As we announced earlier this school year, Westlaw will be removing its printers this summer. We’re still figuring out an exact date, but it will be around June 30. We wanted to give you a heads up now so that you can plan for the next few months while we still have the printers and [...]
The last legal research classes of the semester will be held today. While that’s likely welcome news for many, it means that the next research you’ll do is for your jobs and externships this summer. Here is some information on the access you’ll have to the major legal databases. Lexis Advance – Lexis recently announced that [...]
A lawyer licensed in Oregon and Hawaii was publicly reprimanded by the Oregon Supreme Court and the Hawaii Supreme Court for continued use of a Westlaw account from his former job as a special prosecutor for the Republic of Palau. The Legal Profession Blog recently reported the Oregon Supreme Court decision and the National Law [...]
Last summer we got word that beginning in the summer of 2013 Westlaw would no longer support the Westlaw printers many of our students have grown accustomed to using. While we still have a whole school year before that happens, it may be a good idea for students to begin getting used to the reality [...]
Using Shepard’s or KeyCite to make sure the cases you rely upon are good law is an essential part of the research process. These citators, however, aren’t perfect and I was reminded of that yesterday by a question from one of my students who’s out doing research this summer. What happens when a case you [...]
Many of you have asked about access to Westlaw and Lexis over the summer. Each company’s rules regarding use of your student account this summer are provided below. Generally speaking, your student IDs can be used for academic, not commercial, purposes. Both companies use nearly the same language to describe academic v. commercial; “Academic purposes” [...]
In a recent opinion the Utah State Bar’s Ethics Advisory Committee was faced with the issue of whether it was a violation of the ethics rules “for an attorney to ask a law student to undertake research using the law student’s free account and in breach of the student’s contract with Lexis and/or Westlaw.” The [...]
It’s nice to have everyone back after our lack-of-power induced holiday on Friday and Labor day yesterday. We hope you’re getting back to normal. This week the library is hosting 1L training on Westlaw and LexisNexis. All trainings will be held in the Library Instruction Room (267 in the library). Check with your legal research [...]
One of the nice additions to WestlawNext is the ability to save your research in folders. WestlawNext has recently added the ability to share those research folders with other WestlawNext users. Research is often a collaborative process and folder sharing will make collaboration much easier. This will be a big benefit to attorneys and students and I’m glad to [...]
One of the most daunting and painful research projects asked of research assistants is the 50 state survey. In short, this requires you to find the law on a particular topic in all 50 states. This type of project often appears when doing research for professors because they like to point out that “x number of [...]