Terms and Connectors
Searching
June 3, 2010
Terms and Connectors
Searching on Westlaw®
...is based on Boolean logic
developed from the theories of
19th century mathematician
George Boole. You’ll often hear a
Terms and Connectors search
called a Boolean search.
The Searcher’s Quandry
• Relevancy vs. Precision
• You want to retrieve every relevant
document
• You want no irrelevant documents in your
search results
• With professional searching, you will err
on the side of relevancy
HYPOTHETICAL
For our purposes let’s assume you want to retrieve all
cases in a database that address
Jones held a St. Patrick’s Day party at his house and
invited several friends. One of his friends, Tom, drank
too much green beer before leaving the party.
Unfortunately he drove. On his way home, Tom hit
another vehicle injuring the driver. Even more
unfortunate—Tom had no auto insurance. Victim wants
to sue Jones.
Steps in Constructing a Search:
ITAC Method
(Issue, Terms, Alternatives, Connectors)
1. Clearly state the ISSUE, using
legal terminology when possible.
(Stating your issue as a question is a
good way to clarify your thoughts.)
Issue
Is a social host liable for injuries caused by
his intoxicated guests?
Steps in Constructing a Search:
ITAC Method
Terms:
Identify 3-5 concepts/terms in your issue
Alternatives:
List synonyms
Connectors
And, or, /p /s /n
Terms
host
hostess
intoxicated
drunk
alcohol
guest
•
Get into the habit of placing your key words in a
horizontal line in your mind, if not actually on paper.
•
Under each key word add any word that is a reasonable
alternative.
•
You can probably think of additional alternatives for the
exercise but right now, let’s keep this exercise simple.
Steps in Constructing a Search:
ITAC Method
3. Enter reasonable ALTERNATIVE terms for
your key terms.
(Use acronyms and antonyms as well as synonyms.)
• A term that may seem to have little relationship to a
key term may be a reasonable alternative. The host
of a party could be a corporation, an association, or a
club.
host
hostess
corporation
association
club
intoxicated
drunk
D.U.I
D.W.I.
sober
guest
attendee
invitee
Steps in Constructing a Search:
ITAC Method
4. Add appropriate CONNECTORS to specify
the relationship you want each term and its
alternatives to have to the other terms and
their alternatives. Remember you can control
the order of processing through the use of
parentheses.
Connectors
(host or hostess) /p (intoxicated or drunk or
alcohol) /s guest
Full Text Search
Field Searches
• Fields—Restrict areas of document or time
limits that are searched
Your Turn
Hypos—Actual Cases
A U.S. Supreme Court involving movie
studies suing a company for copyright
infringement that distributed free software
that allows computer users to share
electronic files through peer-to-peer
networks. Decided sometime in the past 5
years
Answer
• METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIOS
INC. ET AL. v.
• GROKSTER, LTD., ET AL.
• Can a police officer search a parolee
without any suspicion under the 4th
Amendment?
Answer
• Samson v. California
• A California appellate court case involving
a couple who lived together for
approximately 20 years in which wife was
seeking money for improvement in
husband’s business over that time. The
business had something to do with the
Mag Light.
Answer
•
Maglica v. Maglica, 66 Cal. App. 4th 442,
454 (Cal. Ct. App. 1998)
Secondary Sources
• Definition:
Sources that describe and/or explain the law.
NOT the law itself—but an important research
tool.
Secondary Sources--Examples
• General/National
– A.L.R. American Law Reports
– Corpus Juris Secundum (CJS)
– Practice Books/ Treatises
– Law Reviews/Periodicals
• Review Westlaw Tab and identify
Secondary Sources
California Secondary Sources
• View California Tab
– View California Directory
• Review Directory
Popular California Secondary
Sources
• Witkin
– Summary of California Law
– Procedure
– Criminal Law & Procedure
– Evidence
• California Jurisprudence
• Practice books/treatises (Rutter, CEB etc.)
• Jury Instructions
Witkin Series
• Searchable Features
– Index
– Table of Contents
– Table of Cases Cited
– Tables of statutes/constitutions cited
– Full-text--multibase
California Jurisprudence
• Same directory
– Find by citation
– Table of contents
– Full text search
– Example
• Act of God section 1
Key Cite
• Citator
• West answer to Shepards
What Is a Citator?
A citator is a tool that shows when and how a particular
legal authority has been cited.
It gives you quantitative information (the number of citing
references) and qualitative information (the kind of
treatment a particular legal authority has received).
Purposes of a Citator
1. For validation: to determine that a case, statute,
regulation, or administrative decision is still good law
and therefore can be used as the basis of your legal
argument.
2. For research: to get citations to other relevant cases,
administrative decisions, or secondary sources to
support your legal argument.
How to Use a Citator
• Direct History
(prior and subsequent history of your legal authority)
• Was your case appealed? Was it affirmed, reversed,
remanded?
• Is your statute reversed, amended, affected by a pending
legislation?
• Indirect History (or Citing References)
(listing of other cases and secondary sources that cite to your legal
authority)
• Did a later case overrule, criticize, or distinguish your case?
• Are there cases and secondary sources that cite your case?
• Parallel Citations
Example
Armendariz Case: 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 255
Robins v. Pruneyard Shopping Center,
23 Cal.3d 899, 592 P.2d 341, 153
Cal.Rptr. 854, (1979)
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537
Go to Westlaw
In-class Exercise
You represent a client in New Jersey who wants to develop and sell
a new line of vitamins. Your client wants to sell them, not through
retail stores, but through a multi-level distribution plan. Is this legal
in New Jersey? (Ignore any applicable federal laws).
Shepardize or KeyCite this case:
Kugler v. Koscot Interplanetary, Inc., 293 A.2d 682 (N.J. Super. Ct.
Ch. 1972).
• Is Kugler still good law?
• Select 3-4 cases you would read first. Explain your choices.
• You are interested in finding cases from any jurisdiction that
mentions pyramid distribution or sales systems, or says fraud
can take place even though the victim has not in fact been
misled or deceived by the unlawful practice. Explain how you
restricted your citator results.
Statutes, Regulations, and
Secondary Sources
Citators for statutes typically include:
– Updating documents (e.g., recently passed public laws)
– Pending legislation (that may affect the statute)
– Historical and statutory notes that describe the legislative
changes that affected the statute
Graphic symbols for statutes:
– Red symbol – recently amended, repealed, ruled
unconstitutional, or otherwise preempted
– Yellow symbol – pending legislation, renumbered or
transferred, or validity is otherwise called into doubt
Example
• 18 U.S.C.A. § 922
• 8 USCA 1101
• 42 U.S.C.A. § 13981
How Current Are Online
Citators?
• KeyCite
• Direct History is added within 1-4 hours of receipt of a case.
• Overrulings are identified by the editors within 24 hours of
receipt.
• Citing cases are listed as soon as the cases are added to
Westlaw.
• Shepard’s
• Updated everyday, including weekends and holidays.
• All editorial analysis are added within 24-48 hours of receipt of
the case.
Concluding Remarks
• Use a citator as a finding tool early in the research
process.
• Always verify the validity of any legal authority that you
rely on.
• Do not depend solely on the flags, signals, or graphical
symbols; you must read the authority to see if the
negative treatment relates to the point of law that you’re
relying on.