Loislaw – Database to Use in the Summer – Has New Features
In the summer, access to LexisNexis and Westlaw will be limited. Even during the school year, students can not use their law school Lexis and Westlaw accounts while doing work for an employer. One electronic database that can be used for employment purposes, in the summer or any time is LoisLaw. It contains statutes, case law and regulations for all fifty states and federal. However, the cases do not have headnotes and the statutes are not annotated. See our prior post, LoisLaw: Research Case Law Even in the Summer.
Law students, faculty and staff can follow these Instructions to obtain username/pw
Loislaw added several new features, including:
- Find Cases by Citation: Upload an opponents brief and easily print or download all the cases cited. Go to the Find Cases by Citation box in the upper right, choose Advanced, and cut and paste the brief into the Enter Cites box.
- Enhancements to Globalcite, Loislaw’s Shepards-like feature. You can use filters to break down results by jurisdiction and document type. While Globalcite does not have signals or treatment likes Shepards, treatment terms in the text of the case are now highlighted – such as affirm, distinguish and overrule.
- Thesaurus search – use a ~ before a search term to pull up synonyms
- Search within a search
- View recent cases – For federal courts – view cases decided in the past couple weeks by clicking on the red R next to the database
- Client billing timer
A feature that has been around for a while, but is worth a mention is My Saved Searches (LawWatch). It is similar to a Google Alert or a Lexis or Westlaw Alert. Loislaw will email you any cases that are decided after you ran the original search.
