Advanced LexisNexis Training
Advanced Legal Research
Feb. 16, 2012
Mary Whisner

Lexis, Lexis, Lexis
• Lexis.com (law school)
• Lexis Advance
• Lexis for Microsoft Office
• (LexisNexis Academic)

• Video
Lexis for Microsoft Office
• Live demo

Lexis.com & Lexis Advance
• How should I organize this class?
• One system at a time?
– Which one first?
• Both systems, concept by concept?
– What concepts?

Research Tasks (Macro)

Research Tasks (Specific Examples)
• Find a known item (case, law review article, statute)
• Find some documents that do X
– recent articles that discuss assisted reproductive technology
– Supreme Court cases reversing the 9th Cir.

Research Tasks (Specific Examples)
• Get an introduction to a topic
– What are the main elements of the Affordable
Health Care Act?
– What are the basics of community property law?
– What are the basics of personal jurisdiction?

Research Tasks (Specific Examples)
• Answer a legal question
– In WA can holder of promissory note sue for payment eight years after note was signed?
– In WA can estranged wife testify against her husband if she chooses to?
– Under what circumstances can non-Indian parents adopt an Indian child?

Research Tasks (Specific Examples)
• Check validity of case
– Has it been overruled, reversed, affirmed?
– Has another court cited it? Positively, negatively?
• Find news
– How does Newt Gingrich propose controlling federal judges?
– Have rates of malaria fallen or risen since 2005?

What could make you more efficient at finding info?
• Knowing where to look
• Getting there easily
• Knowing how to search
– Control?
• Being able to sift through results better
• Being able to leverage results to get more

Search for Known Item
• 37 Rutgers L.J. 1169
• RCW 4.20.010
• Article by Ralph Johnson about the public trust doctrine
• U.S. Supreme Court case about grandparent visitation in Washington
• 9th Cir. sex discrim. case about bartender required to wear make-up

Using One Source to Find More
• Legal Issue Trail (Lexis Advance)
– uses citations
• Search Using Selected Text (Lexis Advance)
• More Like Selected Text (Lexis.com)
– runs search
• Shepard’s (both)
– uses citations

Shepard’s
Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 120 S. Ct. 2054
• History
– Map (only Lexis Advance)
• Citing References
– Grid (only Lexis Advance)
• Restrict (Lexis.com) / Narrow (Lexis Advance)
• Focus (Lexis.com) / Terms within results (Lexis
Advance)

Search for Examples
• Find some examples of state courts interpreting state constitutional provision differently than federal equivalent.
– Lexis Advance
• search options
– Lexis.com
• search options

Search Precisely and
Comprehensively
• Find every case that cites Wash. Const. article
1, section 7

Search for News
• What coverage is Washington’s new marriage law receiving?
– in Washington?
– nationally?

Search Treatises
• Find an overview of fair use doctrine.
– encyclopedia?
– treatise?
• Find summary of McDonell-Douglas test in employment discrimination law

Recap – Lexis.com
• Finding databases
• Customizing (tabs, recently used sources, preferences)
• Natural Language; Terms & Connectors
• Focus
• History
• Alerts
• Document management

Recap – Lexis Advance
• Select database first or later
• Narrow, Search within Results
• Can use Terms & Connectors
• My WorkSpace
– Alerts
– Folders
– History
– Filters