LARW III Drafting for the General Practitioner - Research Guide

Why are we still talking about researching in books?

• Organization of legal information was established before legal information transitioned to online, full-text searchable databases
• Many finding aids created to ease navigation in print are just as useful when searching online.
  • Table of Contents
  • Indexes
• Some publications are only available in print

Lexis v. Westlaw v. Bloomberg - What's the difference?

• These commercial databases provide unique secondary source publications
• For example, you will not find Dorsaneo's Texas Litigation Guide on Westlaw because it is a Lexis Publication. Alternatively, you will not find Texas Practice Series on Lexis because it is a Westlaw Publication

Other company's like O'Connor's offer their own database that require individual user subscriptions

Before you begin searching in a database, you should always familiarize yourself with the database.

Look for a "help" link. This link could say "About," "Advanced Search," or appear as a question mark or "i" icon. This page will tell you important information such as:

• database scope (what is included in the database)
• advanced search tips and required syntax