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)

“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!

Know everything about a case but its citation? Here’s a quick way to track it down: Click on the “Find & Print” link at the top of your screen and then the “Find a Case by Party Name” link on the left.

Enter the information that you have, and a list of matching cases will be displayed. Then you can just scroll down the list to find the appropriate case.

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

Instead of waiting for new lawsuits to hit the docket, wouldn’t it be great to hear about them as soon as the complaint is made available by the court?

Whether you need to protect an organization, defend the legal interests of a client or develop new business, you know how hard it can be to stay on top of new litigation that can pop up just about anywhere in the country.

By combining cutting-edge technology with some good old-fashioned shoe leather, Westlaw has developed a new service that can deliver relevant new litigation filings directly to your computer or smartphone, almost as soon as they’re filed.

Westlaw Court Wire accomplishes this with a team of staff editors who constantly monitor 136 key state and federal courts around the country. Thanks to their efforts, users can get daily email reports and continuous notification alerts on new complaints for search terms they select.

Scannable archives of past feeds are available via a Westlaw tab, and new case notifications link right into Westlaw, which means you can download copies of complaints and request notification of ongoing developments in specific matters.

If you’re looking for flexibility in determining which cases are reported to you – and how they’re distributed to others within your organization – Westlaw Court Wire could be the key. Check it out at west.thomson.com/courtwire.

Do you have a one-time research assignment and need to learn more about the topic? Westlaw has a tab that can help.

You can display a topical tab for one research session without having to save the tab. To try it, click on the “Add a Tab” link on the right-hand side of your Westlaw window. Click on “Add Westlaw Tabs,” scroll down to the topical tabs section and you will see tabs on topics ranging from Animals to Medical Malpractice to Public Utilities.

If you click the blue underlined name of the tab, it will display the tab for this research session and the tab will be removed when you log off. To keep the tab around, you can use the checkbox next to the tab’s name.

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

Westlaw tip: How popular can a name be if no one knows where to find it? Congress assigns many pieces of legislation a “popular name.” These may be as well known as the USA PATRIOT Act, or as obscure as the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration Act of 2000.

Westlaw has useful tools to help you find where these acts have been codified. Go to the USCA database search screen and choose the “Pop. Name Table” link in the upper right-hand corner. Then select the letter your act starts with and scroll down, clicking to the next part if necessary.

When you click the name of the act, a table will display showing where the sections of the act were codified. It also shows the Public Law number, which you can use to do a Find of the entire act.

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

In many parts of the country, June and July are the prime months for thunderstorms – and since heavy downpours often lead to rapidly rising  water levels in rivers and streams, the stormy months of summer are also prime time for flash floods.

A few flash-flood facts from the U.S. Geological Survey:

• Most flood-related deaths are caused by flash floods.
• Urban areas are vulnerable to flash flooding due to the amount of surface area covered by parking lots, rooftops and other impermeable surfaces.
• Canyons and narrow river valleys with steep banks are also high-risk areas, acting like funnels to concentrate the volume and velocity of water.
• Private homeowners’ insurance policies typically don’t cover floodwater damage.

Whether you’re drafting a flood insurance clause for a real estate contract or a complaint, FormFinder on Westlaw has dozens of documents to help you find the right language to use.

With FormFinder’s recent improvements, pinpointing the perfect document is easier than ever. And you can use the new content from Miller’s Standard Insurance Policies Annotated to support your litigation strategy by quickly finding insurance precedent for policies where flood coverage has been litigated. Miller’s provides easy access to standard property and casualty insurance policies, with convenient links to editorial annotations for all U.S. caselaw interpreting policy language of interest to you. (You can learn more about Miller’s content on the West website.)

More FormFinder info: You can read more, view a demo, and buy it online.

Try it yourself: To see forms for today’s topic, try these template paths:

• Topic = Real Estate
  Search Terms = flood /s insurance “National Flood Insurance”
• Topic = All Topics Included | Filter = Litigation Forms
  Search Terms = flood /s insurance
• Topic = Insurance Policies
  Search Terms = flood

You probably know West’s reference attorneys for the super-helpful research assistance they provide to Westlaw subscribers. But did you know they also have their own blog? It’s a pilot project aimed at summer associates, with posts that discuss current events in the legal world. Check it out for yourself at westreferenceattorneys.com.

Here’s a sampling of last week’s blog topics, with links to the original posts:

• State and local gun-control laws are sure to be tested after the Supreme Court’s June 29 ruling in McDonald v. City of Chicago – and you can use Westlaw to provide automatic notification of any KeyCite status changes that result.
• An Internet kill switch? A proposal now making its way through Congress would give the U.S. president emergency authority to shut down portions of the Internet in then event of a cyber-attack. Learn where to find the bill on Westlaw.
• Follow Elena Kagan’s testimony before Congress by reading  transcripts of her confirmation hearings on Westlaw.
• Add the new Oil Spill tab to your Westlaw screen to follow the unfolding legal drama surrounding the BP oil spill.
• What’s in a name? Well, if your name happens to be Justin Beiber, you could be a teenage heartthrob from Canada – or a personal injury attorney from Philadelphia who suddenly finds himself with a lot of new Facebook friends. Find out how Westlaw can give you the advantage when playing the same-name game.

Do you have a one-time research assignment and need to learn more about the topic? Westlaw has a tab that can help.

You can display a topical tab for one research session without having to save the tab. To try it, click on the “Add a Tab” link on the right-hand side of your Westlaw window. Click on “Add Westlaw Tabs,” scroll down to the topical tabs section and you will see tabs on topics ranging from Animals to Medical Malpractice to Public Utilities.

If you click the blue underlined name of the tab, it will display the tab for this research session and the tab will be removed when you log off. To keep the tab around, you can use the checkbox next to the tab’s name.

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

He loved his new condo…until the unmistakable smell of sewer gas moved in and refused to leave.

Her restaurant served up healthy profits…until a malodorous sewage line became too much for even her most devoted patrons to put up with.

Their basement rec-room was their favorite hangout…until the city sewer main backed up and sent them scrambling up the stairs.

Got a smelly legal issue?  There are more than 1,500 documents on Westlaw that deal with sewage. When you need one, use the FormFinder search template to quickly narrow down search results to the forms, checklists or clauses that are most relevant to your practice.  You can limit by practice area such as Business Organizations, Construction, Environmental, Local Government, Real Estate and many others.  And if you choose, you can also limit by subtopic, jurisdiction, and your own search terms for even greater precision.

With over 500,000 forms to choose from, FormFinder can supply forms, clauses and checklists for just about any legal filing. 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.

More FormFinder info: You can read more, view a demo, and buy it online.

Try it yourself: To see forms for today’s topic, try these template paths:

• Topic = Real Estate | Filter = Transactional | Search Terms = sewage
• Topic = Environmental | Filter = Litigation | Search Terms = sewage
• Topic = Business Organizations | Filter = Transactional | Search Terms = sewage