1. Terms and Connectors Searching June 3, 2010

2. Terms and Connectors Searching on Westlaw ®...is based on Boolean logic developed from the theories of 19 th century mathematician George Boole. You’ll often hear a Terms and Connectors search called a Boolean search.

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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.)

6. Issue Is a social host liable for injuries caused by his intoxicated guests?

7. 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

8. 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. host intoxicated guest hostess drunk alcohol Terms

9. 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 intoxicated guest hostess drunk attendee corporation D.U.I invitee association D.W.I. club sober

10. 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.

11. Connectors (host or hostess) /p (intoxicated or drunk or alcohol) /s guest

12. Full Text Search Field Searches Fields—Restrict areas of document or time limits that are searched

13. Your Turn

14. 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

15. Answer METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIOS INC. ET AL. v. GROKSTER, LTD., ET AL.

16. Can a police officer search a parolee without any suspicion under the 4 th Amendment?

17. Answer Samson v. California

18. 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.

19. Answer Maglica v. Maglica, 66 Cal. App. 4th 442, 454 (Cal. Ct. App. 1998) Maglica v. Maglica, 66 Cal. App. 4th 442, 454 (Cal. Ct. App. 1998)

20. Secondary Sources Definition: Sources that describe and/or explain the law. NOT the law itself—but an important research tool.

21. 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

22. California Secondary Sources View California Tab –View California Directory Review Directory

23. Popular California Secondary Sources Witkin –Summary of California Law –Procedure –Criminal Law & Procedure –Evidence California Jurisprudence Practice books/treatises (Rutter, CEB etc.) Jury Instructions

24. Witkin Series Searchable Features –Index –Table of Contents –Table of Cases Cited –Tables of statutes/constitutions cited –Full-text--multibase

25. California Jurisprudence Same directory –Find by citation –Table of contents –Full text search –Example Act of God section 1

26. Key Cite Citator West answer to Shepards

27. 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).

28. 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.

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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.

32. 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

33. Example 18 U.S.C.A. § 922 8 USCA 1101 42 U.S.C.A. § 13981

34. 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.

35. 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.