Are you taking summer law classes or doing an internship/externship for credit? Are you wondering why you can't access Lexis or Westlaw? It's most likely because you didn't sign up for summer access with them. If you didn't sign up for summer access, then you'll be limited to 2 hours of use per month during the summer. To sign up for summer access, log in to Lexis and/or Westlaw. Then look for the news item about summer registration and click the link to find out more. Read More ...

Search in WestLawNext but use regular Westlaw to send print jobs to the stand-alone printer. Read More ...

Printing from WestlawNext is EXTREMELY slow. We would ask you to please NOT use the WestlawNext print function. Instead, use one of our suggested alternatives. Read More ...

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day is Friday, September 17th, commemorating the signing of the Constitution in 1787 Read More ...

Prof. Eugene Volokh at UCLA's law school has posted a blog entry at the Volokh Conspiracy about his discovery of an error in Westlaw's report of a case and his unsuccesful effort to get Westlaw (part of Thomson Reuters) to correct it. While I am sure that this error will eventually be corrected, despite the statements of the customer service representative to whom Prof. Volokh spoke, this does illustrate a larger point about legal research. Read More ...

Continuing and graduating students--you can have your Lexis and Westlaw passwords extended for full use during the summer if you are taking part in a qualifying activity. But, you must register with Lexis and/or Westlaw to have your full access extended. If you don't register, then you will have only very limited access. Here's what Lexis and Westlaw consider to be qualifying activities. Read More ...

There is some confusion about the Lexis and Westlaw training sessions for the evening 1L students in the part-time program. These sessions are specifically (and only) for the evening 1L students. These training sessions will occur immediately after the evening Contracts class. Evening students do NOT need to sign-up for these sessions (and, in fact, there is no place to do so). Just show up. Read More ...

It's not too late to register for full summer access to Lexis and Westlaw! When you log in to Lexis and Westlaw, you should see a link or a button that will take you to the summer registration pages. If you don't see these, you may need to disable any ad-blocking functions on your internet browser. Read More ...

Access for law school students, faculty and staff Read More ...

Lexis and Westlaw will restrict student access to their systems during the summer (June 1 through July 31). Students may extend their normal Lexis and Westlaw privileges over the summer for certain activities. These activities include an academic purpose (e.g. summer classes, moot court, law journal, faculty research assistant), an unpaid internship/externship that is done for credit, or bar review. Read More ...

Westlaw has recently announced that they will block access to their services for people using older web browsers. Please make sure that you are using a current web browser. The following browsers will be blocked from Westlaw. Read More ...

To continue our WestLaw/Lexis advice, here is another valuable tip for our incoming students. There are two print options available to you in WestLaw. The first is the standard print function which sends documents to the WestLaw printer (which does not come out of your SmartPrint allotment). The second print option, Smart Print, sends a document to the attached network printer. Read More ...

We have received two reports of users having problems downloading documents from either WestLaw/Lexis. Much of this may be due to users upgrading to Firefox 3.0 recently. Please remember to add "web2.westlaw.com" and "w3.lexis.com" to the exceptions list in your pop-up blocker. Read More ...

There are some great software tools made by both Lexis and WestLaw for creating table of authorities and writing class outlines. These tools may be particularly useful for first-year law students in their legal research and writing courses. The Lexis application, CaseMap, is also an excellent way to organize facts, people, authorities, and other documents for a case. Read More ...

From today's Law Librarian Blog, news about a new way to find Key Numbers on Westlaw. Read More ...

There has been confusion over which printing option students should select to send their print jobs to the Westlaw printers, here's what you need to know about "Quick Print" and regular "Print." Read More ...

RegulationsPlus made a big splash when Thomson West released it last spring, and with the fall semester about to begin, I thought it would be a good time to remind students and faculty about some of the useful features of this new product.  With the introduction of RegulationsPlus, West has taken several important steps to make federal regulatory research easier.  When you go to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) search page, West has added a link to the new RegulationsPlus Index (in the upper right-hand corner of the search screen).  The RegulationsPlus Index is a detailed subject index that includes links to the regulatory text.  If your "terms and connectors" or "natural language" searches aren’t giving you relevant search results, try browsing the subject index to find federal regulations about your topic. 

The other major improvement for regulatory researchers appears when you access a CFR section in Westlaw.  The left-hand side of the screen now has a number of useful research tools, including links to prior versions of the regulatory section, links to cases and administrative agency materials that discuss your regulations, and links to related statutes.  You can also read summaries of previous Federal Register publications that refer to your section and access the content of these Federal Register sections. 

You can read more about RegulationsPlus on the Thomson West website and view a quick demo video.  The SCU law school community can receive training on RegulationsPlus by contacting a reference librarian at 408-554-4452.  We’re happy to help you learn more about this new feature!

Westlaw will be rolling out a new, revamped sign-on and main navigation page on March 11, 2006.  For a preview of these new pages from Westlaw, click here.