Transcript LEXIS-NEXIS FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Legal Research for
International Students,
using
Prepared for
Pericles American Business & Legal Education Project
By Professor Dent
Moscow, Russia, December 2003, updated 2008
TYPES OF LEGAL INFORMATION ON
THE LEXIS-NEXIS SYSTEM
 Case Law- all U. S. case law (both reported and some





unreported cases) modern cases from the UK, Canada,
Australia and other common law countries;
Statutory Law-All US federal and state laws, available
within 24 hours of publication, selected legislation
from many other countries;
Administrative Law-US Code of Federal Regulations,
Federal Register (containing draft laws and
regulations), regulations of most US states, partial
regulations of many foreign countries;
Law journals-over 700 US and foreign law reviews;
Legal encyclopedias and treatises;
Legal newspapers and newsletters.
OTHER TYPES OF INFORMATION ON
THE LEXIS-NEXIS SYSTEM
 News - Newspapers, magazines, wire services,
newsletters, journals, broadcast transcripts, from
both US and foreign sources;
 Company and financial information – SEC
(Securities & Exchange Commission) company
filings, patent information, private and public
company profiles;
 Political information – information on U.S.
Congressional hearings, public opinion polling,
speeches etc.;
 Marketing Information – demographics.
FYI-LEXIS IS THE LAW DATABASE.
NEXIS IS THE NEWS DATABASE.
Choose your
Database
here
WARNING!
 Not all information is available with all accounts.
Your student account may restrict access to some
databases.
 Student accounts may only be used for educational
purposes. Using Lexis-Nexis for paid work is
prohibited. If Lexis believes that you are using your
free account for commercial work, your account
could be disconnected.
 Do not give your password to anyone. (If your
password is used on more than one computer at a
time, your account could be disconnected.)
STRUCTURE OF LEXIS
Think of Lexis as a filing cabinet housing
databases, libraries, files, and documents.
This is the opening screen - in the Legal database.
YOUR FIRST STEP IS TO CHOOSE A
SOURCE—A LIBRARY AND FILE.
DO THIS BY CLICKING A HYPERLINK
– like Patent law for instance.
OR SHORTCUT THE PROCESS
WITH RECENTLY USED SOURCES.
A USEFUL LIBRARY FOR FOREIGN
LEGAL RESEARCH IS
“FIND LAWS BY COUNTRY OR REGION”
As you can
see, British,
Canadian
and
European
materials
are easy to
find.
Click “View
more
sources for
other
countries.
FROM THERE YOU CAN FIND SUBLIBRARIES FOR MANY COUNTRIES
–LlKE RUSSIA FOR INSTANCE.
INSIDE EACH LIBRARY YOU FIND
THE FILES.
Names of
files might
Look at the
not be very
KEY
self
to find
explanatory.
where to
So it’s
click for
important to
source info.
know what is
in each
source.
Garant
RusLegisLine (through 97 only)
BUTCLICKING
CLICKINGON
ONTHE
DOCUMENT
ICONS
“I” SYMBOL
BRINGS
SEARCH
WINDOW
BRINGSUP
UPTHE
A WINDOW
SHOWING
(WHICH WE’LL DISCUSS IN A MOMENT).
WHAT
DOCUMENTS ARE IN A FILE.
FOREIGN LAW FILES ON LEXIS ARE
NOT ALWAYS LIKE THEIR
COUNTERPARTS BACK HOME.
 Foreign Database systems may be differently updated.
 The Garant file on Lexis, for instance, is updated differently than
the Garant research system native to Russia. Garant Russia
updates by replacing its old files, but Lexis updates by adding to
old files. Thus, researching Garant in Russia, you will find one
copy of each document, while on Lexis you will find both old and
new copies.
The lesson to learn from this is to
 Also,
foreign law
databases
and go, while
always
check
thecome
contents
ofLexis
an
stays.
unfamiliar
file
before
beginning
your
 Thus, you will find
many
files on Lexis
that cover only a limited
time period, and are no longer even available in their home
research in it.
countries.
 Plus, Lexis contains only documents in the standard
Windows Latin alphabet.
 If your language is in a different character set, you will find only
English versions or only transliterated versions on Lexis.
BUT EVEN IF IT ISN’T PERFECTLY
INTERNATIONAL YET, LEXIS HAS ONE
BIG ADVANTAGE OVER WESTLAW
FOR FOREIGN LEGAL RESEARCH.
