Coverage | Access | Finding cases by: citation, title, key words or natural language |
KeyCite feature | Printing/Downloading/Emailing | Summary
this guide in Word
Coverage
The Westlaw Australia database is the Australian component of the larger Westlaw International database. It contains full-text reported cases (in .pdf) from the Australian Tax Reports, Australian Criminal Reports, Commonwealth Law Reports, Federal Court Reports, Local Government and Environmental Reports of Australia, Unreported judgments from the Commonwealth, States and Territories, 1999+ as well as the Commonwealth Statutes.
Access
Off-campus users must login via remote access first. Westlaw appears in the A-Z list of Databases on the Library and Computing Services homepage and the Internet Resources for Law web page (under heading 'electronic databases'). Click here to access the Westlaw database now.
All titles covered by Westlaw are also linked from Tropicat and the Abbreviations for Law Students guide.
Finding a case by its citation
In the left-hand Shortcuts frame, enter the citation (excluding party names) eg. 63 ALJR 84 in the 'Find by Citation' search box, then click on ‘go’:
The case will now appear in the right-hand frame. All parallel citations are listed below the document title. Note that even if you asked for the citation 63 ALJR 84, Westlaw will retrieve 166 CLR 186. This is because Westlaw automatically retrieves the authorised version of any case report in its database:
Finding a case by its title
In the left-hand Shortcuts frame, click on Find by Title, then enter the parties involved eg. Mabo v Queensland into the search box in the right hand frame. You can restrict your results to particular Reports or courts, or just leave the jurisdiction box at the default 'Search All'. Then click 'GO'.
To view the case, click on the number of the case in the left-hand frame results list:
Your case will now appear in the right-hand frame. (If you want the case to fill the screen, drag the separator between the two frames over to the left.)
Finding a case by using key words : Terms and connectors search
When you need to find a case about a certain subject ie. liability and sports injuries, use the Terms and connectors search.
Terms are key words that describe the case you are interested in. Eg 'liability', 'sport', 'negligence'.
Connectors are the symbols that link the terms together.
Click 'Begin Research' to get to the main search screen if you are not there already. 'Terms and Connectors' will be showing in bold type on the main search screen.
If you are familiar with the connectors and how to put them together, enter your terms into the Terms and Connectors search box, check whichever database you want results from ie. 'Australian cases' and click on 'GO'.
If you are unfamiliar with this way of searching, choose the guided approach - click on 'Directory' to start.
On the resulting page, follow the link to 'cases' then to 'Australian Cases'.You should now have the search box showing, with the lists of Connector/Expanders; Fields and Dates in the boxes below it.
Useful connectors are:
Connector Type this Symbol Usage Example AND use to pick up terms that can appear anywhere in the same case liability & injury & sports OR use for synonymous terms football soccer Phrase use for phrases or adjacent terms "dangerous driving" "duty of care" Search terms in same sentence use to improve relevancy by finding search terms in same sentence injured /s football Search terms in same paragraph use to improve relevancy by finding search terms in the same paragraph liability /p sports Truncation use to pick up any number of characters after the !
injur! (will pick up 'injury', 'injuries', 'injured')
Fields are elements within a case that can be used to further restrict your search. Double click on the field you wish to use ie. KW for catchwords; JU for judge's surname etc. - this inserts the field into the search box. You must type your word within the parentheses ie. JU(kirby )Type your first term in the search box, ie. 'liability' then type in the connector you want to use or select it from the 'terms and connectors' box by double clicking on it. Continue in this fashion until you have all terms and connectors you wish to use, then click on Search.
Your results will appear in the left-hand frame of the resulting screen, with the first (highlighted) result showing in the larger window. All key terms will be highlighted so you can check for relevancy. To bring up a different case, simply click on its number in the left-hand frame.
If you get too many results that are not particularly relevant, try narrowing your results by using the KW field, as this covers the catch words for the case. Alternatively, try your terms separated with the /s or /p connectors as these require all terms to be in the same sentence or paragraph.
Natural Language Search
Some students may prefer to do a 'natural language search' which simply means typing in a normal sentence that states what you are looking for. Click on the hyperlink to 'Natural Language' to start.
'Natural Language' should now be showing in bold, indicating you are ready to search this way. Enter a sentence that describes what you are looking for ie. 'cases about liability and sports where players have been injured' then click on 'GO'.
Your search results will now be displayed, with the full text of the first case in the right-hand frame. To go directly to the part of the case that is richest in the terms you selected, click on the 'Best' arrow at the bottom of the screen; the 'Term' arrow will take you to the next occurrence of your key word/s.
KeyCite featureThe Keycite feature is the online equivalent of the Australian Case Citator which covers reported cases since 1825 and unreported cases since 1999. Use KeyCite to find the direct appellate history of a case, any negative indirect history, subsequent cases that have cited your case, earlier cases cited within your case and a list of secondary sources (journal articles) about the case in question.
Where KeyCite information is available, a coloured flag will precede the case number in your results list. Once you have a case on display, click on 'history' to view its direct history and negative indirect history.
Clicking on 'citing references' will reveal a list of cases subsequent to the case in question which have cited your case. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, following the citing references, you will find a link to 'next part' which is a list of secondary sources (journal articles) about the case.
The list of citing references now appears in the right-hand frame. An indication is given as to how the case in question was judicially considered by these subsequent cases ie. distinguished by, applied by etc.
To see a list of the cases that were referred to within the case you are interested in, click on Table of Authorities from the full case view screen:
This list of cases now appear in the right-hand frame :
To go directly to the history of a case, type its citation into the Keycite by citation box in the left hand frame (under Citator Tools:) e.g. 64 FCR 410, and click GO. Alternatively, click on Keycite by Title to find by title:For a full listing of coloured KeyCite flags and what they indicate, click on KeyCite in the top menu bar.
Printing/Downloading/EmailingOnce you have the case in view that you wish to print, click on the 'print doc' button at the foot of the right-hand frame. To print a range of records, tick the check boxes in the left-hand frame before clicking on 'print doc'.
From here, select whether you want to print, email, download your results, and click on 'Send Request' to execute the command:
Note that if you have chosen to print or download a Report in .pdf, you must use the internal Acrobat Reader icons:
Summary of featuresWestlaw has produced a very useful guide to recent enhancements of the database that summarises all features: Westlaw Interface enhancements 2004
If this information is inadequate, incorrect, or can be improved in any way, please let us know