Searching Westlaw Campus

Westlaw Campus may be used at any computer located on the Northampton Community College
campus network, including those in the libraries, computer labs, dormitories and offices. Remote
access to Westlaw Campus is not available.

Entering the database

1) Double-click the Internet Explorer icon.

2) If the screen you see is the NCC home page, go to the Library’s home page by selecting
LIBRARY from the “Academics” drop-down menu.
3) Click on “Research Databases,” located under FIND AN ARTICLE.
4) Scroll down to the end of the list of databases.
5) Click on “Westlaw Campus.”
6) Scroll to the bottom of the user agreement and select “I AGREE.”
7) Click the purple “GO” button.

 Four ways to search

1) Find a case by CITATION – if you have the exact citation

2) Find a case by TITLE – if you know the names of the litigants
3) Browse cases by PRACTICE AREA – select cases from lists organized by subject and
jurisdiction
4) Find cases by TOPIC – can be used for general searching; use either “Basic” (natural language)
or “Advanced” (terms & connectors) method

 Searching by CITATION:
1) Click inside the FIND search box, located in the upper left corner of the screen under the
heading “SHORTCUTS.”
2) Type the citation in the white box labeled “Find a Document by Citation.”
3) Click GO.
• Result will be the exact case you are looking for.

 Searching by TITLE:
1) Click inside the first search box located under “Find a Document by Title” in the left
column of the screen.
2) Type one of the litigants’ names.
3) Click inside the second search box, and type the other litigant’s name.
4) Click GO.
• Result will be a list of all cases containing either of the parties’ names.

 Browsing by PRACTICE AREA: Locate the “KeySearch” option in the left column of the
screen, and click GO. Select an area of legal practice from the menu, then a jurisdiction you
would like to search. You may also add keywords to narrow the search.

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  Searching by TOPIC using “Basic Search”:
1) If it is not already selected, click the tab labeled “Basic Search” located under the
heading SEARCH in the middle of the screen. The “Basic” option allows you to use
“natural language” searching, which means you can type a question or phrase without
any special punctuation or commands.
2) Click inside the white search box and type your question or keywords.
3) Scroll down and select the appropriate section of the database for your case (example:
choose “State Cases” and select Pennsylvania from the drop-down menu).
4) Click SEARCH.
• Results will include only the 100 most relevant cases.

 Searching by TOPIC using “Advanced Search”:

1) If it is not already selected, click the tab labeled “Advanced Search” located under the
heading SEARCH in the middle of the screen. The “Advanced” option allows you to use
“terms & connectors” searching, which means you can insert special commands and
punctuation to create a more specific search (see list of commands, below).
2) Click inside the white search boxes and type your keywords with limiters or expanders,
and/or a date range (optional). If the “/s” or “/p” command are used, all words must be
typed in the same search box, instead of putting each phrase in a separate box.
3) Scroll down and select the appropriate section of the database for your case.
4) Click SEARCH.
• Results will include all cases or documents that match your search terms and any additional
criteria you have selected.

Sample Commands: put quotation marks around a phrase (example: “premises liability”)
/s = words appear in the same sentence
/p = words appear in the same paragraph
% = “but not”
! = root expander (Finds all alternate forms of words. Example: searching for
legislat! will locate legislator, legislation, legislative)

For help, click on the link labeled “More Search Tips.”

What titles are covered in Westlaw Campus?

To browse the lists of legal serials and case reporters contained in Westlaw Campus:
1) Click on the link labeled “Content List,” located under the heading “SHORTCUTS.”
2) Select the type of materials you wish to search (example: Cases, Legal Encyclopedias).
3) Locate the jurisdiction or serial you wish to search (example: U.S. Supreme Court
Cases) and click the round beige button labeled with the letter “i” for “information.”
Each section contains a description of what materials are covered, and a list of
abbreviations used to cite the serial in court cases.

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Understanding KeyCite symbols (this information was taken from Westlaw Campus “Help” file)

A KeyCite status flag indicates the status of a case, administrative decision, statute, or regulation.

