West Reference Attorney Andy O’Meara recently pointed out some of the advantages of using FormFinder on Westlaw in this blog post (and this video). He and his colleagues get a lot of call-in questions from Westlaw users who are surprised to learn some of the things FormFinder can help them do. Here are some typical questions they receive.

Q:  I’ve never been involved in a case involving a bad-faith employee contract negotiation. Where can I find a checklist to help me get started?

A: FormFinder’s search template makes it easy to narrow your search by topic, sub-topic, and additional search terms, such as “bad faith.”  The Results Summary then categorizes the documents by text forms, checklists, and clauses to focus in on the one you need.

Q: I need the official PDF form for a court in Missouri, but I practice in Michigan. Is there one place where I can find forms for unfamiliar courts?

A: FormFinder allows you to filter your search by jurisdiction.  The Results Summary includes a section for Official PDF Forms with coverage from state and local courts and state agencies. These forms can be viewed in PDF, completed, saved and printed.

Q: I finally got my hands on a form created by an expert in my area of practice.  Now, how can I quickly modify it to fit my case?

A: FormFinder offers an Easy-Edit version of the document for an additional charge. This removes the header/footer, Westlaw links, and other unneeded content so you can populate the form with information specific to your case. Contact a Westlaw representative for specific pricing information.

Q: Many issues require the same type of form over and over, such as a Motion for Summary Judgment.  Where can I find other basic form documents I need all the time?

A: FormFinder searches across more than 500,000 documents to deliver the forms you need for your day-to-day practice.

Q: It seems like I always get cases dealing with obscure matters that nobody in the firm has ever seen.  Where can I find an example document to get me started?

A: FormFinder offers documents for more than 47 practice areas including 500 sub-topics.  Your matter is bound to be in there – believe it or not!

In addition to Easy-Edit text forms, FormFinder now features a revamped search template, global search functionality, more intuitive browsing and filtering tools, links to related resources, and new content from Miller’s Standard Insurance Policies Annotated and Oden. For more information, visit west.thomson.com/formfinder.

This question came from Twitter. We felt it necessary to provide a response from our Reference Attorneys.

Q: Does anyone know where to find state session laws on WestlawNext? I’m really missing the directory feature right now!

A: Old session laws are currently NOT yet on WestlawNext. Current session laws are available at Proposed and Pending Legislation.

See original post.

Q: Why is WordPerfect being supported by WestlawNext as an email delivery option?

A: It may sometimes seem like Microsoft Word is the only word processer on the market, there’s no doubting its popularity. However, Corel’s WordPerfect is the second most popular word processor and office suite for law firms and government organizations. WordPerfect users represent a smaller, but significant percentage of WestlawNext customers — many of whom have been using WordPerfect for years.

To help support these customers, we’ve added WordPerfect as a delivery format option for email and download. The ability to deliver documents in WordPerfect saves time and effort that would otherwise be spent on converting newly delivered documents and also means they won’t need to spend time converting an existing library of documents to a new format.

Q: I searched WestlawNext for U.S. Supreme Court cases on First Amendment protections for campaign spending. Many of the opinions I retrieved were quite long, e.g., Buckley v. Valeo, which consumes 150 pages in the Supreme Court Reporter. Is there a fast way to jump to the important parts?

A: One fast way is to jump directly from your result list to the parts of the opinions in which your search or Search Within terms appear. Click anywhere in the document text excerpted in your result list, and the portion of the document in which the text appears is displayed. (A green arrow appears in the document next to the beginning of the text that is excerpted in the result list.)

Submitted by
Jay Shuck
Legal Writer, Customer and Product Documentation
Thomson Reuters Legal

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.

Our recent Westlaw Research Expert Webinar Series, “The Benefits of Terms & Connectors on WestlawNext,” generated a lot of expert-level questions about WestlawNext search results. The answers come courtesy of the West reference attorneys.

Note: Even if you missed the webinar, you can still see the slides and check out our collection of past Q&A posts, including two recent Q&As on Terms and Connectors and the Advanced Search template in WestlawNext.

Q: Is there a way to limit which databases or content areas are being searched prior to executing a search?
A: Yes. You can easily limit what content you want to search by using the Browse section of the home page. You can select a jurisdiction, topic or content set like cases and then run a search. Once you select a content page, like California materials, you can specify which content you would like to search on that page before running your search.

Q: Can you explain the difference between ResultsPlus and “Additional Relevant WestSearch Results”?
A: ResultsPlus uses your search terms alone to retrieve results. WestlawNext searching (WestSearch) employs West’s editorial assets much like an expert researcher would – only faster – to find the best documents for your research, tools like the West Key Number system, KeyCite and West’s secondary sources. The Additional Relevant WestSearch Results link may appear after running a Terms and Connectors search. Behind the scenes of your T&C query, WestlawNext is also running a plain language WestSearch. The top 10 plain language results are analyzed to locate additional results that did not appear on the T&C result list. WestlawNext then displays a link to access those additional documents. The “Additional Relevant WestSearch” results link will show a maximum of 10 documents.

