2. In this session we will learn:
• -case law searching in Westlaw.
• -statutory searching in Westlaw.
• -the West Key Number System of searching.
• -how to determine if a case or statute is still good law.
• -ALR, aka American Law Reports.
9. If you know the name of
the case, you can just
type the name in the
search bar.
10. When you run a search on
Westlaw, you don’t need to select a
database.
Your search is automatically run
across
cases, statutes, regulations, administ
rative decisions, secondary
sources, briefs, proposed and
adopted regulations and legislation.
11. If you know the case
citation, type it in. No capital
letters or periods are
necessary.
12.
13. Let’s take one of Professor Pesca’s fact patterns…
• While your client was stopped for speeding, New York
State Police allowed a drug dog to sniff around the car.
When the dog alerted, a search of the car was conducted.
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, did the search
violate the 4th Amendment of the Constitution?
• Jurisdiction: U.S. Supreme Court
14.
15.
16. When you click a link for a specific court,
the 10 most recent cases from that court
are automatically displayed.
17. You do not have to run a traditional
Boolean terms and connectors
search. Try simple natural language
searching and compare results.
Westlaw recognizes whichever
search format you use.
18. 75 Supreme Court cases are
retrieved. You can sort by relevance,
date or most cited.
The right column lists a
sampling of related
secondary sources and
briefs.
19. You can narrow your search result using
filters in the left column by
jurisdiction, date, reported
status, topic, judge, attorney, law firm, key
number, party and docket number.
20. For example, you may want to
see how a particular judge has ruled,
or an attorney’s track record with
regard to a particular
issue. This provides helpful
strategy in litigation.
21. Out of the 75
Supreme Court cases
our search retrieved,
let’s identify the key
case that most
matches our fact
pattern.
Now what?
31. To see how your case has been used (cited) by other
cases, administrative materials, secondary sources and
briefs, click on Citing References. This is an excellent tool
for attorneys and researchers for determining how cases
Click the
have been interpreted,analyzed and distinguished.
34. The most negative
treatment is displayed at the top of the
list. A red flag
warns that the case is no longer good law
for at least one of the points
it contains. A yellow flag warns that the
case has some negative history but
has not been reversed or overruled.
35. The green depth of treatment bars indicate the extent
to which citing cases discuss the cited case.
The headnote numbers indicate which headnotes
(points of law)
the citing case is discussing.
36. Headnote 6 of Illinois v. Caballes is
discussed extensively in State v.
Griffin.
37. Checking Cases in KeyCite
• The main ways to access KeyCite information are:
• while viewing a case with a KeyCite flag, click the flag.
• type kc or keycite followed by the case citation.
42. Terry v. Ohio
Let’s find a New Jersey
case that has applied the
landmark Supreme Court
case, Terry v. Ohio.
Police may stop a person
if they have a reasonable
suspicion that the person
has committed or is about
to commit a crime, and
may frisk the suspect for
weapons if they have
reasonable suspicion that
the suspect is armed and
dangerous, without
violating the Fourth
Amendment prohibition on
unreasonable searches
and seizures.
43.
44.
45.
46. We have both
federal and state
cases in this set of
results.
47. 2.
1.
You can limit your results to New Jersey state
cases in one of two ways: (1) by checking New
Jersey as your jurisdiction at the left hand
column, or (2) by unchecking Federal content at
the search bar (above).
49. 1. A court issues an opinion in a case.
2. A copy of the case is obtained by
West, where attorney-editors read the
cases and pick out the points of law or legal
issues in the case.
3. These legal issues or points of law are
summarized in a “headnote” and assigned a
topic and key number.
51. Click on “Tools” to access
the Key Number System.
Let’s start from the
Home screen to see
how the Key Number
System works.
52.
53. Browse the list of topics to find the topic
related to your issue.
54. Click on the topic, e.g., searches and
seizures, to display the topic page, which
contains the key numbers (subtopics) classified under
that topic.
55. 2. (Select jurisdiction)
1.
At the topic page, you
can zero in on key
numbers that match your
issue.
56. By selecting the general topic searches and seizures (topic #349), and
then within that topic selecting the key number(s) associated with
your specific legal issue(s), you are able to easily search for cases that
discuss these legal issues.
69. Scroll down to the bottom of the statute.
You will find a Practice Commentary at the
end of each statute, written by practicing
attorneys. These commentaries give practical
advice for interpreting the statute.
70. This is a very extensive Practice Commentary
at the end of the statute. These are extremely useful for
interpreting statutes and cases that have applied the statutes.
71. You can view a statute’s history, how
other cases have interpreted the
statute (Notes of Decisions), law review
and journal commentaries, cross-
references, library references, treatises
and practice aids, and more.
72. IS YOUR STATUTE STILL
GOOD LAW?
The same steps for cases apply to statute: while
viewing a statute with a KeyCite flag, click the flag; or
type KC or KeyCite followed by a citation in the search
box at the top of the page and click Search.
74. American Law Reports
• American Law Reports (ALR) delivers an objective, in-
depth analysis of your specific legal issue, together with a
complete list of every case – in every jurisdiction – that
discusses it.
• With thousands of attorney-authored articles covering the
entire breadth of U.S. law, ALR saves you time by taking
you deeper on a topic, faster.
• Use ALR to:
• Quickly get up to speed in an unfamiliar area of law.
• Locate all relevant caselaw in one easy step.
• Determine which cases are controlling and understand why.
“Most used” sorts the results list by aggregate customer usage of a document. “Most cited” sorts the list by the number of citing references the document has.
