andrews Litigation Reports, contain
short newsletter-style articles on the
latest developments in specific
areas of law
• A quick link to Westlaw Journals
can be found on the left under
‗Litigation Tools‘ on the Litigation
Tab
• Select a topic to see the current
Journal or sign up for weekly
updates
31
32. LITIGATION MATERIALS – OTHER
MATERIALS
• Litigation Preparation (LITPREP-XX) databases
contain information about all business names, the
type of business entity, whether the business is
registered with the state and is in good
standing, and the person to receive process.
• Lawsuit Filings (LS-XX) databases contain records
of civil lawsuits filed in 500 counties of 45 states.
These databases indicate basic information
concerning the lawsuit. Most of these databases
cover only business civil filings.
32
33. LITIGATION MATERIALS – OTHER
MATERIALS
• West Legal Directory-Process Servers (WLD-PS)
database lists process servers. It and other
directories for professionals involved in the
litigation process can be found on Directories &
Public Records sub-tab of the Litigation Tab
• Evidence and Practice & Procdure materials
include McCormick on Evidence, Wright & Miller‘s
Federal Practice & Procedure and Guide to
Multistate Litigation. These can be found on the
Practice Guide sub-tab.
• Medical Litigator is also available under the
Practice Guide sub-tab. It provides quick access to
many helpful medical resources in one search.
33
34. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Legal Forms
• Practice Guides & Aids
• Litigation Materials
• News Databases*
• Public Records Databases*
* Some news, company and securities information databases, along with most public record
databases are not available to paralegal students
34
35. NEWS DATABASES
• News databases can be easily accessed from either
adding the Newsroom Tab or from the Business &
News section of the Directory
35
36. NEWS DATABASES
• There is up-to-date, full-text coverage of 48 of the
top 50 U.S. daily newspapers.
• Today‘s news stories are contained in the Today‘s
News (TODAYSNEWS) database, which includes
news from the New York Times, Los Angeles
Times and Chicago Tribune
• All News (ALLNEWS) is a comprehensive
database containing
newspaper, magazine, transcript, newsletter, and
journal databases.
• ALLNEWSPLUS contains ALLNEWS
databases, plus wire service databases.
36
37. NEWS DATABASES – FREQUENTLY USED
DATABASES
• Approximately 900 United States newspapers are
available on Westlaw.
• Most newspapers are available in multi-bases and
in individual databases. State, regional, and
comprehensive databases contain multiple
individual databases.
• XXNEWS (where XX is the state‘s two-letter postal
abbreviation) contains a state‘s newspapers and
articles of interest in the state.
• Major Newspapers (NPMJ) contains coverage of
the most widely circulated daily U.S. newspapers.
37
38. NEWS DATABASES – NEWSPAPERS
• Widely known newspapers:
– The New York Times (NYT)
– Chicago Tribune (CHICAGOTR)
– Los Angeles Times (LATIMES)
• Lesser known newspapers:
– Contra Costa Times (CCTIMES)
– Duluth News Tribune (DULUTHTRIB)
– Boulder Daily Camera (BLDRCAM)
– Village Voice (VILVC)
38
39. NEWS DATABASES – INTERNATIONAL
– Times of London (TMS-LONDON)
– Yomiuri Simbun (DYYSHIM)
– Zimbabwe Independent (ZIMBINDPT)
– Moscow News (MOSCOWNWS)
– Turkish Daily News (TURKDLYN)
– Asian Wall Street Journal (WSJ-ASIA)
– Other newspapers from countries such
as, Brazil, Thailand, Canada, China, Egypt, Aust
railia, Germany, Hong Kong, India, and South
Korea
39
40. NEWS DATABASES – SAMPLE SEARCHES
• Use Terms & Connectors searches when you know the
terms that must be present in relevant documents.
– To find a person in the news
• sam! +3 tayl*r
– To find a company in the news
• “state farm insurance”
• a.m.a. “american medical association” /p patient /4 right
• Use field searches for even more precise searches
– Headline /lead field: hld(tobacco & litigation)
– Author field: au(tony anthony /3 mauro)
– Index field: in(“international monetary fund”
i.m.f.) & protest!
40
41. NEWS DATABASES – TOOLS
• Often you will want to narrow the results of your
search. These tools can help
– Term frequency requires a particular term to occur a number of
times.
– Word Count Search will limit search according to the number of
words in a search
– Identify duplicate documents will remove from or group together
duplicate results from the result list.