►A red flag warns that the case or administrative decision is no longer good law for at least one of
the points of law it contains; or that the statute or regulation has been amended by a recent session
law or rule, repealed, superseded, or held unconstitutional, or preempted in whole or in part.

►A yellow flag warns that the case or administrative decision has some negative history but hasn’t
been reversed or overruled; that the statute has been renumbered or transferred by a recent session
law; that an uncodified session law or proposed legislation affecting the statute is available (statutes
merely referenced, i.e., mentioned, are not marked with a yellow flag); that a proposed rule affecting
the regulation is available; that the regulation has been reinstated, corrected, or confirmed; that the
statute or regulation was limited on constitutional or preemption grounds or its validity was
otherwise called into doubt; or that a prior version of the statute or regulation received negative
judicial treatment.
►A blue H indicates that the case or administrative decision has some history.
►A green C indicates that the case or administrative decision has citing references but no direct or
negative indirect history, or that the statute or regulation has citing references.

Printing procedures in the Library

1) Library computers no longer accept 3-1/2 inch floppy discs. To save documents using
physical media, students must have a USB (“flash” or “stick”) drive or writable compact
disc. Another option for saving documents is to send them, as attachments, to an e-mail
account.

2) To help save paper, Library printers are limited to printing 10 pages of text at a time.
If a student attempts to print more than 10 pages, or multiple copies of documents, the print
job will not be processed. If more than 10 pages must be printed, the student will need to
print the document in batches of 10 pages (example: pages 1 through 10, then pages 11
through 20, and so on).

3) Library printers in the Computer Classroom, Media Tower, and south side of the main
Library room produce only double-sided documents, unless the student manually changes
the default setting each time a document is printed.

4) It is highly recommended that students save each document with a unique file name, on a
USB drive. Documents saved to a Library computer’s desktop or hard drive will be lost
whenever the computer is restarted.

JPlease don’t hesitate to ask a librarian for help

with saving or printing documents!
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Saving documents from Westlaw Campus
You may save documents two ways in Westlaw Campus: send them to your e-mail account, or
download them to a USB (“flash” or “stick”) drive.

E-mailing documents
1) Once you have located the document you wish to save, click the E-MAIL icon (envelope) in
the upper right corner of the screen.
2) Type in your e-mail address and a subject line.
3) From the “Format” menu, choose the type of file you would like to receive. You may save
this preference by clicking the checkbox marked “Save as default in Preferences.”
4) Make your selections regarding KeyCite history and the page numbers you wish to save.
5) Click SEND.

 To change the font size and page layout, click “Settings” in the upper right corner of your
screen.

 Downloading documents to USB drive

1) Plug a USB drive (“flash” or “stick” drive) into the computer.
2) Once you have located the document you wish to save, click the DOWNLOAD icon
(orange arrow with sheet of paper) in the upper right corner of the screen.
3) From the “Format” menu, choose the type of file you wish to save.
4) Make your selections regarding KeyCite history and the page numbers you wish to save.
5) Click SAVE. A new window labeled “Download Confirmation” will open.
6) Click COMPLETE DOWNLOAD.
7) At the next window, click SAVE.
8) From the drop-down menu labeled “Save In,” select “USB/Removable Drive E (or) F” for
your USB drive, depending upon the port to which your flash drive is attached.
9) In the space labeled “File Name” type the title you wish to give to this document.
10) Select a type of document from the “Save as Type” drop-down menu.
11) Click SAVE.
12) When the document is finished saving, click CLOSE. You may then open the document on
your USB drive using Microsoft Word (for Word documents) or Adobe Acrobat (for PDF
files).

 To change font size and page layout, click “Settings” in the upper right corner of your screen.

 You can continue to download documents during your searching session without setting up the
preferences each time, but you will need to give each document a unique file name when
saving.

 If you click the “Select to Print” box next to citations while viewing the results list, the
document you save will contain only a list of citations, not the full text of each document.

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x To exit from Westlaw Campus: Click the gray “SIGN OFF” button in the top right corner of the
screen.

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