Use this as a quick reference when accessing Westlaw to supplement criminal 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 CRIMINAL LAW DATABASES

SEARCHING LAW REVIEWS

SEARCHING AMERICAN LAW REPORTS (ALR®)

CHECKING YOUR 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 are researching legal impossibility as a defense to conspiracy. 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 criminal 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 when is legal impossibility a defense to conspiracy.

Suppose you are researching whether someone who falls asleep while driving may be guilty of reckless or negligent operation of a vehicle. 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 criminal law, see the reverse side of this card.
2. Select Terms & Connectors in the Search type box.
3. Type your query in the Type a query text box and click Run Search. For example, type sleep! asleep /s drove driv! wheel /p reckless! negligen!

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 557 nw2d 245 or 28 usca 2241. 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 203, Homicide, and key number 122, Defense of another, type 203k122.

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 criminal law:

37 Assault and Battery

82 Collision

91 Conspiracy

168 False Imprisonment

179 Forcible Entry and Detainer

184 Fraud

237 Libel and Slander

249 Malicious Prosecution

272 Negligence

279 Nuisance

313a Products Liability

350 Seduction

379 Torts

386 Trespass

389 Trover and Conversion

404 Waste

SELECTED CRIMINAL LAW DATABASES

	Database Name	Identifier
Cases	Federal Criminal Justice–Cases	FCJ-CS
	Multistate Criminal Justice Cases	MCJ-CS
	Individual State Criminal Justice Cases	XXCJ-CS (where XX is a state's two-letter postal abbreviation)/TD>
Fed. Statutes	Federal Criminal Justice–U.S. Code Annotated	FCJ-USCA
Fed. Admin. Materials	Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms	ATF
	Department of Justice News Release	DOJ-NR
Standards and Sentencing Guidelines	ABA Standards for Criminal Justice	ABA-SCJ
	IJA-ABA Juvenile Justice Standards	ABA-JJS
	ULA Model Penal Code	ULA-MPC
	Federal Sentencing Guidelines	FCJ-FSG, FCJ-FS-OLD
Highlights	Westlaw Topical Highlights–Criminal Justice	WTH-CJ
Jury Instructions	California Jury Instructions–Criminal	CA-CALJIC
	Federal Jury Practice and Instructions	FED-JI
	Washington Pattern Jury Instructions	WA-WPIC
News and Developments	Criminal Justice Act Reports	CJ-CJAREP
	Criminal Justice News	CJNEWS
	National Criminal Justice Reference Service	NCJRS
Law Reviews and Texts	Criminal Justice–law Review, Texts & Bar Journals	CJ-TP
	American Criminal Law Reviews	AMCRLR
	American Journal of Criminal Law	AMJCRL
	Federal Judicial Center Publications	FJC
	Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology	JCRLC
	PLI Criminal Law and Urban Problems Course Handbook Series	PLI-CRIM
	Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment	SERCHSZR
	Substantive Criminal Law	SUBCRL
	Oklahoma City Bombing Trial Transcripts & Documents	AKLA-TRANS
	Unabomber Trial Transcripts & Documents	UNABOMB-TRANS

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 Criminal Justice–Law Reviews, Texts & Bar Journals database (CJ-TP).
2. Type a Natural Language description like the following: do strict-liability crimes unconstitutionally shift burden of proof
3. Click Run Search.
   

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.

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.