West attorney-editors categorize, organize, and summarize the law.
Our unique editorial features can empower, simplify and enrich your research.
West attorney-editors add over 20 distinct enhancements to all published (and most unpublished) court opinions. Start your legal research with nothing more than a plain-English description of your topic. Cases, statutes, treatises, forms, journal articles, and more are all brought to light by this initial word search.
Dig deeper, and you'll find unique enhancements that make the information on Westlaw more accurate, more relevant, and easier to understand.
Start your research with a plain-English query on your topic. We'll do the rest.
Westlaw is the only online legal research service that provides these incredibly useful editorial features.
- Headnotes that explain every point of law. As soon as a case is decided, West attorney-editors painstakingly craft a single headnote that analyzes and summarizes every point of law covered in the opinion. West headnotes speed you through a long case and let you connect other cases on the same issue. And with Westlaw, you can use KeyCite with any headnote to pull up just those cases on that point of law, complete with their history.
- Case synopses that summarize and simplify. Rather than forcing you to wade through an entire 100-page opinion, Westlaw provides a short paragraph to help you quickly determine its worth. This paragraph succinctly addresses (1) the subject of the case and its holding, (2) procedural background and prior decisions, (3) the authoring judge and mandate, and (4) overruled or abrogated cases and any split in the court. Other elements of the synopses - integrated holdings, legal principles, procedural history, and related facts - provide a term-rich field for your word search to pass through.
- Statute annotations that speed your research and add insight. West has 90 percent more annotations than other online legal research services. West attorney-editors add special features that help you locate the right statute, see its legislative history, understand it in perspective, and link to cases that interpret it. The table of contents helps you find statutes without citations, while notes of decisions list the cases that interpret your statute, with a brief summary of the cases and links to the full text for each case. Historical notes show how your statute evolved, and cross-references and library references lead you to key numbers, law reviews, treatises, and forms.
- The West Key Number System that classifies the law. The West Key Number System is the master classification system of U.S. law and is widely regarded as the cornerstone of effective legal research. West attorney-editors index cases into more than 400 topics and 100,000 points of law. Only West Topic and Key Numbers enable you to find cases stating or applying a legal concept even if those terms aren't in the opinion - and only Westlaw lets you quickly find an on-point key number so you can locate cases with similar legal concepts and principles.
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Every West attorney-editor has over 10 years of legal experience, and Westlaw gives your legal research the full benefit of their insights every time you sign on.
West topic and key numbers enable you to find cases stating or applying a legal concept even if those terms aren't included in the opinion.
Westlaw gives you comprehensive, accurate content and the tools to find it faster - plus free research assistance, alerts for key legal developments, and help with routine document tasks.