westlaw ie user guide

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Our online legal research service, Westlaw IE, has been revitalised. Now you can make a more powerful and reliable connection with Irish law. Transform the way that you conduct your research with our new and improved technology.

USER GUIDE NEW, IMPROVED AND MORE POWERFUL

GETTING STARTEDLOGGING IN - Go to www.westlaw.ie

- Enter your Username and Password

- Enter your Client ID, this can be any characters of your choice to identify the research you are doing and allow you to track/label/save/email your research trail

HOME PAGESearch for cases, legislation, court rules, journals and current awareness.

For more information or guidance call Customer Support on 1800 50 90 34 or +44 207 449 1110 (International), email [email protected]

GETTING STARTED

Click on the Westlaw IE logo at anytime to return to this home page

Links to access content

Static tool bar – contains links to useful features and tools

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SEARCHINGSearch across material types by using free text terms.

Type your term(s) into the search field with or without connectors

Select the content you wish to search

Choose whether to search every word in the document (free text) or just the title

Choose whether to display Terms in Context within your results list

Click Search

NATURAL LANGUAGEThis search facility does not use terms and connectors but allows you to describe your issue in plain English, for example must a manufacturer disclose the side effects of a drug?

When you use Natural Language, you retrieve a maximum of 100 results. When your search is complete, the documents are returned in order of relevance.

SEARCH METHODSEvery search box supports “terms and connectors” functionality. This means that each search term you enter is treated as a separate word. If you enter words using no connectors Westlaw IE will automatically connect the words using an ‘AND’ connector and return all documents where your terms appear.

Connectors you can use on Westlaw IE:

SEARCH CONNECTORS

Connector Symbol Retrieves

AND & (or a space)

Search terms in the same document:

trademark & registration

OR Or Either search term or both:

car or automobile

Phrase “ “ Search terms appearing in the same order as in the quotation marks: “fiduciary duty”

Numerical

Connectors

/n Search terms within “n” terms of each other (where n is a number): person /3 jurisdiction

+n The first term preceding the second by n terms (where n is a number): capital +3 punishment

BUT NOT % Documents not containing the term or terms following the % symbol: taxation % income

Use the % connector with caution; it may cause relevant documents to be excluded from your search result.


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FINDING CASE LAWBASIC SEARCHSelect the Cases link from the top of the screen. Retrieve cases by entering terms into the Free Text, Party Names or Citation fields.

You can combine any of these fields for a more refined search.

TERMS IN CONTEXTCheck the Terms in Context box to see your search term highlighted in a selection of text provided with your result.

ADVANCED SEARCHYou can further refine your search by entering additional information such as the court, judge and date restrictions.

Cases link

Links to Advanced Search, coverage information and search tips

Terms in context

Refine your search by entering additional information such as court, judge and date restriction


CASES

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BROWSINGYou can choose to browse Law Reports and Unreported Judgments. Case Reports and Digests are available for Irish case law dating back to 1871.

Once you have selected a Report series you will be taken to a list of years or volumes. Select a year to view a list of cases.


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FINDING LEGISLATIONBASIC SEARCHSelect the Legislation link from the top of the screen.

Retrieve Legislation by entering terms into the Free Text, Legislation Title or Provision Number fields.

You can combine any of these fields for a more refined search.


BROWSINGThe Legislation page presents the three main options for browsing Legislation:

• Irish Consolidated Legislation

• Original Annotated Statutes

• Legislation Fastcheck (1993 – to present)

When you click on the Irish Consolidated Legislation link on the Legislation Page, you then get the option to browse: (1) The Irish Constitution; (2) Acts; (3) Statutory Instruments; and (4) European Legislation.

All these options, except The Irish Constitution, can be browsed by year, title and Act number.


LEGISLATION

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BROWSING (continued)Original Annotated Acts go back to 1984 and provide commentary and analysis on Irish statute law. It can be browsed by individual year, title or Act number.

SEARCH RESULTSLegislation search results are ordered in reverse chronological order by year and then in alphabetical order by title. Where there is more than one type of Legislation document for the same enactment, the results will be ordered: (1) Consolidated Legislation; (2) Original Annotated Acts, and (3) Legislation Fastcheck.

Legislation Fastcheck provides detailed information on where Statutes and Statutory Instruments have been amended by primary or secondary legislation issued between 1993 to the present.

In addition, references are given as to where the provisions of Statutes or Statutory Instruments have been judicially considered, allowing you to see how a particular piece of legislation has been applied in practice.

You can browse Legislation Fastcheck by year or by title.


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FINDING COURT RULESBASIC SEARCHSelect the Court Rules link from the top of the screen.

Retrieve Court Rules by entering terms into the Free Text, Document Title or by Order/Rule Number fields.


