1. A PARALEGAL STUDENT‘S LOOK AT
WESTLAW FOR THE PRACTITIONER
West‘s Instructional Aid Series

2. CONTENTS
• 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
2

3. 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
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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
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4. INTRODUCTION
• 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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5. 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.
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.
5

6. INTRODUCTION: CUSTOMIZABLE TABS
EXAMPLE
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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7. CONTENTS
• 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
7

8. 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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9. 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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10. LEGAL FORMS
• Quick links to these forms can be found under the
Forms and Checklist heading on the Paralegal tab.
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11. LEGAL FORMS
• 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.
11

12. 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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13. LEGAL FORMS – FORMFINDER
• Select a topic from the pull-down menu.
• More specific subtopics may be chosen.
• Select a jurisdiction by checking the boxes.
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14. CONTENTS
• 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
14

15. 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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16. 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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17. PRACTICE GUIDES & AIDS – STATE
• Texas Practice Guide Multibase (TXPG-ALL)
• Georgia Analytical Practice Library (GAPRACLIB)
• The Rutter Group: California Practice Guides (TRGCA)
• Trawick‘s Florida Practice and Procedure (FLPRACPROC)
• 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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18. PRACTICE GUIDES & AIDS
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.
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19. 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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20. CONTENTS
• 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
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21. LITIGATION MATERIALS
The Litigation tab gathers resources to use
throughout stages of the litigation. Sub-tabs
organize these databases for easy access.
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22. 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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23. 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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24. 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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25. 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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26. 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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27. 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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28. 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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29. 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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30. 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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31. 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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32. 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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33. 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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34. CONTENTS
• 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
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35. 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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36. 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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37. 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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38. 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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39. 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, Aust
railia, Germany, Hong Kong, India, and South
Korea
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40. 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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41. 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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42. NEWS DATABASES – ADDITIONAL
DATABASES
• Wire services (WIRES)
– Associated Press (APWIRES)
– Reuters (REUTERS)
• Legal newspapers (LEGALNP)
– American Lawyer (AMLAW)
– National Law Journal (NLJ)
• Magazines (MAGSMJ)
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Barron‘s (BARRONS)
Newsweek (NEWSWEEK)
Forbes (FORBES)
U.S. News and World Report (USNWR)
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43. 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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44. 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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45. WESTCLIPS®
• Name the clip
• Write a query and select a database
• Choose the settings for frequency and delivery
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46. 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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47. CONTENTS
• 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
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48. 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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49. PUBLIC RECORDS TAB
• 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.
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50. 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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51. PUBLIC RECORDS
Select the proper permissible use
from the pull-down menu provided.
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52. 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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53. 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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54. PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE
INFORMATION
• Useful databases to search when looking for an
individual‘s information:
– People Finder Social Security Number Alert (SSNALERT) 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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55. PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE
INFORMATION
• Other records under the People Information subtab include:
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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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56. PUBLIC RECORDS – PEOPLE
INFORMATION
• 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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57. 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:
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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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58. 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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59. 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:
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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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60. 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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61. 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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62. PUBLIC RECORDS – COMPANY
INFORMATION
• The Company Information sub-tab of the Public
Records tab is the place to begin researching a
particular company.
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63. 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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64. PUBLIC RECORDS – COMPANY
INFORMATION
• 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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65. PUBLIC RECORDS – COMPANY
INFORMATION
• Template or Terms and Connectors searches are
available for Company Reports.
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66. 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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67. 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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68. 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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