Article Abstract #9

This book is a publication of the Westlaw corporation. Westlaw is another leading provider of legal information. Law students, faculty and librarians depend on it and Lexis to access both primary and secondary legal information. As with the Lexis book, this book explains the best way to utilize Westlaw.com and demonstrates the distinctive features of its database.

Westlaw has chosen not to divide this book by types of information sources. Instead they have organized it by search strategies. It begins by explaining the various search command unique to Westlaw. For example, instead of the Boolean operator “OR”, a searcher simply leaves a space between search terms. This could prove to be quite challenging to a searcher used to the Google.com universe.

A benefit of using Westlaw as opposed to Lexis is the West Key number system. This is an indexing system developed by West that allows legal researchers to easily find cases on point from all jurisdictions. Another benefit is the WestClip service. A researcher can set up a search that will automatically run every predetermined number of days. This is especially beneficial to a litigator needing to remain up to date on certain legal issues.