In the Lexis system one subscription gets you
access to all material from all countries. Contrarily,
in the Westlaw system there are different
subscriptions for different countries. Westlaw UK,
for instance, doesn’t contain all U.S. case law, and
Westlaw U.S. doesn’t contain much European Law.
With Lexis you get one stop shopping!
OF MAIN
COURSE,
THERE OF
IS ATHE
LOTSYSTEM
MORE
THE
STRENGTH
THAN
LAW
ON LEXIS.
IS
FORFOREIGN
AMERICAN
RESEARCH!
US
Federal
Case law
Topic
Libraries
US Statutes
& Regs
Secondary
Sources
State
Laws
Attorney &
Company
Listings
The screen is changed slightly from
time to time
New
Since
2008
New since
2007
SEARCH EXAMPLE: TO ACCESS
LAW JOURNALS FIRST CLICK ON
SECONDARY LEGAL:
 Click Law Reviews and
Journals.
 Click Law Reviews
Combined (for a search
across all the journals);
 or click Individual Law
Reviews & Journals.
 There are also groups of
journals by area of law or
jurisdiction.
The U.S. Law Review system is extensive. Almost every law
school and professional legal organization has a review. Law
review articles can be great places to find information for
dissertation and LL.M. course paper requirements.
NO, NO REASON AT ALL THAT THIS
GUY IS ON THE SCREEN.
Now that
you know
--Except
to wake
you up;how to find the right
library,
lets
figure
outare
how
to search
for
-- And
to tell
you
that we
going
on to discuss
a new skill
materials.
WAYS TO SEARCH
LEXIS-NEXIS
 BOOLEAN – “Terms and Connectors” uses a
combination of search words and logical
connectors.
 FREESTYLE – “Natural Language” allows
users to enter a search description by typing
in a question or phrase.
 EASY SEARCH—just for quick, easy tasks
PICK A SEARCH STYLE
Boolean
Freestyle
It’s mainly a matter of personal preference.
But “Easy Search” is too easy for all but the
simplest tasks
EASY SEARCH
 For the GOOGLE Generation
 Not much control—just enter the words
you want to find.
 Works best when you have unique search
words and are searching small databases
ADVANTAGES OF BOOLEAN
 Most research experts prefer this method of




searching
It’s faster and generally more efficient. (This is
important when you are paying for search time)
It gives you more control over the search engine
and more predicable results.
The results are usually in precedent and date
order—so the most important and most recent
documents appear first .
You can impress your friends with how efficient
you are!
ADVANTAGES OF NATURAL
LANGUAGE
 There is less to learn.
 You just type a question and let the computer do the
logical work.
 The computer adds synonyms and recognizes
citations, phrases etc.
 Natural Language works better when you
already know your issue and the terms likely to
occur in the documents you want to find.
 Natural Language arranges your results by a
statistical analysis of a document’s probable
relevance.
WHEN NATURAL LANGUAGE
IS BEST:
When you
you only
short search problem
and
When
are have
doinga background
research
don’t want
take thefor
time
to thinktypes
of Boolean
rather
thantolooking
specific
of
terms.
documents
 When you are searching long documents that
don’t
Better
notsegments.
to do this when you are paying for
have
It can
quickly
get time consuming
search
Natural time.
language
looks
for concentrations
of your
search
terms and then lists the documents by
and
expensive.
probable relevance. This can help you find the right
documents more quickly in a long mass of text.
 When you don’t know what connectors to use.
 (ie: don’t know how close terms are likely to occur to
one another).
PLANNING A BOOLEAN
SEARCH
 Define the information needed.
 Choose appropriate search
terms/words to define the info you
need (use help).
 Connect the search words.
 Simplify (truncate) the search words.
 Confine the search to a particular
document segment or time frame.
FIRST, DO YOU REMEMBER
HOW TO ACCESS THE
SEARCH SCREEN?
Go through the libraries to find the right file, and
then click on the appropriate document icon.
Sometimes you can search more than one file at a time.
Click “Show checkboxes for combining sources.”
Next we’ll see a quick overview of
the search screen and skills, and
then we’ll examine how to do it
more closely.
foreign
foreign
bribe!
