Westlaw for the_practitioner_complete_show2

A PARALEGAL STUDENT’S LOOK AT WESTLAW FOR THE PRACTITIONER West’s Instructional Aid Series

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• Introduction

• Legal Forms

• Practice Guides & Aids

• Litigation Materials

• News Databases*

• Public Records Databases*

* Some news, company and securities information databases, along with most public record

databases are not available to paralegal students

CONTENTS

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INTRODUCTION• As a paralegal student, you have been trained to perform

pure legal research. Most of your research has been in case law, statutes, or secondary sources.

• As a paralegal, you will conduct many sorts of non-legal or quasi-legal research every day.

• You will need to know how to do such things as– draft an eviction notice– find a company’s registered agent for service– track down a potential witness – assess the financial strength of a company or an individual– evaluate a proposed stock offering– conduct a “due diligence” review

• Westlaw contains more than 30,000 databases, many of which are unfamiliar to paralegal students. Most of these databases can be of enormous help to the practicing attorney.

• A few of the databases introduced in this tour of Westlaw are not available to paralegal students due to West’s contracts with third-party publishers.

• This tour is intended to give you an overview of what materials and services you can expect from Westlaw as a practicing paralegal. It is not intended to be Westlaw tutorial.

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION: CUSTOMIZABLE TABS• Topical tabs include popular areas of the law as well as tabs

created based on current events.

• Jurisdictional tabs will highlight all of the resources from a particular state

• The Paralegal tab places the databases paralegals use most in one convenient place.

• All tabs can be customized by moving, adding or deleting links.

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You can select up to 50 customizable tabs by clicking Add a Tab link, select the Add Westlaw Tabs and checking the selections you want.

Tabs have helpful tools on the left, a search box on the top and databases below. Users may move tools and databases to suit their workflow.

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INTRODUCTION: CUSTOMIZABLE TABS EXAMPLE

• Introduction

• Legal Forms



• News Databases*


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CONTENTS

LEGAL FORMS• There are hundreds of databases that contain

forms on Westlaw.

• Many of the forms can be downloaded to edit easily.

• The forms multi-base is Forms-All ( FORMS-ALL).

• National forms databases include– American Jurisprudence Pleading and

Practice Forms (AMJUR-PP)– Federal Procedural Forms (FEDPROF)– West’s Legal Forms (WEST-LF)

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LEGAL FORMS• Many of the forms databases are state-specific.

– Arizona Legal Forms (AZ-LF)– Colorado Forms (CO-FORMS)– Personal Injury Forms: Illinois (PIFRM-IL)

• Forms databases may also be specific to an area of the law.– Complete Manual of Criminal Forms (CMCRF)– Doing Business on the Internet: Forms and Analysis

(DOBUSNET)– Uniform Commercial Code Official National Forms

(UCC-ART9FM)

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LEGAL FORMS

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• Quick links to these forms can be found under the Forms and Checklist heading on the Paralegal tab.

LEGAL FORMS

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• You may search forms databases, like FORMS-ALL using Terms & Connectors, Natural Language or an easy to use template. Here we have typed our search into the template.

LEGAL FORMS – FORMFINDER

• An easy way to search for forms for a specific state or topic is to select the Formfinder tool located at the top of your screen.

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LEGAL FORMS – FORMFINDER

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• Select a topic from the pull-down menu.

• More specific subtopics may be chosen.

• Select a jurisdiction by checking the boxes.

• Introduction

• Legal Forms



• News Databases*


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CONTENTS

PRACTICE GUIDES & AIDS• A wide variety of practice guides and materials are

available on Westlaw.

• Some practice databases are state-specific, some are topical, and some are general in nature.

• Practice aids include texts, treatises, forms, practice guides, CLE course materials, and other materials. Often several types of practice materials are included in a database.

• The Legal Practice (LAWPRAC) database contains documents from periodicals focusing on the practical aspects of lawyering such as law office management, lawyer hiring and training and law office automation.

