Online Skills for Lexis

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Online Skills for Lexis WestlawPart II

• University of Missouri-Kansas City
• School of Law
• Paul D. Callister, JD, MSLIS
• Director of the Leon E. Bloch Law Library
  Associate Professor of Law

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During this session you will learn

• To deal with getting too many or too few "hits"
  in your search results by using either (i)
  segment or field-restricted searching or (ii)
  natural language.
• To use Lexis More Like searching and West Key
  Numbers to find similar cases and other primary
  and secondary authority after you have found a
  case, statute, regulation, secondary source on
  point.

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Segment/Field Searching
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Segment/Field Searching - Problem 1
In Westlaw, find the legislative history for the
Indian Child Welfare Act. 
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Segment/Field Searching - Problem 2
Suppose you are doing research on the history of
polygamy cases in the U.S. and you decide to
start with the Supreme Court. Use Lexis to
narrow the results to cases really on the
subject, and not cases that just have a passing
reference to the topic.
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Segment/Field Searching - Problem 3
You have heard that Professor Rotunda has written
an article on the confirmation process for
judges.  See if you can easily locate the article
using  field (or segment) searching.  Try the
same search again without using fields (or
segments).
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Natural Language - Problem 1
Using Westlaw, what is the statute of limitation
for breach of contract in North Dakota? 
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Natural Language Searching How Does it Work?

• Reorganizes database based on relevancy
• Best document should be on or near top
• Based on weighted search terms
• Generally, the rarer the term in the database as
  a whole, the more weight (and higher placement)
  documents with it receive in the results
• Sometimes additional weight is given terms are
  near each other or in certain key fields such as
  title, topic, etc.
• Repeating a term adds to its weight
• Natural Language can outperform searching by
  terms and connector in some circumstances

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Natural Language - Problem 2
Using Lexis, can a profit sharing plan serve a
dual purpose as a health or accident plan under
Internal Revenue Code section 105? Search a case
law database.
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Natural Language - Problem 3
Use both natural language and terms and connector
searching to determine when the "innocent spouse"
doctrine applies during tax litigation.  Find a
good case law database in Westlaw for your search.
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More Like This - Problem 1
During last session, you conducted a "terms and
connectors" search for a California murder case
in which it was found that a "fetus cannot be a
human being."  The key case that you found was
In Re Keeler (2 Cal. 3d 619).  Now your
supervising partner wants you to find all of the
similar cases including cases in other
jurisdictions.  Can you find all of the similar
cases? 
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More Like This - Problem 2
Ed Hood wants to leave 250,000 at his death to
care for his dog, Truman, and has asked for your
help. You have found an article entitled, Pet
Animals  What Happens When their Humans Die? 40
Santa Clara L. Rev. 617 (2000). You want to find
similar law review articles. Can you also find
any cases which are similar to the law review
articles? 
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Key Number Searching - Problem 1
In Westlaw, search for cases similar to In Re
Keeler, 2 Cal. 3d 619. 
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Key Number Searching - Problem 2
Find cases in California pertaining to "profit
sharing plans" that are similar to In Re Cheng,
943 F.2d 1114, by using West Key Number
Searching.
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Comparison Man v. Machine
 
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The End