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Political Science 418: Legal Research & Writing

Tips for searching Westlaw & some information about that other legal research database, Nexis Uni, even though we no longer have access.

Full Research@UWW Search Box

Research@UWW

Legal Research Database

Contents include federal and state appellate court cases, codes, and regulatory (administrative) law; American Jurisprudence  and Corpus Juris Secundum legal encyclopedias; law reviews; American Law Reports, Black's Law Dictionary, international legal authority; and the KeyCite full citator for updating cases and statutes.

Note: Articles on legal topics may appear in non-legal research databases, e.g., a legal topic related to business may be in a business publication and found using a business database. Ask a reference librarian for suggestions if needed.

Westlaw search tips

Use Advanced Search after selecting the type of legal authority you are searching if you want to do field searching: Or you can type advanced: and then the field code and words in () in the main search box, e.g.,  advanced:JU(kagan) to find cases where Kagan was a judge.  On the advanced search page just find the Judge field to enter Kagan, and the search will be formatted for you in the search box.

Truncate: Use ! for any number of characters at the end of a word/stem, e.g, child! finds children, child, child’s, childhood, etc.

Wild Card: Use * for one character within a word, e.g., wom*n retrieves woman or women

Phrases Put in quotation marks " " : "attractive nuisance"  (also true in Basic Search)

Special commands to use between search terms:

&: Both search terms MUST be in the same document, e.g., narcotic & warrant
<space>: at least one search term MUST appear, e.g. car automobile
/p:  search terms are in the same paragraph, e.g., hearsay /p utterance
/s:  search terms are in the same sentence, e.g., design*** /s defect!
+p:  The first term preceding the second within the same paragraph: miranda +p legislat!
+s:  The first term preceding the second within the same sentence: palsgraf +s island
/n  finds search terms within n words of each other (where n is a number): person** /3 jurisdiction
+n:  The first search term preceding the second by n words (n is a number): 20 +5 1080

KeyCite Status Flags

KeyCite Quotation Marks indicate that the citing case, administrative decision, or brief directly quotes the cited case.

Depth of Treatment Bars - The legal issues involved are identified by the headnote numbers from the case being keycited.

Viewing the History of a Case - Click the "History" tab

  • Direct History traces your case through the appellate process, including both prior and subsequent history.
  • Negative Citing References lists cases outside the direct appellate line that may have a negative impact on the precedential value of your case.
  • Related References lists cases that involve the same parties and facts as your case, whether or not the legal issues are the same.