Use this as a quick reference when accessing Westlaw to supplement contract law lectures and reading assignments. Westlaw is West’s computer-assisted legal research service. Westlaw complements your book research by enabling you to quickly and efficiently retrieve information that is not yet available in print or that may be cumbersome to find using books. With Westlaw you can retrieve relevant documents whether you are starting with a citation, an issue of law or an unusual fact pattern. For more detailed information on lawschool.westlaw.com, refer to Discovering Westlaw: The Essential Guide, or see your West Online academic account manager or student representative about attending a Westlaw training session.

RESEARCHING A LEGAL ISSUE

RETRIEVING A DOCUMENT WHEN YOU KNOW ITS CITATION

SEARCHING WITH TOPIC AND KEY NUMBERS

USING THE KEY NUMBER CENTER

SELECTED CONTRACT LAW DATABASES

SEARCHING LAW REVIEWS

SEARCHING AMERICAN LAW REPORTS (ALR®)

SEARCHING RESTATEMENTS

CHECKING CITATIONS

RESEARCHING A LEGAL ISSUE

There are two search methods you can use to research an issue on Westlaw.

Natural Language Search Method (WIN®)

Suppose you want to determine whether an objective standard applies to a contract requiring the satisfaction of a party. WIN allows you to enter a description of your issue in plain English, or Natural Language. To search for documents using WIN, complete the following steps:

1. At the Start Menu, type a database identifier in the Search a database text box and click GO. For a list of selected databases relating to contract law, see the reverse side of this card.
2. Select Natural Language in the Search type box.
3. Type a description of your issue in the Type a description text box and click Run Search. For example, type does an objective standard apply to a satisfaction contract.

Suppose you are researching whether forbearance can be consideration for a valid contract. Terms and Connectors searching allows you to enter a query consisting of key terms from your issue and connectors specifying the relationship between those terms. To search for documents using the Terms and Connectors search method, complete the following steps:

1. At the Start Menu, type a database identifier in the Search a database text box and click GO. For a list of selected databases relating to contract law, see the reverse side of this card.
2. Select Natural Language in the Search type box.
3. Type your query in the Type a query text box and click Run Search. For example, type forbear! /s consideration.

Use Find to retrieve a case, statute or law review article when you know its citation.

At the Start Menu, type your citation in the Find a document text box and click GO. For example, type 43 cal app 3d 203 or 23 wmlr 465. Your document is displayed in the right frame; context-sensitive Information Tabs are displayed in the left frame.

SEARCHING WITH TOPIC AND KEY NUMBERS

Each legal issue in a case published by West is identified, summarized and assigned a topic and key number by West attorney-editors. West topic and key numbers help you focus your research and retrieve relevant cases.

To run a topic and key number search, access an appropriate database and type the topic number, the letter k and the key number. For example, to search for cases containing topic 95, Contracts, and key number 185, Rights acquired by third persons, type 95k185.

You can find topic and key numbers in case law headnotes, West’s digests and the online Key Number Center.

USING THE KEY NUMBER CENTER

The Key Number Center on Westlaw contains the entire West Digest System topic and key number outline. To access the Key Number Center, click Key Number Center at the Start Menu or click Tasks on the toolbar and choose Key Number Center from the menu. Click the plus symbol (+) next to a specific topic to view an outline of that topic and locate key numbers to assist you in your research.

Here are some topics that may be useful in researching contract law:

50 Bailment

89 Compromise and Settlement

92b Consumer Credit

95 Contracts

108 Covenants

113 Customs and Usages

185 Frauds, Statute of

195 Guaranty

205h Implied and Constructive Contracts

208 Indemnity

294 Payment

309 Principal and Surety

316a Public Contracts

331 Release Sales

349a Secured Transactions

358 Specific Performance

SELECTED CONTRACT LAW DATABASES

	Database Name	Identifier
Federal	Federal Commercial Law & Contracts Cases	FCML-CS
	Federal Commercial Law & Contracts-U.S. Code Annotated	FCML-USCA
	Federal Commercial Law & Contracts-Code of Federal Regulations	FCML-CFR
	Federal Commercial Law & Contracts-Federal Register	FCML-FR
State	Multistate Commercial Law & Contracts Cases	MCML-CS
	Individual State Commercial law & Contracts-Cases	XXCML-CS (where XX is a state's two letter postal abbreviation)
	Individual State Statutes-Annotated	XX-ST-ANN (where xx is a state's two-letter postal abbreviation)
	Uniform Commercial Code Cases Plus	UCC-CS+
	Uniform Laws Annotated	ULA
Law Reviews,Texts and Litigation Reports	Commercial Law & Contracts-Law Reviews, Tests & Bar Journals	CML-TP
	Journal of Law & Commerce	JLCOM
	Restatement of the Law-Contracts	REST-CONTR
Practice Guides	Uniform Commercial Code Series (Hawkland)	HAWKLAND
	Uniform Commercial code Filing Guide	UCCGUIDE
	The Rutter Group-California Practice Guide: Enforcing Judgments and Debts	TRG-CADEBT
	PLI Commercial Law and Practice Course Handbook Series	PLI-COMM
	Commercial Transactions and Contract News	CMLNEWS
	Westlaw Topical Highlights-Commercial Law	WTH-CML

 

SEARCHING LAW REVIEWS

Recent law review articles are often the best place to begin researching a legal issue because law review articles serve

• as an introduction to a new topic or review of a topic with which you are familiar, providing terminology to help you formulate a query;
• as a tool for retrieving pertinent primary authority, such as cases and statutes; and
• in some instances, as persuasive secondary authority.

1. Access the Commercial Law & Contracts–Law Reviews, Texts & Bar Journals database (CML-TP).
2. Type a Natural Language description like the following: do employee handbooks create contract rights
3. Click Run Search.

Search the ALR database to find a thorough discussion of case law relating to a particular legal issue. Attorneys who write ALR articles have already analyzed all available American cases on the issue and have prepared a detailed discussion of the legal principles deduced from the cases. You can search ALR using either the Natural Language or the Terms and Connectors search method.

To browse the ALR index, complete the following steps:

1. Access the ALR database (ALR) and choose the Terms and Connectors search method.
2. Type ci(index) and click Run Search.

Westlaw contains the full text of the American Law Institute’s current Restatements of the Law. Restatement of the Law Second–Contracts analyzes current law and explains the most accepted interpretations given by the courts; it also looks at the direction in which contract law is moving.

To view the table of contents for Restatement of the Law Second–Contracts, complete the following steps:

1. Access the Restatement of the Law–Contracts database (REST-CONTR) and choose the Terms and Connectors search method.
2. Type ci(contents) and click Run Search.

CHECKING YOUR CITATIONS

KeyCite®—Use KeyCite, the citation research service from West, to see whether your case or statute is good law. KeyCite integrates all the case law on Westlaw, helping you trace the history of a case, retrieve a list of all cases and selected secondary sources that cite a case, and track legal issues decided in a case. KeyCite for statutes displays credits and historical and statutory notes, along with pending legislation that may affect your statute. It also lists cases and secondary sources that cite your statute.

To check a citation in KeyCite, type your citation in the KeyCite a citation text box at the Start Menu and click GO. The history of the case or statute you are viewing is displayed in the left frame. To see citing references click the KC Citations tab.

WestCheck®—You can use WestCheck to automatically check your citations in KeyCite on Westlaw. You can also check quotations in your brief or other documents using the QuoteRight™ feature of WestCheck.