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PRACTICE GUIDES & AIDS – GENERAL & TOPICAL• American Jurisprudence Proof of Facts (AMJUR-POF)

• Practising Law Institute (PLI)

• Williston on Contracts(WILLSTN-CN)

• Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice (NORTON-BLP)

• Wage and Hour Law: Compliance and Practice (WHLCP)

• Federal Practice and Procedure® (Wright & Miller) (FPP)

• Moy’s Walker on Patents (MOY-PAT)

• Attorneys Medical Advisor (MEDADV)

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PRACTICE GUIDES & AIDS – STATE • Texas Practice Guide Multibase (TXPG-ALL)

• Georgia Analytical Practice Library (GAPRACLIB)

• The Rutter Group: California Practice Guides (TRG-CA)

• Trawick’s Florida Practice and Procedure (FL-PRACPROC)

• Illinois Law and Practice (IL-LP)

• New York Jurisprudence (NYJUR)

• Baldwin’s Ohio Practice Series (OHPRAC)

• Michigan Personal Injury Texts & Legal Forms (MIPI-TLF)

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PRACTICE GUIDES & AIDS

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To locate Practice Guides click Treatises, CLEs, and Other Practice Materials section of the directory. Browse through the partial list provided or use the search box to find a particular title.

PRACTICE GUIDES & AIDS – SAMPLE SEARCH

• Here is an example of a result of natural language search in the very useful database, LAWPRAC.

• Natural Language search: guide for counsel in cases to be argued before the supreme court

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• Introduction

• Legal Forms



• News Databases*


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CONTENTS

LITIGATION MATERIALS

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The Litigation tab gathers resources to use throughout stages of the litigation. Sub-tabs organize these databases for easy access.

LITIGATION MATERIALS – JURY VERDICTS AND SETTLEMENTS

• Jury verdicts and settlements documents can help evaluate the value of a case.

• They may give the names of parties, lawyers, and experts, the type and extent of injury, information about the injured, and the final award (if any) by either jury verdict or settlement.

• Jury verdicts can be found on the Litigation tab under the Dockets, Trial Filings & Jury Verdicts sub-tab.

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LITIGATION MATERIALS – JURY VERICTS AND SETTLEMENTS

• Jury Verdict databases offer template, terms and connectors or natural language searching.

• From the template you can add key terms you are searching for such as the injury or description of the plaintiff.

• You may also choose a range of damages awarded.

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LITIGATION MATERIALS – JURY INSTRUCTIONS

• Jury Instructions can be found on the Litigation tab.

• Jury Instruction Filings are actual proposed instructions submitted by attorneys.

• Model or Pattern Jury Instructions are sample instructions found in a treatise.

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LITIGATION MATERIALS – DOCKETS

• Federal and many State Dockets are available on Westlaw.

• You can access dockets from the Litigation tab or the Court Docs link located at the top of every screen.

• Templates make searching in docket databases easy.

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LITIGATION MATERIALS – BRIEFS

• Attorneys use briefs to find support for their positions in a case.

• Briefs can be accessed from the Legal Research sub-tab of the Litigation tab or the Court Docs link.

• From the Court Docs link, if you do not see the specific court you want, click More.

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LITIGATION MATERIALS – FILINGS

• Filings provide examples of actual motions attorneys have filed.

• Filings can be found on the Litigation tab or from the Court Docs link.

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LITIGATION MATERIALS – EXPERT WITNESSES

• The Expert Center conveniently places all of Westlaw’s expert resources in one place. You may access it with a link at the top of your screen.

• Search through Experts’ resumes to find the type of expert you need or a specific individual.

• On the left, access the Profiler tool to quickly find an individual.

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LITIGATION MATERIALS – EXPERT WITNESSES • When you find an individual in the PROFILER-EW

database, you may find court documents, testimony or jury verdicts associated with that expert from the Links For tab.

• From the Links For tab you may also generate several different types of Expert Reports.

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LITIGATION MATERIALS – EXPERT WITNESSES• Expert testimony can assist in identifying important

questions to ask experts at trial.

• Expert Witness Documents (EW-DOCS) contains expert witness transcripts, affidavits and reports

• You can access EW-DOCS from the Court Docs database or the Expert Center.

