A case can be red-flagged even when it hasn’t been reversed or overruled. KeyCite flags are generated when there is an implied overruling. Normally, “disagreed with” and “declined to follow” language will not generate a red flag. However, in a situation where the citing case is from a binding jurisdiction, it will. For example, if the U.S. Supreme [...]

You can set Westlaw to display page breaks in a document. In Preferences, under Document Display there is a section for Star Paging Defaults. Checking “Display Star Page breaks in document” will allow you to see visually where each page break is in a document for each star page available. Also, it will provide a message if [...]

Black’s Law Dictionary Deluxe Ninth Edition has many helpful appendices. Appendix A is a Table of Legal Abbreviations and Authors. This table is very helpful if you are wondering what a legal abbreviation is or run into one while researching.  An example would be the abbreviation J.L. & Pol. which is the Journal of Law and Politics. [...]

You can use Browse All in statutes and the CFR to gather a portion of the statutes or regulations into one inline document. The Browse All document will have the title and text of each of the statutes in the portion you selected; it will not include the credit field or any annotations. You can access Browse All by clicking [...]

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rules and Commentary is a comprehensive guide to practice under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This two-volume treatise includes the complete, up-to-date text of all Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and, for each rule, a detailed practice commentary that discusses what the rule does, how it has been applied, and [...]

Statutes Index is an excellent source when looking for state statutes by topic. For example when looking for Statutes of Limitation for various causes of action in Idaho (ID-ST-ANN) go to the Statues Index under “L” for Limitation of Actions. You will see a large list of different topics and causes of actions with links to [...]

You can change your Client IDs on the fly in Westlaw. You do not need to sign-off then sign back on to Westlaw to change a Client ID. Instead, you can click “Preferences,” and then “Change Client ID” on the left. Once the new Client ID is entered, you can click “Save Changes” at the bottom of [...]

What is the best way to search for a specific dollar amount?  Look at the following searches: Search – 10,000,000 (486 Docs) ALLFEDS Search – $10,000,000 (3688 Docs) ALLFEDS As you can see, you get different results depending on whether you include the $ sign or not. Just like searching for a percentage, the dollar sign is read as [...]

Several fields are available for searching in Natural Language.

To view available fields, look below the search box while on the Natural Language tab.

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

There are two commonly known techniques for finding definitions in case law: Looking for the word or phrase in the WP field; and, Placing the word or phrase in proximity to five root-expanded words that typically indicate a definition, namely, defin! mean! interpret! construe! constitute! A third way to find definitions is to construct a query based on how [...]

Term Frequency searching is available for Journal and Law Review databases. After you enter search terms click on the link for Term Frequency. For each term in your search you will be asked how many times that term needs to appear in the document. Click OK, and you are returned to the search box with the “at least” limits added to [...]

When searching real property records for females, try using a “/4” connecter between the first and last name. Sometimes this will yield more results because women sometimes have two middle names (e.g., middle and maiden name). This is especially helpful when a woman has purchased property with someone before she married and you are not sure [...]

Opinions and recommendations from US magistrate judges are available on Westlaw.  They do not have their own database, but are kept in the normal case law databases. To pull only opinions from magistrate judges, you can use the judge field restrictor to specify only magistrate judges: ju(magistrate). If you are looking for only a certain type [...]

Westlaw has several databases specific to famous or “notable” trials.  For example, if you type in “OJ Simpson” in Search for a Database you will see commentaries, transcripts, and other documents for the OJ Simpson Trial. These trials are sorted by jurisdiction in the directory.  For example, the OJ Simpson materials are located in a folder [...]

You can limit your search to verdicts (and exclude settlements) in the database “XX-JV” (XX represents two letter state abbreviations) by adding the following to your query:  result +5 verdict.

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

When searching from a search box from a Tab or when the link to Term Frequency is not an option you can accomplish the same result “manually” in a terms and connectors search by using “ATLEAST” followed by the number of times you want the term or phrase to appear: ATLEAST5(MALPRACTICE). Phrases also work:  ATLEAST5(“promissory estoppel”). [...]

A single search in the Help for Homeowners Multibase (H4H) can retrieve a wide range of legal and nonlegal sources related to home affordability and the current housing crisis, including the United States Code Annotated (USCA) and Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register notices, U.S. public laws, treatises, press releases, newspaper articles, and transcripts of hearings [...]

A common way to narrow searches in case databases is to use the SY,DI fields. One modification that can be helpful when you want your search terms to appear in the actual headnotes portion, is to use SY,HE instead. This can help you to further narrow down your search results. If instead you want to find [...]

Finding the elements for a cause of action is often more difficult than you would think. One simple reason for the difficulty is  fashioning searches using Professor-speak rather than Judge-speak! Search construction based on treatise-like statements of causes of action is usually less effective when looking for such statements in opinions. The following query is effective and [...]