Click-Wrap Agreement: An online form that a user completes to acknowledge the terms and conditions of using a database. The user often clicks a “radio” button or box to accept.
Initial Choices:
Choose a database by:
Jurisdiction (federal, Ohio, etc.)
Topic (Employment Law, Probate Law, etc.)
Type of material (e.g., cases, statutes, jury instructions, law reviews, forms)
Choose a general search option (see discussion below):
Find/Get a Document
Browse a Table of Contents for a database
Natural Language
Terms & Connectors (aka Boolean searching)
Template Searching
General Search Options:
Find/Get a Document: typing the citation, the parties’ names, or a docket number
Browse a Table of Contents for a database: a Table of Contents can help put a topic in perspective
Natural Language: this is like typing a Google search in the main search box
Terms & Connectors (aka Boolean searching): using words and connectors to make searching more exact and search results more relevant. Examples include:
and (to find results containing both words) or (to find results containing either word) not (to exclude results which contain certain terms) “ ” (to find results containing phrases) /x (to find results where the search terms are separated by a certain number of words) /s (to find search terms located in the same sentence) /p (to find search terms located in the same paragraph) (...) (Use of parenthesis as nesting for more complicated searching) ! (at the end of a word to catch alternative endings) * (use in a word to catch alternative spellings)
Template Searching: filling out a search box to search by fields. Examples include:
Keyword Citation Title Author Docket number Court Judge or Attorney
Other Search Tricks:
Edit (sometimes called Focus) your search to search within existing results for more relevant and targeted results.
Combine more than 1 database to search at the same time
Restrict the search by:
Special topical database
Date
Using synonyms as alternatives for search terms
Using specialized fields or segments (e.g., Outcome, Disposition, Headnote, Syllabus)
On Westlaw, search the Digest system by topic and key number (similar on Lexis)
Link to other authorities using headnotes or topic/key numbers
Shepardize or KeyCite an authority to find more similar authorities
Shepardize or KeyCite an authority by headnote number
Look at the additional resources suggested by the database provider in the margin:
Lexis: Related Content
Westlaw.com: Results Plus
Westlaw Next: Related Documents
For a new topic, try a legal encyclopedia, law review or ALR article
Browsing Results by:
Cite list-look at all of the results in a list
Key words in context-browse your results showing your search terms in context
Full text-look at each result, one result at a time
Custom viewing-choose what parts of your results you would like to view
Click on highlighted search terms or go document to document
Sorting Results in order by:
Relevance-the most relevant results containing your search terms will be first
Date (Newest or oldest first)
Court-e.g., Supreme Court first, then appellate courts, etc.
Search History:
While signed on, you can always retrace your steps and/or re-execute a prior search.
Citation Checking:
Citations can be checked for validity AND subsequent authorities.