Q: Does “Additional Relevant WestSearch Results” only appear when a Terms and Connectors search is run?
A: Yes. “Additional Relevant WestSearch Results” is a feature designed to show customers additional results when they run a Terms and Connectors search.

Q: If I click on “Additional Relevant WestSearch Results,” is there an extra charge to view the results list?
A: No. These results lists are included as part of the original Terms and Connectors search charge.

Q: When does the gray summary box (“In this issue” summary on cases) appear in search results?
A: The gray summary box appears when the detail selector on a result list is set to either “More Detail” or “Most Detail.”

Q: Do the “eyeglasses” disappear forever when you close out of a WestlawNext session, or will they still be there?
A: The eyeglasses icon is shown for documents viewed in the last 30 days using the same Client ID. To be considered “viewed,” you must actually link into the full text document; the fact that a document appears in your search results does not trigger the eyeglasses icon. Also, in order for the icon to display, you must use the same Client ID that you used when you viewed the document previously.

Q: What does “Most Used” mean in the sorting options?
A: The “Most Used” ranking is based on aggregate usage of documents by customers.  “Usage” includes printing, downloading, emailing, using copy with reference or using KeyCite on a document.

Q: If I use WestlawNext to pull a case by citation, am I still charged the initial $60 search fee?
A: No. Using the search box to find a citation will incur a lesser document charge, but not the full $60 search charge.

Q: Is there a way to pull a list of multiple cites, a la West Find&Print?
A: Yes. You can enter up to 20 citations separated by semicolons, and the result list can then easily be printed, downloaded or emailed.

Participants in our recent Westlaw Research Expert Webinar Series, “The Benefits of Terms & Connectors on WestlawNext,” asked a lot of good questions about the Advanced Search template, a useful feature for building precise Terms and Connectors queries.  So, how about some answers?

Note: For a quick overview of Terms and Connectors and the WestlawNext Advanced Search template, see the slides from the webinar, and be sure to check out our collection of past Q&A posts, including our most recent Q&A on using Terms and Connectors in WestlawNext.

Q: Are all the fields you can search listed on the Advanced Search page?
A: Yes. The Advanced Search page offers a template-style search screen that allows you to enter your search terms into boxes that will automatically search the relevant fields. The fields you see will vary by document type searched. For example, clicking into the Advanced Search page from the main screen will provide the standard options (e.g., “Find documents that have…All of these terms / Any of these terms / This exact phrase,” etc.), while clicking into Advanced Search from the Cases page will provide additional fields such as party name, citation, synopsis, digest, judge, and attorney.

Q: Do I need to use connectors in the Advanced Search template?
A: No. The Advanced Search template automatically adds the connectors appropriate to the fields you decide to use. For example, in the “All of these terms” field, terms are automatically separated by an ampersand (&). You can use Terms and Connectors in the Advanced Search template, but it’s not required.

Q: Is it true that the ampersand (&) can only be used in the Advanced Search template?
A: No. The ampersand (&) can be used in either the main search box or the Advanced Search template. When an ampersand is the only connector used in your query, a plain-language search is run. When more than one connector is used, a Boolean Terms and Connectors search is run.

Q: How is OR used in Advanced Search?
A: When using the Advanced Search template, you can search for multiple terms with an OR in between them just by entering your terms in the “Any of these terms” field. When you do this, an OR is automatically inserted between the listed terms.

Q: What do quotation marks do in Advanced Search?
A: When you are using the Advanced Search template, any quoted phrases you enter will be treated as components of a plain-language query. This means the WestSearch algorithm will retrieve documents with your phrase AND related documents that may not contain the phrase but discuss related concepts. If you want to limit your search to an exact phrase, use the “This exact phrase” field in the template.

Q: In the “phrase” searching field, can you enter more than one phrase? Sometimes you need to include multiple phrases in your query.
A: Yes, you can search for more than one phrase by connecting the two phrases. For example, “statute of limitations” & “breach of contract” will search for documents with both of those phrases.

Q: Are the term frequency links in the Advanced Search template equivalent to the Lexis “atl” command?
A: Yes. The “Term frequency” feature within the Advanced Search template allows you to specify the minimum number of times a term should appear in a document. After entering terms in the “All of these terms,” “Any of these terms,” or “This exact phrase” fields, you can click the “Term frequency” link to the right of each box and specify the number of times each term should appear in the result documents.

Q: If I have a name and want the full name to appear once and the last name to appear multiple times, how would I do that?
A: In this situation, you should enter the first and last names into “All of these terms” boxes, and then set the term frequency for each (“once” for the first name, “multiple times” for the last name).

Q: I searched for the name Caruthers, but I kept getting hits that gave me Caruth. How do I avoid that?
A: To get that exact name, click the Advanced link next to your selected jurisdiction and enter Caruthers into any of the three boxes under the heading “Find documents that have.” This will only return documents with the exact word “Caruthers.”

Q: When you enter multiple phrases into the “This exact phrase” box, does it connect the phrases with an “and” or an “or”?
A: “Or.” However, you can change this to “and” by using an ampersand between phrases (e.g., “first phrase” & “second phrase”.)

