Social Science Librarian
Stephen (Social Sciences) Woods
Contact:
Office: 208 Paterno Library, University Park
Phone: 814.865.0665
Getting Started (using Westlaw)
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Westlaw Campus Research - Law This link opens in a new windowa comprehensive database of resources for researching U.S. Law.
Are you just getting started with your research?
- Start with secondary sources (Westlaw and other research platforms)
Is the area of law governed by a statute, regulation, or court rule?
- Check out the statute's Notes of Decisions (Westlaw)
- Search within the statute's Citing References (Westlaw)
Do you already have a relevant case ("one good case") and need to find more?
- Search within the case's Citing References (Westlaw)
- Use the West Key Number System (From Stanford Law School)
- Work with headnotes (Westlaw)
- Look through the table of authorities (Westlaw)
Have you already attempted the above strategies? Are you nearing the end of your research?
- Conduct full-text case searches using advanced searches (Westlaw)
- Check to make sure your cases are still good law (Westlaw)
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Using statutes to find casesThis flowchart will guide you through finding relevant cases if you've already found an applicable statute.
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Using a case to find casesThis flowchart will guide you through three different methods for finding cases if you already have one relevant case (the "one good case" method).