41
42. NEWS DATABASES – ADDITIONAL
DATABASES
• Wire services (WIRES)
– Associated Press (APWIRES)
– Reuters (REUTERS)
• Legal newspapers (LEGALNP)
– American Lawyer (AMLAW)
– National Law Journal (NLJ)
• Magazines (MAGSMJ)
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–
–
–
Barron‘s (BARRONS)
Newsweek (NEWSWEEK)
Forbes (FORBES)
U.S. News and World Report (USNWR)
42
43. NEWS DATABASES—ADDITIONAL
DATABASES
• Newsletters (NEWSLETTERS)
• Trade magazines
– Construction Industry News (WNS-CN)
– Pig Farming (PGFR)
• Radio and television transcripts (TRANSCRIPTS)
– 20/20 (ABC2020)
– 60 Minutes (CBS60MINSPCL)
– Dateline NBC (Dateline)
43
44. WESTCLIPS®
• Use the WestClip service to monitor and quickly
retrieve current news developments on a specific
topic(s).
• Monitor the media for references to your clients.
• There is no charge for using WestClip unless
continuous monitoring is selected.
• Start a WestClip from your search result or by clicking
the Alert Center.
44
45. WESTCLIPS®
• Name the clip
• Write a query and select a database
• Choose the settings for frequency and delivery
45
46. WESTCLIPS®
• Your WestClip entry is saved in the Alert Center.
• Entries can be run, changed, or deleted at any time
by clicking the arrow next to WestClip in the Alert
Center.
• As many as 99 entries can be stored in your
WestClip Directory.
46
47. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Legal Forms
• Practice Guides & Aids
• Litigation Materials
• News Databases*
• Public Records Databases*
* Some news, company and securities information databases, along with most public record
databases are not available to paralegal students
47
48. PUBLIC RECORD DATABASES
• Westlaw provides legal professionals with a
comprehensive collection of databases containing
public, publicly available, and proprietary
information on individuals and businesses.
• Public Records on Westlaw can help:
– identify assets and determine ownership of real
property, motor vehicles, watercraft, aircraft, and
corporate stock
– help locate individuals
– help identify encumbrances and adverse filings, such as
bankruptcy filings, liens, judgments, and UCC filings
– Prepare for litigation by finding a company‘s registered
agent
48
49. PUBLIC RECORDS TAB
• The Public Records tab puts all of the resources in
one place. The sub-tabs help organize the
databases according to the type of information.
49
50. PUBLIC RECORDS DATABASES
• West complies with all applicable
federal, state, and local laws in the way Westlaw
public record databases are created and made
available to the public.
• In order to comply with these laws, some
databases require that you indicate the purpose of
the search or permissible use before running the
search.
• Additionally, you may be asked to re-enter your
password to access these databases.
50
52. PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE
INFORMATION
• A Template Search (fill-in-the-blank) is the default
method in many of the public records databases.
• Many Public Record resources have state specific
databases. For example, there is PEOPLE-HH but
for Minnesotal there is PEOPLEHH-MN. State
specific databases are recommended if the person
you are looking for has a common name
• The public records databases can also be
searched using the Terms and Connectors.
52
53. PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE
INFORMATION
Template searches will require all the information entered
appear in a result, so use as little information as
necessary when searching.
53
54. PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE
INFORMATION
• Useful databases to search when looking for an
individual‘s information:
– People Finder Social Security Number Alert (SSNALERT) warns of Social Securities numbers that were
never issued by the Social Security Administration.
– Reverse Phone Look-Up(PEOPLE-PHONE)
– People Finder Name Tracker (PEOPLE-NAME) and
People Finder for individual states (PEOPLE-XX), where
XX is a state‘s two-letter postal abbreviation)
– People Finder Skip Tracer (PEOPLE-TRACK) tracks
previous addresses.
54
55. PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE
INFORMATION
• Other records under the People Information subtab include:
–
–
–
–
Marriage Records (MARRIAGE-ALL)
Divorce Records(DIVORCE-ALL)
Death Records (DEATH-ALL)
Reverse Phone Look-up (PEOPLE-PHONE)
• Licenses can also be found on the People
Information sub-tab. You can search:
– Professional Licenses(PROFLICENSE-ALL)
– Medical Licenses (MEDLICSENSE-ALL)
– Hunting/Fishing Licenses(HUNTFISH-ALL)
55
56. PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE
INFORMATION
• Professional Licenses–Combined (LICENSE-ALL)
and for individual states, XX-LICENSE, where XX
is a state‘s two-letter postal abbreviation)
• Professional Licenses–FAA (FAA) contains
information on those registered to pilot an airplane
in the United States, including those living abroad.
