Westlaw Insider » 2009 » March

Free Westlaw Lessons, Webinars, available 24-7 365!

Marcus Anderson — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:59:00 +0000

GET MORE FROM YOUR SUBSCRIPTION
The West eLearning Center (westelearning.com) is West’s newest online training resource available to all Westlaw® customers. Once registered – it takes only
seconds – you’ll have free access to dozens of short Westlaw lessons & Webinars. Pick and choose the lessons you want to take and learn at your own pace, whenever and
wherever it’s convenient.

EASY TO FOLLOW
Demonstrations and practical examples make it easy to learn. Lessons are conveniently and logically categorized by practice area and by Westlaw expertise.

CUSTOMIZABLE
Every lesson offers:

Interactive, hands-on demonstrations

Self-paced navigation tools

Optional audio

CONCISE
Most lessons are less than 8 minutes long, so they’re easy to fit into a busy schedule.

CURRENT
New lessons are continually being added. (You can even sign up to be notified by email when new lessons are added.)

EASY TO SHARE
Email links let you forward lessons to others who might benefit from the free training.

Nutshells on Westlaw NUTSHELLS-ALL

Marcus Anderson — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:54:00 +0000

Customers faced with issues in areas of law with which they are not familiar can pick up an overview of a topic and the key principles or law from a nutshell.

NUTSHELLS-ALL is the database that contains all of the nutshells released to Westlaw. Scope for this database lists all of the Nutshells included and all of the topics. The Nutshells can be as general as Insurance Law or as specific as California Civil Procedure.

You can also search within specific nutshells from the links in scope for NUTSHELLS-ALL or through the directory folder under Forms, Treatises, CLEs and Other Practice Material.

Almanac of the Federal Judiciary

Marcus Anderson — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:54:00 +0000

The Almanac of the Federal Judiciary (AFJ) is a great resource to find biographical information on currently sitting federal judges. In addition to a biography, entries also include lawyer evaluations of judges.

Customers who want to find out more about judges they may appear in front of can use the Court field to find information. For example you can use CO(NINTH) to view documents on all of the judges in the Ninth Circuit, including district courts or you can narrow it to one particular court by using CO(NINTH & “NORTHERN DISTRICT” & CALIFORNIA)

Westlaw Resources for Copyright, Intellectual Property

Marcus Anderson — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:32:00 +0000

Two of the most common Copyright resources we offer customers are Patry on Copyright (PATRYCOPY) and Copyright Registrations (COPYRIGHT). But, are you familiar with these often overlooked copyright resources?

Copyright Circulars: Federal Intellectual Property Copyright Office Circulars and Factsheets provide excellent, plain-English overviews of copyright issues. Westlaw users have full text searching available in the FIP-CPYINFO database. For example, the power of Westlaw searching and linking allows the search for ti(copyright /3 notice) to find documents explaining requirements for affixing the © symbol (as well as links to relevant regulations).

Comprehensive Legislative Histories: Arnold and Porter has comprehensive history of the last major revision of the Copyright Act at COPYREV76-LH.

Other Treatises: Keeping in mind that many copyright issues are often litigation or licensing related issues, don’t forget to check out these key treatises: Copyright Litigation Handbook (COPYLITIG), Copyright Law in Business and Practice (COPYLBP), Corporate Counsels Guide to Copyright Law (CCGCOPYR), Intellectual Property in the Digital Millennium (CIPDM). A good place to locate these treatises is IDEN – do a Natural Language search for copyright.

International: Copyright Throughout the World (COPYWORLD) provides an overview of copyright law for countries from Australia to the United Kingdom

New Employment Law Database

Marcus Anderson — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Employment Law: A State-by-State Compendium (DRI-EMPSTATE) is a new database on Westlaw added on 4/30/09. An easy way to take a look at the content is to use the search recommended in scope which pulls up all of the available documents: CI(DRI-EMPSTATE)

The database contains a document for each state and the District of Columbia that answers a number of employment law questions, including those listed below. It was published in 2006, so you may need to use KeyCite to update the information. This is a great place to start any employment research as it links to relevant statutes and cases.

Is there a state antidiscrimination statute?

If so, are damages capped
Jury trial or not?

What types of damages are available?

Are there state-specific labor statutes or a right-to-work law?

What are the state wage-hour laws, if any?

Is there a state equivalent to FMLA?

In the public sector, is there collective bargaining?

Is the state an employment-at-will state?

What is the impact of an employment policy handbook?

Are there public policy exceptions?

Covenants not to compete?

State statute or not?
What are the limitations?

Is there a retaliatory discharge provision in your state’s workers’ compensation laws?

What is the law of restraint trade?

Are there whistle-blower laws?

Are there rules regarding military service and employee leave?

Are there state statutes or regulations regarding:

Jury service and court attendance?
Voting?
Political rights?
Polygraph
Smoking?
Rights of same-sex couples to employment benefits
Confidentiality of personnel records
Background checks
Protection of social security number?
Wiretap laws?