Westlaw tip: Have you found a headnote that states the rule of law you want and you’d like to find more cases supporting that rule? Click on the “Most Cited Cases” link next to that headnote to run a search that will retrieve more cases.

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

“Ben Franklin was a Founding Father, a storied inventor, and a consummate scholar. But even the creator of bifocals and the lightning rod was ‘shocked’ to find that he could perform sophisticated legal research from the convenience of his mobile phone!”

That’s the caption provided by our final winner, Andrew M. of New York City, in our WestlawNext Mobile Photo Contest. Andrew, whose creative effort earned him an iPod touch, says he was on the shore of one of the Great Lakes in beautiful northern Michigan on the Fourth of July when he suddenly felt inspired to frame a shot with one of the framers of the Constitution – who, incidentally, also looks quite relaxed in this photo.

Andrew works as a tax lawyer for a large firm in New York City, where he assists in advising clients on financial products, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and other transactions. He tells us his work entails a considerable amount of legal research and writing, and he uses KeyCite almost daily to verify his work and perform comprehensive searches of cases, administrative sources, and secondary articles on a specific topic.

Thanks, Andrew, for taking WestlawNext on your vacation! And thanks for letting old Ben tag along, too – he really did need some time off.

Martinez v. Desert Sky Esplanade LLC (Ariz. Super. Ct.)
Improperly designed speed hump contributed to fatal crash

2009 WL 605171 Verdict Summary

2009 WL 2917774 Video of Plaintiff’s Expert’s Trial Testimony

Note: The links above are intended for Westlaw users. You will be asked to sign on to Westlaw before being taken directly to the document.

Publish Your Cases

“To America, one schoolmaster is worth a dozen poets, and the invention of a machine or the improvement of an implement is of more importance than a masterpiece of Raphael.” – Benjamin Franklin

“America is a nation that conceives many odd inventions for getting somewhere, but it can think of nothing to do once it gets there.” – Will Rogers

America has always prided itself as a land of innovation, with numbers to back up that claim. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved more than 167,000 utility patents in 2009 – a rate of more than 19 patents an hour, 24 hours a day.

If your work involves patent prosecution or litigation, Westlaw Patents has the content and tools to help you keep pace. And now there’s a quick, easy way to get up to speed on Westlaw Patents content and tools: Short online lessons for our most popular products.

We came up with the eLearning series after hearing a handful of customers confess that they don’t always understand what some of our patent products are intended to do or how to use them. And we took their advice and kept the lessons short and sweet: Most lessons require just 2 or 3 minutes of your time.

To access these lessons, sign on to the West eLearning Center, then click on the Westlaw Patents link on the left side of the page. (It’s the last item in the list.)

We’ve divided the self-paced lessons into two categories – litigation and prosecution – with several choices in each list. Two of the most popular modules include

• Using KeyCite to Verify and Expand Patent Research – Learn how to use KeyCite to go beyond the text of a patent and view its context.
• Searching Markman Orders – Save hours of work and frustration by searching and finding claim construction orders on Westlaw.

And check back later this summer for a new self-paced lesson on Claims Locator, our latest “invention” that will enable you to search for claims without knowing the exact terminology.

More info on Westlaw Patents is available on the West website. And we didn’t invent the quotes above – we found them in Uncle Anthony’s Unabridged Analogies, which is available at a 10% discount to Westlaw Insider readers. Check it out!

WestlawNext users are full of questions – and West Reference Attorneys are even more full of answers. Here are their responses to a few questions asked recently by customers.

Q. How do I use WestlawNext without directory links?
A. The search box on WestlawNext has many functions, including identifying available content. When you begin typing the name of the specific publication you’re looking for, a drop-down list will appear that shows relevant databases. For example, if you begin typing “Norton,” the drop-down list will show a link to Norton on Bankruptcy publications. This also works when typing in the old database sign-on identifiers such as CA-ST-ANN.

You can also find a list of resources by browsing from the home page. For example, if you want to find a list of materials related to Family Law, just click on the Topic tab on the home page and then the link for Family Law.

Q. How long do Folders, Notes and Eyeglasses last on a document?
A. The Folders and Notes will stay with your documents until you delete them and will appear regardless of which Client ID you have logged in under. The eyeglasses remain for 30 days and are specific to the Client ID.

Q. In what order do the results on KeyCite Negative History appear?
A. The documents in KeyCite Negative History appear in the same order as they do in Westlaw. We’ve always put them in order of worst treatment first; WestlawNext simply shows more information about the treating document. The Negative Treatment tab displays all negative references and uses the “most negative” label to highlight the same reference that was listed at the top of the document text.

Q. Why are there two search boxes on the Key Number page?
A. The tabbed search box at the top of the page will run a full-text search of headnotes for the selected jurisdiction. You can select a Topic, or even drill down to a specific Key Number, before running a search. The Title Search box on the right is a quick way to scan through the Key Number titles to locate the Key Number you want.

Today is the last day for those Segway-riding, beverage-wielding Westlaw brand ambassadors to hit the streets of downtown Chicago (see our previous post), where they’ve dispensed more than 1,000 cups of coffee and lemonade since Monday.

The days have been warm and sunny, and so have the hundreds of Chicagoans who’ve stopped by to chat with team members about Westlaw Deposition Services, a new offering that provides court reporting and legal videography services, and to enter a drawing to win an Apple iPad.

Overheard on the streets of Chicago:

• “I just attended a meeting where we were talking about how Westlaw does everything, then I come downstairs and you guys hand me coffee You really do do everything!”
• “So you guys are doing deps now? That’s definitely good to know.”
• “I had no idea you had court reporting services.”
• “I’m looking for a replacement for our current depo service, so you guys couldn’t have showed up at a better time. Thanks!”
• “I have used their services in the past, actually, and they are stellar.”
• “I’m gonna try that IM feature on LiveNote when I get back to the office – I had no idea that was such a useful feature.”
• “We use Westlaw for everything – there’s nothing better out there. Thanks again for the lemonade, too!”

Thank you, Chicago, for the kind words.