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LITIGATION MATERIALS—WESTLAW JOURNALS• Westlaw Journals, formerly Andrews

Litigation Reports, contain short newsletter-style articles on the latest developments in specific areas of law

• A quick link to Westlaw Journals can be found on the left under ‘Litigation Tools’ on the Litigation Tab

• Select a topic to see the current Journal or sign up for weekly updates

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LITIGATION MATERIALS – OTHER MATERIALS • Litigation Preparation (LITPREP-XX) databases

contain information about all business names, the type of business entity, whether the business is registered with the state and is in good standing, and the person to receive process.

• Lawsuit Filings (LS-XX) databases contain records of civil lawsuits filed in 500 counties of 45 states. These databases indicate basic information concerning the lawsuit. Most of these databases cover only business civil filings.

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LITIGATION MATERIALS – OTHER MATERIALS • West Legal Directory-Process Servers (WLD-PS)

database lists process servers. It and other directories for professionals involved in the litigation process can be found on Directories & Public Records sub-tab of the Litigation Tab

• Evidence and Practice & Procdure materials include McCormick on Evidence, Wright & Miller’s Federal Practice & Procedure and Guide to Multistate Litigation. These can be found on the Practice Guide sub-tab.

• Medical Litigator is also available under the Practice Guide sub-tab. It provides quick access to many helpful medical resources in one search.

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• Introduction

• Legal Forms



• News Databases*


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CONTENTS

NEWS DATABASES• News databases can be easily accessed from either

adding the Newsroom Tab or from the Business & News section of the Directory

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NEWS DATABASES• There is up-to-date, full-text coverage of 48 of the

top 50 U.S. daily newspapers.

• Today’s news stories are contained in the Today’s News (TODAYSNEWS) database, which includes news from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune

• All News (ALLNEWS) is a comprehensive database containing newspaper, magazine, transcript, newsletter, and journal databases.

• ALLNEWSPLUS contains ALLNEWS databases, plus wire service databases.

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NEWS DATABASES – FREQUENTLY USED DATABASES• Approximately 900 United States newspapers are

available on Westlaw.

• Most newspapers are available in multi-bases and in individual databases. State, regional, and comprehensive databases contain multiple individual databases.

• XXNEWS (where XX is the state’s two-letter postal abbreviation) contains a state’s newspapers and articles of interest in the state.

• Major Newspapers (NPMJ) contains coverage of the most widely circulated daily U.S. newspapers.

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NEWS DATABASES – NEWSPAPERS • Widely known newspapers:

– The New York Times (NYT)– Chicago Tribune (CHICAGOTR)– Los Angeles Times (LATIMES)

• Lesser known newspapers:– Contra Costa Times (CCTIMES)– Duluth News Tribune (DULUTHTRIB)– Boulder Daily Camera (BLDRCAM)– Village Voice (VILVC)

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NEWS DATABASES – INTERNATIONAL

– Times of London (TMS-LONDON)

– Yomiuri Simbun (DYYSHIM)

– Zimbabwe Independent (ZIMBINDPT)

– Moscow News (MOSCOWNWS)

– Turkish Daily News (TURKDLYN)

– Asian Wall Street Journal (WSJ-ASIA)

– Other newspapers from countries such as, Brazil, Thailand, Canada, China, Egypt, Austrailia, Germany, Hong Kong, India, and South Korea

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NEWS DATABASES – SAMPLE SEARCHES• Use Terms & Connectors searches when you know the

terms that must be present in relevant documents.– To find a person in the news

• sam! +3 tayl*r

– To find a company in the news• “state farm insurance”• a.m.a. “american medical association” /p patient /4 right

• Use field searches for even more precise searches– Headline /lead field: hld(tobacco & litigation) – Author field: au(tony anthony /3 mauro)– Index field: in(“international monetary fund”

i.m.f.) & protest!

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NEWS DATABASES – TOOLS

• Often you will want to narrow the results of your search. These tools can help– Term frequency requires a particular term to occur a number of

times.

– Word Count Search will limit search according to the number of words in a search

– Identify duplicate documents will remove from or group together duplicate results from the result list.