Type
and
w/5
w/5
search
foreign
(official
(official
here
w/5
or
or
(official
officer or
Bribeyour
and
official
and
foreign
agent)
and
immigration) and
officer)
or officer)
and(fraud
Title w/5
(bribe!)
Title (brib! or corrupt!)
Not
Good!
Much
Better!
BOOLEAN (TERMS & CONNECTORS) SEARCHING
AND between words will find all the words
anywhere in the document
OR between words will find either word in the
document
W/n (where n is a number) will find words
close to each other
A string of words will search as a phrase
A “!” will truncate a word
Use SUGGESTED WORDS for
search ideas. This is especially
useful for foreign lawyers--It’s an
American legal thesaurus at your
fingertips!
Use SEGMENTS to search
for words in document parts
such as Author, Title,
Summary etc.
SELECTING SEARCH WORDS
 Seek words that are likely to be unique to the type
of document you want.
 Think of similar terms: seeking cases about children?
Look also for “minor,” “infant,” “juvenile.”
 Using the SUGGESTED WORDS AND CONCEPTS feature
will help a lot!
 Check your spelling before searching.
 Think about whether to use American or British spelling!
 Compound Words will read as one.
 A search for “hard-disk” will also find “harddisk” but not
“hard disk”
 Noise words are not searchable.
 Personal pronouns (he, it, etc.) and forms of “to be”
 Conjunctions (and, and not, or, but not) act as
connectors
UNIVERSAL CHARACTERS LET YOU
FIND ALL VARIANTS
 “!” at the end of a root word lets you find
added characters.
 A search for “child!” will find both “child” and “children”
 Think carefully where to put your “!”. A search for “varia!”
will find “variant” and “variation” but not “various.”
 “*” is a space holder.
 A search for “wom*n” will find documents with “woman” and
“women.”
 Regular Plurals and Possessives will be
found automatically.
 You need not add a universal or spaceholder to get
“citizens” or “citizen’s” from a search of “citizen.”
 OR
CONNECTORS
 finds documents which contain either or both of the
search terms
 AND
 finds documents with both of the search terms
 W/n
 finds documents with words within some number (n)
of each other.
 For example “bicycle w/5 accident” produces every
document in which the two words are within 5 words
of one another: a case re an “accident while riding a
two-wheeled bicycle” will come up in your search.
 Lexis skips noise words when counting.
MORE CONNECTORS
 W/s
 finds words within the same sentence
 W/p
 finds words within the same paragraph
 PRE/n
 first search word will precede the second by a specific (n)
 AND NOT
 a search word is excluded
 NOT W/n
 The first search word is required, but the second need not be
in the document. If it is, it cannot be within (n) words of the
first word.
LIMITING SEARCHES BY DATE
Can be done either by typing date restrictors in the search
window or using the options at the bottom of the screen.
 On a Particular Date
 date is 2003
 date = 2003
 After a Date
 date aft july 20 2002
 Before a Date
 date bef october
5 1997
 Between Two
Dates
 date aft 10/26/1997
AND bef 1-6-98
SEGMENT SEARCHING
 Documents are divided into naturally
occurring parts or segments depending on
the type of document.
 To identify the segments for each library or
file, before entering the search click the
Segments plus sign and the list of available
segments will display.
EXAMPLES OF SEGMENT
SEARCHING
 LIST OF AVAILABLE
SEGMENTS
 Court Case
 CITES
 COUNSEL
 COURT
 JUDGES
 OPINIONBY
DISPLAYING SEARCH
RESULTS
 When LEXIS-NEXIS completes the search, you




will see a message telling how many documents
matched the search. Search results can be
viewed as:
CITE LIST - list of retrieved citations
KWIC - Key Words in Context shows terms with a
block of text around them. The default is 25
surrounding words. You can click again on the Kwic
button to increase or decrease the words shown.
CUSTOM – Displays whatever “Segments” of the
document that you want to see.
FULL - shows the entire retrieved document
THIS IS A LIST BY “CITE”
TO GET THE “KWIC” VERSION
OF A DOCUMENT . . .
Just click on the
name of a
document and
click “kwic” after
the document
appears.
KWIC VIEW
AND THIS IS A CUSTOM
VIEW WINDOW
It lets you choose segments you want to see.
MODIFYING SEARCH
RESULTS
 If you get too many or too few documents, you
should EDIT your search results.
