WestlawNext: Finding by citation gets to the Next level
If you haven’t used WestlawNext to retrieve a document by citation lately, you
may be in for a pleasant surprise.

You can use a pinpoint page citation: If you know the exact page
number you need within a specific case, you can use that page number in
the citation you type. For example, if you are interested in page 1175 of
Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, 119 S.Ct. 1167 (1999), you can type 119
sct 1175 and be taken directly to page 1175.

At’s okay! Likewise, if you type a pinpoint citation containing the word at
(e.g., you copy and paste a citation such as 659 ne2d at 382 from a brief),
you go directly to the cited page of the case.

Citation + descriptive terms is okay, too: What happens if you run a
WestlawNext search containing both a case citation and descriptive terms
(e.g., frisk of passenger 83 f3d 1123)? WestlawNext now recognizes the
citation and retrieves the case along with your search results. The case is
listed at or near the top of your result list. Again, you retrieve the case in
your search results no matter which jurisdiction appears in the Jurisdiction
selector.
Result from search containing descriptive terms and citation
==
WestlawNext: Faster, smarter regulation results!
The next time you use WestlawNext to retrieve federal or state regulations, you
may discover something cool: You get precisely what you need in less time!
That’s because WestSearch recently became more sophisticated, making your
federal and state regulatory research significantly more efficient and productive:

Important stuff pushed to the top! Thanks to this enhancement, the most
relevant regulations in your search are more likely to appear at or near the
top of your result list. For example, the California search resident personal
income tax retrieves the most relevant definitional regulations first (see
below).

More focused list! In addition, you will typically retrieve a significantly
shorter result list than before—without missing key documents.

TOC headers put it in context! As you find in a result list of statutes, the
complete administrative code hierarchy is displayed for each document on
a result list of regulations. That means you see a richer context for the
regulation before you decide to click the link.
Result list (with key regulation at the top)
==
The world’s largest brief bank
Westlaw gives you more than 2.4 million reasons not to reinvent the wheel.
As one law professor asks, “Why should an attorney spend countless hours
researching and writing a brief on a topic that may have already been thoroughly
researched and written for a previous lawsuit?”* Good question.
That's why you turn to the 2.4-million-strong briefs collection on Westlaw. Even if
your office doesn't have a library of previously done research, you can still
retrieve a court-tested brief on your issue in seconds.
How are briefs useful?
A brief that discusses a particular issue may enable you to do the following:

Review how attorneys in your case have argued the issue in
prior cases.


Quickly identify the leading authorities governing the issue.
Better understand, analyze, and distinguish the key
precedents in your case.
Why use Westlaw to retrieve briefs?
When you retrieve briefs on Westlaw, the following features can save time or
deepen your understanding of a topic or a governing authority:

you can search using a template or the Terms and Connectors
or Natural Language search method

links to full-text sources cited in the brief

links to related briefs in the case

Table of Authorities service for quick access to current
KeyCite results for all cited cases in the brief
How do you retrieve briefs on Westlaw?
There are many ways to retrieve briefs on Westlaw, including the following:

Click Court Docs at the top of any Westlaw page to display
the Court Documents page. Select a database in the left frame; then enter
your search terms in the right frame.

Click Briefs and Other Related Documents (if link is
available) at the top of a case you are viewing.

Retrieve a brief listed in a KeyCite citing references result for a
case, statute, or regulation by clicking the brief's link.
*Michael Whiteman, Appellate Court Briefs on the Web: Electronic Dynamos or
Legal Quagmire?, 97 LAW LIBR. J. 467, 471 (2005).
Brief on Westlaw (detail)
==
RIA tax and WG&L accounting content: Find it on WestlawNext,
too!
If you do any tax work, you are probably already familiar with Research Institute
of America (RIA) essentials such as the United States Tax Reporter, RIA’s
Complete Internal Revenue Code, and Federal Tax Coordinator 2d. If you’ve
searched RIA databases on Westlaw, you know of RIA’s straight-to-the-point
explanations and user-friendly linking. For example, you know that from the
Internal Revenue Code section you are viewing, you’re one click away from
related regulations, explanations, annotations, and committee reports.
You will be happy to learn that 69 RIA publications were recently released on
WestlawNext, including the state-specific State & Local Taxes and the above
publications. This completes the migration of RIA content onto WestlawNext,
which now offers more than 300 RIA publications (the same as Westlaw
Classic).
You will also be happy to learn that our complete collection of Warren Gorham &
Lamont (WG&L) publications is now available on WestlawNext, too, including the
GAAP Practice Manual. As a result, there are approximately 114 publications
from WG&L on WestlawNext, along with 11 publications from PPC and 355 from
RIA.
Note: This new content is not currently retrieved as part of a global search. To
access this content, click Secondary Sources under All Content on the home
page, then click the appropriate link under Tools & Resources on the Secondary
Sources content page.
Easy foldering! Q: I used WestlawNext to retrieve section 1441 from RIA’s
Complete Internal Revenue Code. I already know I’ll want to refer to this section,
related regulations, United States Tax Reporter explanations, annotations, and
committee reports repeatedly during my research project. Is there a place I can
house all these electronic documents together?
A: Yes—save them in a WestlawNext folder.
In fact, it’s easy to save all of these documents to a folder without even leaving
IRC section 1441. Start by dragging the citation link above section 1441 into the
project folder. Then scroll to the bottom of the section and drag the Links to
Treasury Regulations, Links to USTR Explanations, Links to USTR Annotations,
and Links to USTR Committee Reports links into the folder, too.
Drag the link to your project folder
==
Personal Injury Valuation Handbooks: How much might my
client recover—and what are the odds?
The Personal Injury Valuation Handbooks won’t guarantee that your seven-yearold client will win a specific amount for her dog bite. But this nine-volume
resource—bulging with statistics on more than 700 injuries and types of liabilities
based on more than 280,000 actual verdicts—can help you evaluate your case
and plan a sensible litigation strategy.
For each injury or liability covered in this publication, you’ll find summaries of
comparable cases; the distribution of settlements and awards; award medians,
means, and probability ranges for recent years; million-dollar award trends, and
other statistical breakdowns. As Litigating Tort Cases (Roxanne Barton Conlin
and Gregory S. Cusimano, eds.) says, “Personal Injury Valuation Handbooks are
invaluable tools for forecasting the probability of recovery and estimating the
amount of damages a jury might be expected to award in light of the nature and
severity of the plaintiff's injuries, as adjusted for the particular facts of the case
and locality of the incident and trial.”
All nine volumes of this resource are now available on WestlawNext and in the
newly released Personal Injury Valuation Handbook database (PIVHBK) on
Westlaw. The fastest way to browse the contents and retrieve relevant sections
is by using the Table of Contents service and clicking section names. Sections
typically contain links to jury verdict and settlement summaries.
Personal Injury Valuation Handbook (detail)
==
Westlaw Doc & Form Builder: New flexibility
Westlaw Doc & Form Builder can greatly shorten the time it takes to complete
forms. Some recent enhancements can shorten the process further in key
situations.