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NEWS DATABASES – ADDITIONAL DATABASES• Wire services (WIRES)

– Associated Press (APWIRES)– Reuters (REUTERS)

• Legal newspapers (LEGALNP)– American Lawyer (AMLAW)– National Law Journal (NLJ)

• Magazines (MAGSMJ)– Barron’s (BARRONS)– Newsweek (NEWSWEEK)– Forbes (FORBES)– U.S. News and World Report (USNWR)

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NEWS DATABASES—ADDITIONAL DATABASES

• Newsletters (NEWSLETTERS)

• Trade magazines – Construction Industry News (WNS-CN)

– Pig Farming (PGFR)

• Radio and television transcripts (TRANSCRIPTS)– 20/20 (ABC2020)

– 60 Minutes (CBS60MINSPCL)

– Dateline NBC (Dateline)

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WESTCLIPS®

• Use the WestClip service to monitor and quickly retrieve current news developments on a specific topic(s).

• Monitor the media for references to your clients.

• There is no charge for using WestClip unless continuous monitoring is selected.

• Start a WestClip from your search result or by clicking the Alert Center.

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WESTCLIPS®

• Name the clip

• Write a query and select a database

• Choose the settings for frequency and delivery45

WESTCLIPS®

• Your WestClip entry is saved in the Alert Center.

• Entries can be run, changed, or deleted at any time by clicking the arrow next to WestClip in the Alert Center.

• As many as 99 entries can be stored in your WestClip Directory.

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• Introduction

• Legal Forms



• News Databases*


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CONTENTS

PUBLIC RECORD DATABASES• Westlaw provides legal professionals with a

comprehensive collection of databases containing public, publicly available, and proprietary information on individuals and businesses.

• Public Records on Westlaw can help:– identify assets and determine ownership of real property,

motor vehicles, watercraft, aircraft, and corporate stock– help locate individuals– help identify encumbrances and adverse filings, such as

bankruptcy filings, liens, judgments, and UCC filings– Prepare for litigation by finding a company’s registered

agent

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PUBLIC RECORDS TAB

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• The Public Records tab puts all of the resources in one place. The sub-tabs help organize the databases according to the type of information.

PUBLIC RECORDS DATABASES• West complies with all applicable federal, state,

and local laws in the way Westlaw public record databases are created and made available to the public.

• In order to comply with these laws, some databases require that you indicate the purpose of the search or permissible use before running the search.

• Additionally, you may be asked to re-enter your password to access these databases.

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PUBLIC RECORDS

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Select the proper permissible use from the pull-down menu provided.

PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE INFORMATION • A Template Search (fill-in-the-blank) is the default

method in many of the public records databases.

• Many Public Record resources have state specific databases. For example, there is PEOPLE-HH but for Minnesotal there is PEOPLEHH-MN. State specific databases are recommended if the person you are looking for has a common name

• The public records databases can also be searched using the Terms and Connectors.

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PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE INFORMATION

Template searches will require all the information entered appear in a result, so use as little information as necessary when searching.

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• Useful databases to search when looking for an individual’s information:– People Finder Social Security Number Alert (SSN-

ALERT) warns of Social Securities numbers that were never issued by the Social Security Administration.

– Reverse Phone Look-Up(PEOPLE-PHONE)

– People Finder Name Tracker (PEOPLE-NAME) and People Finder for individual states (PEOPLE-XX), where XX is a state’s two-letter postal abbreviation)

– People Finder Skip Tracer (PEOPLE-TRACK) tracks previous addresses.

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PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE INFORMATION • Other records under the People Information sub-

tab include:– Marriage Records (MARRIAGE-ALL)– Divorce Records(DIVORCE-ALL)– Death Records (DEATH-ALL)– Reverse Phone Look-up (PEOPLE-PHONE)

• Licenses can also be found on the People Information sub-tab. You can search: – Professional Licenses(PROFLICENSE-ALL)– Medical Licenses (MEDLICSENSE-ALL)– Hunting/Fishing Licenses(HUNTFISH-ALL)

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• Professional Licenses–Combined (LICENSE-ALL) and for individual states, XX-LICENSE, where XX is a state’s two-letter postal abbreviation)

• Professional Licenses–FAA (FAA) contains information on those registered to pilot an airplane in the United States, including those living abroad.