 EDIT SEARCH takes you back to the search screen
to try again.
YOU CAN ALSO REFINE YOUR
SEARCH LIKE THIS:
 FOCUS allows you to specify words to be
searched within the current search results.
 Searching a group of cases about “airplanes” you can
use the FOCUS to find which of them mention “British
Airways.”
 When you exit FOCUS your original list of airplane
cases still appears.
 “More Like This” tells Lexis to retrieve more
documents like one you have found.
 This feature retrieves 25 documents that most likely
resemble the model document.
 MORE works best when the document you use it on is
mainly about the info you are seeking. MORE will not
find documents that match minor bits of information
from the main document.
MORE MORE
But you can tell Lexis to find more documents that resemble
specific bits of text in the document you already found, by
selecting a key phrase and clicking “more like selected text.”
MORE MORE
This opens a new search window with your selected passage
and lets you run a natural language search over it, specifying
any terms that you insist must appear in the documents you
are seeking.
Conflict and foreign
MORE MORE-HEADNOTES
 As you may already
know, Lexis puts
headnotes in the front of
cases, just like the case
reporters in the library
have.
 Headnotes tell the main
points of law discussed in
the case. They are very
useful tools.
 If you find a headnote
with the point of law you
need, you can press
“more like this headnote”
to find other cases
discussing the same legal
issue.
THE JUDGE IS BACK TO SAY
LET’S MOVE THE CASE ALONG
Time to learn how to keep your
search results.
LOOK AT THE TOP RIGHT
CORNER OF YOUR DOCUMENT
Words or graphics, it’s all the same
DOWNLOADING
 Simply click download and follow
the directions.
 Be sure to note what format your
download will be.
 Note whether Lexis is
downloading the cite, kwic or full
version and to change it if it isn’t
what you want.
 Be sure to note which
documents you are downloading.
 Don’t get all when you only want
one.
 Or get a list of selected
documents.
 Be sure to select “other options.”
THOSE “OTHER OPTIONS”
 “Core concepts” are the headnotes that we
discussed a few slides ago.
 “Core terms” is a list of key words in the
document
 This list is very useful for non-native speakers of
English. You can use it to look up words in a
dictionary before you start to read the case.
 Showing case summary gives you the synopsis
that you would find in the case reporter.
 Handy(Don’t
for bluffing
through
classI said
whenthat!)
you don’t have
tell your
professor
time to read the whole case.
DON’T WORRY ABOUT THIS
SCREEN
It merely means that Lexis is
working on your delivery
request.
E-MAILING
 Emailing gives you as many formatting options
as downloading—but files can be large.
 But it is handy if you
aren’t using Lexis from
your home computer—you
can send it via email to
your regular address.
 Or send a case directly
to a friend!
PRINTING
(OR, SOMETIMES WE DO THINGS THE OLD FASHIONED WAY)
PRINTING
 Before you say that printing is better, you should
be warned of a few things.
 First, Lexis documents can be longgggg!
 Thus, printing everything can be an expensive use of paper.
 Second, when printing directly from Lexis, you won’t
have a saved document on your computer to cut and
paste from, or run searches on later.
 Finally, you must be careful where you print: the
“Fast Print” option may not send your document to a
printer attached to your computer.
IMPORTANT WARNING FOR
PRINTING DOCUMENTS
Only use “attached Printer” options unless you
are in your university computer lab!
Otherwise
Or some
smart
some
student
poor
librarian
will bewill
reading
be wondering
your
printouts
why your
to
shortcut
documents
her
are
own
rolling
mootoff
hiscourt
printer!
research!
COPY WITH CITE
(THE NEWEST AND COOLEST WAY TO SAVE)
 Copy with Cite allows you to copy a blocked portion of a
document to your Windows clipboard.
 It’s a quick way to insert quote in your memos and briefs.
 Lexis automatically inserts the correct citation for your
quote.
COPY WITH CITE
This is the window that copy with cite brings up
when you block text and click the function.
Warning:
Lexis cite
form may
not be
exactly blue
book or
ALWD form!
Always
check.
HERE COMES THE JUDGE ONCE
MORE
To say “Lets look deeper into this” –
Lets see the advanced stuff!