SEARCH RESULTS Court Rules search results will be ordered in table of contents order, i.e. (1) Consolidated Superior Court Rules; (2) Consolidated Circuit Court Rules; and (3) Consolidated District Court Rules.

A search result for a Court Rule comprises:

• Rule type

• Document title with a link to the full text


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When you select one of the groups of orders under the Consolidated Superior Court Rules, for example Orders 1-20, the documents for each Order are displayed by Order number. A link is also displayed to cases pertaining to each Order.

When you select an individual Order under the Consolidated Circuit Court Rules, for example Order 1, the documents for each rule under an Order are listed in numerical order.

Consolidated Circuit Court Forms can also be selected and the documents for each Form are displayed in numeric order.

In Consolidated District Court Rules, you can access the list of Rules, Tables of Amendments, Forms and Related Legislation. Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF versions of Forms in Civil and Criminal Proceedings are available to download.

BROWSINGYou can choose to browse Consolidated Superior Court Rules, Consolidated Circuit Court Rules or Consolidated District Court Rules.


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JOURNALSCONTENT Westlaw IE features the most comprehensive collection of full-text Irish journals available online. We have over 9,000 full-text articles from specialist Round Hall journals, such as the Commercial Law Practitioner and the Irish Jurist.

BASIC SEARCHSelect the Journals link from the top of the screen. Retrieve Journal articles by entering terms into the Free Text, Article Title or Author fields. You can combine any of these fields for a more refined search.


ADVANCED SEARCHEnables you to enter additional information to further refine your search such as journal title, year, and case or legislation cited.


JOURNALS

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BROWSINGBrowse Full Text Articles or the Irish Legal Journals Index of abstracted articles. Select a journal and then a year to browse. View all articles published in that year alphabetically or click on the issue title to see all the content in a particular issue.

IRISH LEGAL JOURNALS INDEXIrish material extracted from the Legal Journals Index, an extremely popular journals abstract service totally unique to Westlaw IE and Westlaw UK. There are links to the full text of the articles where available.

Each Legal Journal Index article includes the taxonomic subject area, the keywords used to index articles and a brief abstract about the content of the article.

At a glance you can see the key points of an article and establish whether or not you need to read it in its entirety.

PUBLICATIONS INDEXEDPublications Indexed provides bibliographical information on each legal periodical published in the British Isles of relevance to Irish law.


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CURRENT AWARENESSBASIC SEARCHSelect the Current Awareness link from the top of the screen.

Retrieve Current Awareness abstracts using the Free Text field or by Subject.

You can select to search Last 90 Days or Archive material.

ADVANCED SEARCHEnables you to enter additional information to further refine your search, such as by case or legislation cited. You can also add a date restriction.


CURRENT AWARENESS

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BROWSINGSelect whether to browse through Last 90 Days or Archive. You can browse by date, document type or subject area.

CONTENTIncludes cases, legislation and legal developments contained in or represented by official publications, press releases and legal news.

The service is updated every day with over 100 sources of information monitored.

CURRENT AWARENESS ABSTRACTProvides more information about the legal development including an abstract, subject and keywords, reference information and links out to other publications where relevant.


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ALERTS AND RSS FEEDSThere are two ways to create alerts on Westlaw IE:

CREATE A NEW ALERTThe Create a New Alert feature allows you to create alerts which monitor Journals and Current Awareness for selected legal subjects.

To create a new alert click on the Alerts link at the top of the Westlaw IE screen.

From the Alerts List page, click on the Create a New Alert button at the top left. You can now select the type of content and subject areas on which you wish to receive updates.

Once selected, click Next. You will be taken to the Manage this Alert page where you will be required to name your alert, enter a client ID, select how often you wish to receive the alert, etc.

Click Save Alert at the bottom of the page to complete the alert set-up.

CREATE AN ALERT FROM A SEARCH RESULTAfter you have run your search you can click on the Save as Alert link in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

You can also set up alerts for specific cases you are interested in by clicking Create Case Alert from within the case document.

You can also opt to save the search terms as a Saved Search as opposed to being notified via email.

MODIFY ALERTSTo Edit your alerts, click on the Alerts link at the top of the Westlaw IE page to display your alerts list. From this page you can edit the content and subject of the alert. To change delivery options or update email addresses click Manage.

RSS FEEDSWestlaw IE RSS allows you to easily publish the latest Westlaw IE content on your intranet site or have live links delivered straight to your RSS compatible browser or reader.

As with alerts, RSS feeds can be created as new (click on the RSS Feeds link at the top of the Westlaw IE screen), or from search results (click on Save as RSS Feed at the top right-hand corner of the results list).

You can also create a feed from a full text journal or case report series. Simply browse to the relevant series and click on the RSS Feed link in the top right-hand corner.


ALERTS

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