March/April 2009
Westlaw PeopleMap: Uncover someone's connections in an instant
by Jay Shuck, West Customer and Product Documentation
No man is an island. That's why we have Westlaw PeopleMap.
Westlaw PeopleMap is the dynamic new tool that lets you quickly discover relevant information about people and their connections–connections to other people, to property, and to a wide range of public records. Thanks to the tool's smart linking technology and intuitive graphical features, you can effortlessly spot a specific person's connections, retrieve relevant public records, and communicate your results.
Not surprisingly, law librarian input was involved at every stage of development.
"We recruited law librarians throughout the development process," says Kevin Appold, senior director, New Product Development at West. "We put features, functionality, and concepts in front of them at different parts of our development process. The product evolved over time based on their feedback." Adds John Vonhof, West Product Marketing: "I think we all have a lot of respect for the fact that they understand both the research implications and how the product fits into work flows. They have a unique and important perspective."
Westlaw PeopleMap in brief
In a single search, Westlaw PeopleMap brings you the following:
- A Microsoft Virtual Earth map that shows the geographic location of each person with the name you entered.
- A graphical display of public records and other individuals connected to the person selected, with links to the underlying records.
- Information drawn from up to 35 different data types, including business records, voter registrations, political donations, real property transactions and tax assessments, stock ownership, motor vehicle and boat ownership, unclaimed assets, criminal records, professional licenses, hunting and fishing licenses, liens, court dockets, marriage and divorce records, legal filings, and bankruptcy filings.
- The ability to create a report containing some or all data types in any of several formats.
"We wanted to improve the public records research experience by making it more like other legal research on Westlaw," says Appold. "We did that by pre-linking–creating billions of links between public records about people. We added tools designed to help validate that this is the person you're looking for before you review all the additional information. We also added a graphical visualization of the connections between a person and all the related information about that person. Finally, we pull it all together into a report, which is often the endgame for researchers."
How to run a PeopleMap search
To use Westlaw PeopleMap, you must select the tabbed PeopleMap page on Westlaw.
To search for information and connections available for a particular individual, complete these steps:
- At the PeopleMap page, type an individual's name or Social Security number in the What do you know about the person? section.
- Select the appropriate items from the Permissible Uses drop-down lists. (Before running a PeopleMap search, you must determine whether your intended uses for the information you retrieve are permissible under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Drivers Privacy Protection Act, and laws protecting voter registration information. If you do not have a permissible use, select No Permissible Use in the drop-down list to run a PeopleMap search that excludes the protected information.)
- Click Next. The Results page is displayed.
Results page: Is this the right John Smith?
The Westlaw PeopleMap Results page can spare you embarrassment and time you might waste investigating the wrong person. In the left frame, the names and current addresses of the individuals matching your search criteria are displayed. (Prior addresses, birth year, and partial Social Security number may also be included.) In the right frame, a map is displayed with alphabetical markers showing the location of each individual.
To retrieve more information about an individual listed in the left frame, select the check box next to the individual's name, then click Next. The information is displayed in an interactive graphical display.
Interactive graphical display: Which records and people are connected to this person?
The left frame of the interactive graphical display lists the records that Westlaw PeopleMap found for the individual you selected. A confidence level next to each record indicates the likelihood that the record is in fact related to that individual.
In the right frame, the interactive graphic display shows the relationships between the individual and related parties (other individuals named in the records). You can then
- click a record icon to view the underlying record
- click the name of a related party to display the full range of records pertaining to him or her
- restrict the details shown in the display by using the tools available in the toolbar at the top of the right frame
Tip: For comprehensive listings of the jurisdictions and coverage dates available for each document type, click Back on the Links tab of the graphical display to return to the Results page. Click Coverage in the right frame. Then click a link to view the coverage for a particular document type.
Westlaw PeopleMap report: Can all Westlaw PeopleMap information available for this person be compiled in a document?
To compile some or all of your Westlaw PeopleMap result into a report in PDF, Microsoft® Word, Corel® WordPerfect, or HTML, complete these steps:
- If more than one individual is listed on the Links tab of the interactive graphical display, click the name of the individual for whom you want to create a report.
- Click Create Report.
- The Report Confirmation page is displayed. Select Comprehensive (information from all content sets), Core (a Comprehensive report minus criminal and Office of Foreign Assets Control records), Assets Only (asset information only), or Potentially Adverse (adverse information only) from the Select your report type drop-down list.
- Select PDF, Word, WordPerfect, or HTML from the Choose your delivery format drop-down list.
- In the Confirm the documents that will appear in your report section, clear the check boxes next to any items you don't want to include.
- Click Go.
Westlaw PeopleMap reports are saved in the Report Manager for 14 days, during which time you can re-access a report and not incur a transactional charge. You can access the Report Manager via the site map by clicking Report Manager under Tools.
For more information about Westlaw PeopleMap, contact your librarian relations manager.