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE
NUMBER 1
BYPASSING THE HUNT
THROUGH THE LIBRARIES
with Guided Search Forms,
Dot Command Searches,
and
Get a Document
GUIDED SEARCH FORMS
Clicking this button at the beginning of your
search will lead you to some common
searches and sources.
DOT COMMAND SEARCHING
Clicking Dot Command Searching at the beginning
of your search will lead you to a page for real
experts. Use this page only if you know Lexis
abbreviations for libraries and commands.
If you do know the commands, command searching can
speed you up by allowing you to tell Lexis, to search a
particular library, find a particular document, and display
it in a certain format, all in one step.
(FYI, Typing “.fu” isn’t rude in this screen. It’s the
command for “show in full format.”)
FINDING A DOCUMENT WITH “GET”
If you know a specific document you are seeking, you can
skip all that library stuff by clicking “Get a Document.”
Then select what info you will use to get it.
This is the screen
for getting a
document by Party.
FINDING A DOCUMENT WITH “GET”
This is the screen
for getting a
document by
citation.
NOTE: “Get a
document was
formerly called
LEXSEE. You will
still see this in
some parts of
Lexis.
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE
NUMBER 2
CUSTOMIZING WITH RESEARCH
TASKS
 The “Research Tasks” button, immediately
to the right of the “Search” button, allows
you to see several commonly used tools
on one screen.
 You can customize your Lexis window by
having it open up to a “Research Task”
screen instead of to the regular “Search”
screen.
RESEARCH TASKS
 This is what you see when you open research tasks.
 You can pick the tasks most common to your work
RESEARCH TASKS
This is the
law school
Research
Task
screen
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE
NUMBER 3
GETTING A “FISH” (Form)
with
Total Litigator and
Transactional Advisor
Transactional Advisor lets you pick your
area of law and search for specific
documents you are likely to need
You can also quickly perform other
tasks Lexis thinks lawyers with your
specialty will need.
Total litigator is a similar resource for trial attorneys
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE
NUMBER 4
REUSING OLD SEARCHES
with
History and
Alert
FINDING OLD SEARCHES
 If you don’t want your documents delivered
right away, you can find your search results
again later by pressing the “History” button.
Lexis automatically saves
your searches for 30
days in its archives!
RENEWING SEARCHES WITH
ALERTS
ALERTS (formerly called Eclipse) will run a search for
you automatically and send you the results.
Be careful not to have
ALERTS print the
results for you. Much
better to email it unless
you are always near
your printer.
GREAT ALERT USES
 Know how hard it is to get your local news
when you are out of the country?
 You can run a Nexis search on foreign
newspapers and have Alerts automatically
email you the news from home every day.
 Need to make sure your thesis research is
up to date?
 Save your search as an Alert and it will
automatically send you any new cases or law
review articles about your topic.
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE
NUMBER 5
CHECKING CITES BY
SHEPHARDING
SHEPHARDIZING IS ESSENTIAL
TO ENSURE YOUR CASE
RESEARCH IS CURRENT.
Sometimes little symbols
will remind you about
this.
CLICKING SHEPARDIZE GIVES YOU
PRIOR AND SUBSEQUENT CASES
THAT HAVE CITED YOUR CASE.
The Red stop
sign warns of a
reversed or
possibly
overturned case!
The Yellow
warning sign
warns your case
was criticized.
The Blue “A”
shows your case
was analyzed.
SHEPHARDS WARNINGS DON’T
ALWAYS STOP YOU USING A CASE.
 Some warning icons don’t mean
much.
 Moving your mouse over the icon will give
you the definition
 Warnings appear even if a very minor
part of the case is criticized.
 Click on the cite that appears in
Shepards and carefully read the citing
case to see if your original case is still
good law on the point you need.
YOU CAN ALSO ACCESS SHEPARDS
FROM THE ENTRY SCREEN.
And finally don’t forget you can
access Shepards, find cases by
cite, and even find a handy legal
dictionary at the top of the Lexis
screen
THAT’S THE END OF ADVANCED
TECHNIQUES AND ALMOST THE
END OF THE SHOW.
GOODBYE!
Just don’t forget to sign off when
you leave!
If you have any questions or comments about this show
Please address them to:
Marian Dent
Pericles American Business & Legal Education Project
1st Miusskaya Ul. 22-3
Moscow, Russia 125047
(7-495) 649-2273
[email protected]
www.pericles.ru