Q: If I run a plain-language search, can I use Terms and Connectors to narrow by “Search within results”?
A: Yes. You can use Terms and Connectors to narrow any plain-language search.

Q: How do you enter a date search?
A: On the Advanced Search template, there is a date box that will allow you to restrict by date. Alternatively, the Terms and Connectors date restrictor can still be used in the search box.

Next up: Understanding search results in WestlawNext

Thanks to all of the Westlaw power users who participated in our recent Westlaw Research Expert Webinar Series, we received dozens of great questions about using good ol’ Terms and Connectors in WestlawNext. Here are some of the answers, provided by the West reference attorneys.

Note: For a quick review of Terms and Connectors on WestlawNext, be sure to see the slides from the webinar, and check out our collection of past Q&A posts.

Q: Can I just write a “classic” Boolean search without using the Advanced Search template?
A: Yes, you can enter a standard Boolean Terms and Connectors query into the search box without selecting Advanced Search. Whenever a query contains a connector (/, !, %, etc.), it automatically becomes a Terms and Connectors search.

Q: Once I use a connector that will initiate a Terms and Connectors search, will the function recognize other Terms and Connectors such as quotation marks?
A: Yes. When used without other connectors, quotation marks, ampersands (&), spaces, and occurrences of the word “or” are considered parts of a plain-language search. When used with other connectors, they become Boolean connectors and follow the standard Terms and Connectors search rules.

Q: Do you lose the power of the WestlawNext algorithms when you use Terms and Connectors?
A: No. The WestSearch algorithms are used for ranking the results of all searches in WestlawNext.

Q: How does relevancy ranking work when you use a Terms and Connectors search?
A: WestSearch determines which results are most relevant to your search and places them at the top of the list. WestSearch does this by analyzing dozens of relationships, including the West Key Number System, KeyCite, ResultsPlus, document links, usage patterns and editorial content.

Q: How can I search for multiple phrases, or one phrase within a number of another phrase – for example, “_____” /s “_____”?
A: Quotation marks can be used along with proximity connectors in the main search box (e.g., “_____” /s “_____”), or you can use the “All of these terms” field in the Advanced Search template. You can enter multiple phrases in quotes in that field. An ampersand (&) is added between phrases automatically, but you can also use proximity connectors like “/s.”

Q: How does WestlawNext deal with pluralization? Should we be concerned about using the exclamation point (!)?
A: WestlawNext will search both the singular and plural form of any word that you enter into the search box. If you use the Advanced Search template, searching the singular form of the word will return both singular and plural forms of the word; searching the plural will only return the plural form of the word. The “!” connector is a root expander used to bring back variations on the form of a word – for example, contract! will return contract, contractual, contracted, contraction, contracting, etc.

Q: Does the pound sign (#) just invoke a Terms and Connectors search, or does it have a role within the search as well?
A: The # symbol forces the system to search for a particular word that may be too common otherwise. For example, if you enter #before, WestSearch would look for “before” as a term. The pound symbol also turns off the automatic-equivalents function, so #dog will only search for dog and not dogs.

Q: Are all the usual fields still available – for instance, wp in cases, and sd in statutes?
A: Yes, but the best way to utilize these fields in WestlawNext is through the Advanced Search option.

Next up: Using the Advanced Search template in WestlawNext

In this final episode of our WestlawNext research expert webinars Q&A series, we’ll answer audience questions from the June 14-17 sessions on a variety of topics that haven’t been addressed in the first three posts (which covered search refinement tools, related materials in results lists, and printing with WestlawNext).

Q: Are WestlawNext’s features available to mobile devices?
A: We have a separate mobile site at m.next.westlaw.com, and anyone with access to WestlawNext can access the mobile version. The functionality is somewhat different due to technical differences between computers and mobile devices. However, the majority of the options are available on the site, which has been optimized for smartphones.

Q: How long will documents stay in folders or have notes?
A: Documents stay in folders until the user removes them from the folder. Notes remain on documents until they are removed from the document

Q: If you are looking at a case, can you see the whole KeyCite history and citing references at no additional charge?
A: No; each citation checked in KeyCite incurs a charge of $7.00 for transactional billing or $10.00 per minute for per-minute billing. KeyCite charges may be either included or ancillary, based on your WestlawNext subscription plan.

Q: Are you using the 19th ed. of the Bluebook (which was just released)?
A: We are currently using the 18th edition of the Bluebook for CiteAdvisor, the functionality of which is incorporated into WestlawNext.  We are working to incorporate the 19th edition of the Bluebook.

Q: Do current law students have access to both westlaw.com AND WestlawNext?
A: We’re now finalizing plans for launching WestlawNext to law students. Please contact your academic account manager for specific plans for your school.

Q: How do I get access to WestlawNext?
A: Contact your local West representative or account manager.

From the West eLearning Center’s Webinar Series for Legal Experts, here are the slides for “The Benefits of Terms & Connectors” sessions conducted June 28th, 29th and 30th, 2010:

Q&A: Read all the answers to all the questions from this Webinar series.