Download blank forms: If you decide you want a particular blank form in
Westlaw Doc & Form Builder without going through the assembly process,
you can simply click the new Download Blank Form icon where it
appears in a result list, the form preview, a form set, or the Client/Case
Manager. The blank form can then be opened or saved in Word or PDF,
whichever format is available. (Note: This feature is only available for
content in the user’s subscription. Otherwise, an error message is
displayed when the download is attempted.)

Default Answers: If most of the legal forms you complete involve the
same county, party, party type, or other detail, you can click Default
Answers during the assembly process and specify a detail to be entered
automatically each time a specific question arises. (You can choose to
overwrite a Default Answer at any time.)

Edit Case Answers: If you want to want to change a few of your prior
answers when completing a new form for the case, you can use the Edit
Case Answers option: After you’ve returned to a case via the Client/Case
Manager, click Options in the left frame. Click Edit Case Answers, now
an option in the Options menu. A window is displayed that contains an
expandable table of prior answers, organized by forms volume. You can
then use the simple drop-down lists and text boxes provided to change or
delete one or more answers.

No client, no case: What if you need a form and don’t want to create a
client and case? You now have a new option: You can select the new
Build without selecting a client and case check box in the first window
displayed when you click Build. Then click Continue. The form is
immediately displayed for you to complete and download.
Edit Case Answers
==
Have you tried out the WestlawNext iPad App lately?
The newest version of WestlawNext iPad App is now available for immediate
download at the Apple iTunes store, which brings together the best collaboration
and productivity features available. For example:

Folder sharing inside and outside your organization: Whether you
create folders on your iPad or on your desktop, you can share them with
any other WestlawNext user inside or outside your organization. With the
latest version of the WestlawNext iPad App, all the folder sharing
functionality you enjoy from your desktop (including the selection of
contacts, the assignment of roles, and the setting of permissions) is
available on your iPad.

Web-hosted client validation: This is a significant feature for the
many firms that require selection or validation of client matter numbers in
the firm’s own format. Upon signing on, you are redirected to a third-party
URL, where you select a client matter from your firm’s client validation
program and the client ID is verified. If you enter a client ID upon sign on,
you are redirected to the third-party URL, and your client ID entered is
verified against your firm’s client ID format. Note: You must use the VPN
connection capability from your iPad or be within an internal network.

Search text within document: You can use Boolean terms and
connectors to search within a document for specific terms, just as you can
from WestlawNext on your desktop.

KeyCite flag synchronization: The KeyCite status flags on
documents saved while offline are updated automatically when you return
to those documents online. As a result, documents have consistent
KeyCite status, no matter how you view them.

Major delivery preferences recognized: Delivery preferences set
from the desktop are recognized on the iPad, too.
Folder sharing on the WestlawNext iPad App
==
Notes of decisions: the online advantage
Notes of decisions do everything in Westlaw that they do in print—and
more.
If you have used a statutory volume annotated by West, you’re almost
certainly familiar with notes of decisions—those short summaries of related
case holdings. By summarizing related judicial holdings, notes of decisions
can help you understand key aspects of the section quickly.
Notes of decisions on Westlaw save you even more time. For example:
 Navigation: Links in the index allow you to quickly jump to the
relevant notes of decisions.
 Links to cases: You can instantly view the full text of any case cited
in a note of decision by clicking the case citation.
 Links to West Key Number System: Notes of decisions are also
supplied with related West topics and key numbers. To access the
Custom Digest search page and retrieve a list of headnotes related
to a particular legal issue represented in one of the notes of
decisions, click the topic or key number.
 Printing, e-mailing, and downloading: If you are viewing only the
Notes of Decisions display, you can print, e-mail, or download the
notes, links, navigation headings—with or without the underlying
document.
To view notes of decisions for the section you are viewing, click Notes of
Decisions on the Links tab.
Notes of decisions