Notes of Decisions in Westlaw for Exam Prep

If you are taking a substantive law, Westlaw may be able to help you study.  If your class deals with statutes (such as the UCC)), Westlaw’s Notes of Decisions may help you prep for your exam.  The Notes of Decisions are the body of common law decisions interpreting a statute.  The Notes of Decisions tab is located at the top of each code section on Westlaw.

How can this assist in exam prep?  Your exam fact pattern is likely to be different from the cases you have read in class.  Notes of Decisions can help you with issue spotting and arguing by analogy.

If, for example, you are reviewing contracts and the topic of whether an offer was made, you could pull up the Ohio Revised Code version of the Uniform Commercial code, and see the types of cases on that topic.  You could review for an exam by looking at the different factual situation, and what the courts found supporting their decision that an offer either was or was not made.

Of course, Notes of Decisions are also helpful in your research for a paper or memo when using a particular code section to understand how the courts have interpreted it.

notes of decisions