Hello Students!

We will NOT meet this coming Tuesday October 28! This is a late change to our schedule – I apologize for any inconvenience. That class is scheduled as an “introduction to electronic research.” In place of it, please complete the assignment below, and send me an email with your responses before the start of class on Thursday Oct. 30. Your email will count as your attendance in Tuesday’s class, and a homework assignment (5 points).

Please read textbook chapter 10, “Commercial Databases,” parts A and B.1 through 4 (pp. 251-265, linked here – if you would like a paper copy, I left 6 copies in my mailbox in N622, help yourself!). Then please send me an email with your responses to these questions:

1. Identify at least one benefit and one disadvantage of using online legal research systems the chapter addresses.

2. What are does the textbook mean when it says that the online databases (Lexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg Law) use “literal searching devices”?

3. In part B.3 (“Search Formulation”), read about the various techniques for searching the online legal databases (items a through g, such as “a. Connectors, b. Quotations,” etc.). Choose any two of those techniques, and briefly describe how it can be used in a search.

4. Did you receive your Westlaw password? Sometime after Monday, please check your City Tech email for an email that includes your Westlaw password. (I believe the email comes directly from Westlaw or Thompson Reuters, its parent company.) Please let me know if you received it. If so, please bring it to class on Thursday Oct 30! Feel free to test it out in the meantime!

Thank you!  Again, I apologize for inconvenience or confusion! I look forward to seeing you Thursday Oct 30!

Cheers,

KC