• Professional Licenses–DEA (DEA) contains
information on individuals and business who are
registered with the Drug Enforcement
Administration authorizing them to prescribe and
handle controlled substances.
56
57. PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE
INFORMATION
• Asset Locator (ASSET-ALL) searches all assets in
all available states. Search for Assets in an
individual state in ASSET-XX, where XX is the
state postal abbreviation.
• ASSET-all combines:
–
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–
–
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Aircraft Records (AIRCRAFT)
Motor Vehicle Records (DMV-ALL)
Stock Records (STOCK)
Watercraft Records (WATERCRAFT)
Real Property Tax Assessor Records (RPA-ALL)
Real Property Transacation Records (RPT-ALL)
• All the databases in the Asset Locator database
can be searched individually.
57
58. PUBLIC RECORDS – POTENTIALLY
ADVERSE INFORMATION
• The Potentially Adverse Information sub-tab contains
Litigation and Court Records as well as Criminal
Records.
58
59. PUBLIC RECORDS – POTENTIALLY
ADVERSE INFORMATION
• Adverse Filings–Combined (ADVERSE-ALL)
contains all ―adverse‖ filings against individuals or
businesses in all 50 states and the District of
Columbia.
• ADVERSE-XX contains all state filings, where XX
is the state‘s two-letter postal abbreviation.
• ADVERSE-ALL contains the following
information, which can be searched separately:
–
–
–
–
Bankruptcy Records–Combined filings (BKR-ALL)
Liens and Civil Judgments–Combined filings(LJ-ALL)
Uniform Commercial Code–Combined filings (UCC-ALL)
Lawsuit Records–Combined filings (LS-ALL)
59
60. PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLEMAP
• PeopleMap allows a user to search across 35
databases at one time, organizes the information
into a report and creates a map of how the
records relate to the individual.
60
61. PUBLIC RECORDS – COMPANY
INFORMATION
• There are many databases that contain information
on businesses and securities transactions.
• Some are directory listings that may include the
local gas station as well as the giant conglomerate.
• Others contain sophisticated financial information
derived from registration with a state‘s Secretary of
State or filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
61
62. PUBLIC RECORDS – COMPANY
INFORMATION
• The Company Information sub-tab of the Public
Records tab is the place to begin researching a
particular company.
62
63. PUBLIC RECORDS – COMPANY
INFORMATION
• Combined Corporate Records and Business
Registration Records(CORP-ALL) contains
registration, registered agent and status
information for 49 states and District of Columbia.
• Business Tracker (BUS-TRACK) conveys basic
information about a company, such as the
company name, address, telephone
number, Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)
number, D&B number, federal employer
identification number, trade names, or fictitious
names.
• Executive Affiliation Records (EA-ALL) contains
millions of records to identify executives associated
with a particular company.
63
64. PUBLIC RECORDS – COMPANY
INFORMATION
• Company Reports Databases can provide in-depth
information of a company‘s structure, financials and
news.
– Business Citator Reports for a corporation may include
global filings, information on litigation, intellectual property
bankruptcy and news coverage.
– Dun & Bradstreet Business Records Plus (DUNBR)
contains information on the history, day-to-day operations,
finances, and corporate affiliations.
– Company Profiles (CO-PROFILE) lists key people,
number of employees, annual sales, company divisions,
and subsidiaries.
64
65. PUBLIC RECORDS – COMPANY
INFORMATION
• Template or Terms and Connectors searches are
available for Company Reports.
65
66. PUBLIC RECORDS – SECURITIES
INFORMATION
• Other databases included in the Company Information
sub-tab include a company‘s securities filings and
information.
– Investext (INVSTXT-PDF) contains analysts‘ reports as
originally published, including charts, graphs, and tables on
over 60,000 companies and industries.
– EDGAR–SEC Filings (EDGAR) contains
annual reports, proxy statements,
10-K and 10-Q reports.
– Merger and Acquisitions –Deal Information
(M&ADEAL) has detailed reports on public
and private mergers and acquisitions.
66
67. PUBLIC RECORDS – SECURITIES
INFORMATION
• Here‘s an example of the EDGAR search template.
The Advanced template allows you to search for
specific filings, acts or exhibits.
67
68. CONCLUSION
• Westlaw contains more than 30,000
databases, many of which can be unfamiliar to
paralegal students.
• Many of these databases are extremely useful to
the practicing paralegals.
• West Reference Attorneys are always available to
help practicing attorneys, as well as paralegal
students, find the correct databases and help
construct effective searches.
• If you have any questions, please give the
Reference Attorneys a call at 1-800-850-WEST
(9378)
68