Westlaw Today organizes legal news and email alerts written by Reuters lawyers and journalists. [21] The Law Library subscribes to HeinOnline, Hein`s online research product, which has over 90 million pages of legal history available in a fully searchable, image-based online format. More information about this service can be found on their website under heinonline.org or at the reference desk. The HeinOnline Law Library subscription includes the Law Journal Library (more than 1,700 legal journals, available in PDF format, covering from the first issue to the currently published issue), the Code of Federal Regulations (since its founding in 1938), the Federal Register Library (since its founding in 1936), Legal Classics (more than 3,000 articles), Nyberg and Boast`s Subject Compilations of State Laws, the Treaties and Agreements Library (all United States) Treaties, whether currently in force, have expired or have not yet been officially published), the United States Code (from early 1925-1926), American Laws at Large, the Library of the Supreme Court of the United States (complete coverage of the bound official volumes of the United States reports as well as preliminary impressions and notices of bordereau). Westlaw WebPlus offers a web search engine focused on legal information sites. [19] Most of Westlaw`s legal records are indexed in the West Key Number System, which is the primary classification system of West`s U.S. law. Westlaw supports natural language and Boolean search. Other key features of Westlaw include KeyCite, a citation checking service that allows clients to determine if cases or laws are still correct, and a customizable tabbed interface that allows clients to take their most frequently used resources up.

Other tabs organize Westlaw`s content around the specific work requirements of litigators, in-house practitioners, and lawyers specializing in more than 150 legal topics. Most clients are lawyers or law students, but other people can also get accounts. [ref. The latest version of Westlaw brings together a heritage of quality, accuracy and the latest technological advances for legal research. Citation verification is necessary because lawyers must determine whether a case has been overturned, reversed, or altered by a subsequent case before summoning it to court. In addition, when interpreting a statute, it is necessary to consider previous judicial interpretations. The U.S. judicial system operates on the principle of stare decisis – a system of precedents – to ensure that courts make consistent decisions on similar legal issues, regardless of the political or social status of the parties involved. Therefore, lawyers must ensure that the legal citations they use to support their arguments are accurate and always « good laws. » Around 1989, both began offering PC programs that emulated terminals, and as Internet access became available, an Internet address (such as westlaw.com) became an alternative that could be selected in the « Communication Setup » option in the client program instead of a dial-up number.

West`s program was known as Westmate. It was based on Borland C++ around 1997 and was later turned into a program compiled on a Microsoft platform that included parts of Internet Explorer. It was the first program to include HTML; Before that, Westmate had « jumps » indicated by triangles instead of « links ». Soon after, both publishers began developing web browser interfaces, with Westlaw known for using « web dialogues » that mimic the pile of open books on a table. Westmate was discontinued on June 30, 2007. Westlaw was founded in 1975 by West Publishing,[1] a company based in Eagan, Minnesota since 1992. West was acquired by Thomson Corporation in 1996. Several Thomson legal entities outside the United States have their own Westlaw websites, and Westlaw`s international content is available online.

[2] For example, Carswell`s Westlaw Canada includes Abridgment and KeyCite Canada from Canada,[3] and Westlaw UK provides information from Sweet & Maxwell, as well as independent legal reports, case analyses, and case status symbols. More recently, Westlaw China was introduced with laws and regulations, cases, summaries and status symbols (similar to KeyCite flags) for the law of the People`s Republic of China. [4] Westlaw Ireland (IE) was founded in 2002 and includes information from Round Hall publications as well as laws, books, cases, current knowledge and full-text articles from many of the country`s notable legal journals. [5] In total, Westlaw is used in more than 68 countries. Introduced to Westlaw in 1997, KeyCite was the first service to seriously challenge Shepard`s citations, which lawyers had relied on for generations. Shepard had become such a necessary part of legal research that citation checking is still unofficially called « shepardizing. » Westlaw is a descendant of QUIC/LAW, a Canadian computer-assisted legal research project conducted by Queen`s University from 1968 to 1973. [6] The original name stood for Queen`s University Investigation of Computers and Law. [7] It was done by Hugh Lawford and Richard von Briesen, and the original code was based on an in-house IBM text search project called INFORM/360. [6] The IBM code was found to be incomplete and required significant changes. [6] In 1973, the project was commercialized as a new company called QL Systems and a new product name, QL/SEARCH. [6] In 1976, QL Systems licensed the QL/SEARCH software to West Publishing as the original basis for what Westlaw would become.

[6] The Westlaw Litigator website[20] provides access to legal calendars and other litigation-related applications. Sources of information about Westlaw include more than 40,000 databases of jurisprudence, state and federal statutes, administrative codes, newspaper and magazine articles, public documents, legal journals, legal syntheses, treaties, legal forms, and other information resources. West`s main competitor in the legal information market is LexisNexis. [8] (Ironically, Lawford and von Briesen sold what was then called QuickLaw to LexisNexis in 2002.[ 7]) Westlaw and LexisNexis started in the 1970s as switched services with dedicated terminals. Early versions used acoustic couplers or keyboards; then smaller terminals with internal modems. The Westlaw terminal was known as Walt, for West Automatic Law Terminal. [9] [10] KeyCite uses Westlaw`s technologies, guiding principles written by West`s lawyers, and West`s key number system to immediately identify and alert lawyers that the case law they are reviewing has been overturned or has a history that invalidates the precedent value of the opinion. KeyCite is a case citter used in legal research in the United States that contains a list of all organizations citing a particular case, law, or other legal authority.

West CiteAdvisor formats citations and creates a table of authorities. Like WestCheck, it is available online at citeadvisor.westlaw.com or as word processing software. [18] Westlaw is the West Group`s online legal research service. The Supreme Court Law Library offers FREE access to a select group of Westlaw databases. Ask a law librarian or call the law library for more information. The Law Library`s Westlaw contract includes AmJur2d, AmJur Proof of Facts & Trials Library, AmJur Plead- and Practice Forms, Federal Practice and Procedure (aka Wright & Miller), and Causes of Action. Westlaw`s KeyCite [PDF] service is equivalent to Lexis Shepard`s Cite verification service. The West Key Number System is a major classification system in U.S. law and is considered « the only recognized legal taxonomy. » [22] The West Key Number System was created by the West Publishing Company and can be described as a highly detailed index of over 110,000 legal topics and sub-topics.

The index serves as the backbone for legal information published by West, which appears in the company`s print publications and now on Westlaw. Bloomberg Law provides court records, cases, news, legal analysis and legal tools. The library`s reading room houses a Bloomberg terminal that allows for more sophisticated search for financial data and access to additional financial and corporate information. Trusted by generations of lawyers, Westlaw Classic offers comprehensive content and essential features that enable efficient and accurate research. Quickly find accurate answers with WestSearch, the original legal search engine, and exclusive editorial enhancements that organize and connect content. West launched WestlawNext on February 8, 2010. The main advancements are that a user can start a search without first selecting a database, which is useful because WestLaw has 40,000 databases,[11] and the search screen allows you to click on checkboxes to select the jurisdiction and type of material you want.