Westlaw Insider » Westlaw

Westlaw tip: Asterisks aren’t just for fine print

Jon Hanke — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:00:14 +0000

Sometimes you have to let a letter become the star. On Westlaw, the * symbol (AKA the star or the asterisk) is the universal character. You can use the universal character anywhere in a word except at the beginning. For example, gr*w retrieves grow and grew. Try a search for ti(Swens*n) in ALLCASES to see it in action.

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

West Reference Attorneys

Marcus Anderson — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:04:19 +0000

The best darn acronym search method, period

Jon Hanke — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:00:17 +0000

Westlaw tip: If you are using an acronym or an abbreviation in a search, always put periods between the letters; you never know what punctuation a court or author will use. By placing periods between the letters, Westlaw will search for your term with or without periods. E.g., using the search term U.S.A. in the database SCT (U.S. Supreme Court cases) will return more results than the search term USA.

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

Westlaw Search Tip: How to find political leanings or perspectives

Marcus Anderson — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:03:51 +0000

Q: As part of my background research on a party, I quickly found a voter registration record for her. Unfortunately, this particular registration record tells me little about her. Is there any other way to get a sense of her political leanings or perspective?

A: Search the Political Donor Information database (POLITICAL-DONORS). Even if the individual never declared a party affiliation, her POLITICAL-DONORS record may include information such as the party, committee, or PAC to whom she has donated; the dates and amounts of her contributions; her employer; and her occupation. In addition, the Links tab may contain links to her other political donations, a variety of public records, and her Westlaw PeopleMap report.

Video: How to use FormFinder

Jon Hanke — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:00:19 +0000

In this two-minute video, West Reference Attorney Andy O’Meara demonstrates how easy it is to find the form you need using FormFinder on Westlaw.

FormFinder gives you access to more than 500,000 forms, with clauses and checklists for just about any legal filing. For more information, visit west.thomson.com/formfinder.

Westlaw tip: When in doubt, hyphen it out

Jon Hanke — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:00:40 +0000

Doing corporate work? You might need to find some good will or close a stop-gap. But is it “good will,” good-will or goodwill? You can get all of these at once. Hyphenated words pick up all three versions. Thus, use of stop-gap as a term will instruct Westlaw to search for stop gap, stopgap and stop-gap.

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

Hey, family lawyer! Have you checked out the West Key Number System lately?

Marcus Anderson — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:45:46 +0000

On August 2, West attorney-editors completed sweeping changes to the Divorce topic in the West Key Number System, resulting in the reclassification of approximately 210,000 headnotes.

Issues relating to economic aspects of a divorce—spousal support, property division, and costs and attorney fees—were particularly affected. For example, West attorney-editors created comprehensive asset categories for issues related to property and equitable distribution, integrated separation agreements throughout the Divorce topic, and gathered together attorney fee and cost issues (formerly in several locations).

Look for significant revisions to the Corporations topic, as well as a newly created Common Interest Communities topic, in the spring of 2011.

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

Westlaw tip: Keep the criminals out of your search

Jon Hanke — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:00:36 +0000

Too many criminal cases have your search all locked up?

You can do something that says, “but not any cases with U.S., People, State or Commonwealth in the title, and no case with Topic Number 110 (Criminal Law) or 197 (Habeas Corpus) or 310 (Prisons) or 349 (Search and Seizure).”

All you need to do is copy and paste this string at the end of your Terms and Connectors search:

% ti(U.S. people state commonwealth) to(110 197 310 349).

(Provided by West Reference Attorneys)

The 2009–2010 ALR Supreme Court Review: It’s already on Westlaw!

Marcus Anderson — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:00:55 +0000

The U.S. Supreme Court just had a banner year … and by “banner,” we mean screaming headlines.

Decisions such as Citizens United v. Fed. Election Comm’n (on campaign contributions) and McDonald v. City of Chicago (on Second Amendment constraints on gun legislation) continue to be hotly debated in op-ed pages and news magazines, as well as on the floor of Congress. In addition, the Court issued major decisions on the privacy of text messages sent by government employees, the scope of the honest services fraud statute (at issue in Skilling v. United States), and the limits of the right of arrestees to remain silent.

For summaries of the rulings and certiorari decisions affecting the issues facing the Court this past Term—and links to full-text documents—retrieve the 2009 to 2010 A.L.R. United States Supreme Court Review, 48 A.L.R. Fed. 2d 603 (2010), recently added to Westlaw. Just access the Find service and type the following citation: 48 alr fed 2d 603.

This annotation is also available as a KeyCite citing reference.

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

Senate Confirms Elena Kagan as the 112th Justice and the 4th Woman Justice to Serve on the U.S. Supreme Court

Marcus Anderson — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:07:32 +0000

By a 63 to 37 vote today, the Senate has confirmed the appointment of Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court as its 112th Justice. Five Republicans joined the Democrats in supporting the nomination, Susan Collins (ME), Lindsey Graham (SC), Richard Lugar (IN), Olympia Snowe (ME) and Judd Gregg (NH).

President Obama, under the authority derived from Article II, section 2, clause 2 of the United States Constitution (USCA CONST Art. II § 2, cl. 2) nominated Elena Kagan for the position of Associate Justice to the US Supreme Court on May 10, 2010 to fill the position vacated by retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. The Senate, under the “Advice and Consent” clause of the same Constitutional Provision confirmed the nomination to make Elena Kagan the fourth woman Justice to serve on the US Supreme Court.

To gain a better understanding of our newest Justice, check Elena Kagan’s Profile with over 5,000 references and dig deeper by accessing her customizable Litigation History Report from her profile:

Database: PROFILER-WLD

Query: IND(ELENA /3 KAGAN)