• Professional Licenses–DEA (DEA) contains information on individuals and business who are registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration authorizing them to prescribe and handle controlled substances.

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PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE INFORMATION • Asset Locator (ASSET-ALL) searches all assets in

all available states. Search for Assets in an individual state in ASSET-XX, where XX is the state postal abbreviation.

• ASSET-all combines:– Aircraft Records (AIRCRAFT)– Motor Vehicle Records (DMV-ALL)– Stock Records (STOCK)– Watercraft Records (WATERCRAFT)– Real Property Tax Assessor Records (RPA-ALL)– Real Property Transacation Records (RPT-ALL)

• All the databases in the Asset Locator database can be searched individually.

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PUBLIC RECORDS – POTENTIALLY ADVERSE INFORMATION

• The Potentially Adverse Information sub-tab contains Litigation and Court Records as well as Criminal Records.

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PUBLIC RECORDS – POTENTIALLY ADVERSE INFORMATION• Adverse Filings–Combined (ADVERSE-ALL)

contains all “adverse” filings against individuals or businesses in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

• ADVERSE-XX contains all state filings, where XX is the state’s two-letter postal abbreviation.

• ADVERSE-ALL contains the following information, which can be searched separately:– Bankruptcy Records–Combined filings (BKR-ALL)– Liens and Civil Judgments–Combined filings(LJ-ALL)– Uniform Commercial Code–Combined filings (UCC-ALL)– Lawsuit Records–Combined filings (LS-ALL)

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PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLEMAP

• PeopleMap allows a user to search across 35 databases at one time, organizes the information into a report and creates a map of how the records relate to the individual.

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PUBLIC RECORDS – COMPANY INFORMATION

• There are many databases that contain information on businesses and securities transactions.

• Some are directory listings that may include the local gas station as well as the giant conglomerate.

• Others contain sophisticated financial information derived from registration with a state’s Secretary of State or filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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• The Company Information sub-tab of the Public Records tab is the place to begin researching a particular company.

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PUBLIC RECORDS – COMPANY INFORMATION• Combined Corporate Records and Business

Registration Records(CORP-ALL) contains registration, registered agent and status information for 49 states and District of Columbia.

• Business Tracker (BUS-TRACK) conveys basic information about a company, such as the company name, address, telephone number, Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) number, D&B number, federal employer identification number, trade names, or fictitious names.

• Executive Affiliation Records (EA-ALL) contains millions of records to identify executives associated with a particular company.

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• Company Reports Databases can provide in-depth information of a company’s structure, financials and news. – Business Citator Reports for a corporation may include

global filings, information on litigation, intellectual property bankruptcy and news coverage.

– Dun & Bradstreet Business Records Plus (DUNBR) contains information on the history, day-to-day operations, finances, and corporate affiliations.

– Company Profiles (CO-PROFILE) lists key people, number of employees, annual sales, company divisions, and subsidiaries.

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• Template or Terms and Connectors searches are available for Company Reports.

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PUBLIC RECORDS – SECURITIES INFORMATION• Other databases included in the Company Information

sub-tab include a company’s securities filings and information. – Investext (INVSTXT-PDF) contains analysts’ reports as

originally published, including charts, graphs, and tables on over 60,000 companies and industries.

– EDGAR–SEC Filings (EDGAR) contains annual reports, proxy statements, 10-K and 10-Q reports.

– Merger and Acquisitions –Deal Information (M&ADEAL) has detailed reports on public and private mergers and acquisitions.

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PUBLIC RECORDS – SECURITIES INFORMATION

• Here’s an example of the EDGAR search template. The Advanced template allows you to search for specific filings, acts or exhibits.

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CONCLUSION• Westlaw contains more than 30,000 databases,

many of which can be unfamiliar to paralegal students.

• Many of these databases are extremely useful to the practicing paralegals.

• West Reference Attorneys are always available to help practicing attorneys, as well as paralegal students, find the correct databases and help construct effective searches.

• If you have any questions, please give the Reference Attorneys a call at 1-800-850-WEST (9378)

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