LexisNexis Take-Home Lexis Certification Program



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LexisNexis Take-Home Certification Program

Table of Contents

Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………………………………….ii

What is the LexisNexis Certification Program? ..................................................................................................................1

Why Should You Attain LexisNexis Certification? ............................................................................................................1

About LexisNexis………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1

How Do I Earn My LexisNexis Certification? …………………………………………………………...……………….2

Directions for Completing the LexisNexis Take Home Certification …………………………………………………….2

The Research System Tab --- Entry into the LN Total Research System………………………………………………....3

LexisNexis Part I Familiarity…..…………………………………………………………………………………………..4

Pulling Cases, Statutes, Etc. ………………………………………………..…………………………………….4

Case Summary: A LexisNexis Snapshot ………………………………………………………………………...4

Printing and Delivering Documents ………………………………………..…………………………………….4

Pulling Cases by Party Name …………………………………………………………………………………..…5

LexisNexis Headnotes: The Black Letter Rules of the Issues in a Case ………………………………………...5

Shepard’s – One Click to Find Out if a Case is Good or Bad Law ……………………………………………....7

The Shepard’s “Smart Box”: Using Shepard’s for Research Purposes ………………………………………….8

Get and Print---Pulling, Printing, and Shepardizing Multiple Cases In One Click!................................................9

Searching by Topic or Headnote – Pointing and Clicking Your Way to Your Legal Issue …………………….10

FOCUS – Conducting a “Search Within a Search” ……………………………………………………………..10

Show Hits and Hide Hits: Highlighting Your Search Terms for Easy Reading and Scanning ………………...11

Research Tasks: A Practitioner’s Look at LexisNexis …………………………………………………………12

The Search Screen: Finding and Searching the LexisNexis Databases …………………………………………12

Easy Search: A “Quick and Easy” Search Method Similar to Google ………………………………………....13

Terms and Connectors – Searching Specifically While Thinking Like a Computer ……………………………13

Connectors Cheat Sheet …………………………………………………………………………………………14

Searching the United States Code ………………………………………………………………………………14

Pointing and Clicking Your Way Through Statutes.…………………………………...…...…………………...15

Flipping Back and Forth: Book Browse ………………………………………………………………………..15

News and Business Tab: The “Nexis” side of LexisNexis ……………………………………………………..15

Find a Source Tab: The Answer to the Question, “Does LexisNexis Have It?” ……………………………….16

Congratulations for completing LexisNexis Part I: Familiarity!...........................................................................16

LexisNexis Take-Home Certification Program

What is the LexisNexis Certification Program?

The LexisNexis Certification Program is designed for those individuals who are interested in taking their online legal research skills to another level. This is three-part program that promises to deliver a basic, intermediate, and advanced course of LexisNexis training aimed at making you a more efficient and knowledgeable researcher.

Why Should You Attain LexisNexis Certification?

There are lots of reasons to attain LexisNexis Certification but the most important are the following:

1. You will dramatically improve your ability to conduct legal research online using LexisNexis

2. Self-paced learning is flexible and individualized. Go through the materials when you have time, at a pace that suits you.

Learn how to use the LexisNexis research solutions available to you

in a way that will help you maximize your time and feel confident in your results.

About LexisNexis

LexisNexis® is a leading provider of comprehensive information and business solutions to professionals in a variety of areas—legal, risk management, corporate, government, law enforcement, accounting and academic. A member of Reed Elsevier Group plc, LexisNexis helps customers achieve their goals in 100 countries through 13,000 employees dedicated to putting the Customer First.

We provide customers access to 5 billion searchable documents from more than 32,000 legal, news and business sources. Corporations and legal professionals can also manage, organize and integrate their work processes using our unique set of solutions.

LexisNexis helps knowledge-driven organizations achieve new levels of excellence. LexisNexis combines advanced technology, global and local sources and convenient services to uniquely address specific customer needs. LexisNexis delivers Total Solutions, a strategy that enables us to offer product and service combinations that address specific customer needs and fit into their existing workflow. Working together with customers, we develop innovative solutions to improve productivity, increase profitability and create growth.

How Do I Earn my LexisNexis Certification?

It’s simple:

This “LexisNexis Certification Program” is a self-paced, hands-on program, enabling you to progress through the material in a pace suited to your needs. In addition, you can repeat lessons as many times as you want, reinforcing the material until you have a solid understanding of it. Also, since you can access from any computer that has internet access (so long as you have your ID and Password handy), you can go through the LN Certification Program at a time and place most convenient to you.

*Other options: In Class Certification

The In Class Certification involves attendance at three certification classes. Each class lasts approximately an hour, and covers different research skills / areas. After attending the classes, you will take a test.

For the in-class option, please contact your Lexis Coordinator and ask them to set up a Certification Class. All three classes can be offered in one day, at one sitting; or, they can be offered as a series. For more information, please contact me at: arielle.goldhammer@

Directions for Completing the

LexisNexis Take-Home Certification Program

Let’s get started! Follow these directions closely or you could miss a search! Log on to the Internet and go to the LexisNexis homepage ().

Directions: Within this certificate program will be numerous exercises, identified as Search Activities. Some ask you to do something specific, i.e. note the name of a case. Others are stepping you through LexisNexis research functions and tools; in this case, keep track of your research activities and progress by copying and pasting your search history into a document that you will later send to me.

Once you complete the program, locate your search history, which is stored and accessed via the “History” link in the upper-right hand corner of the LexisNexis Total Research screen. Simply copy and paste your search history into a document and e-mail it to arielle.goldhammer@.

Once verified, I will contact you to confirm completion and send you a certificate.

Log on to using your ID and Password. [If you don’t know your ID or Password, please call Customer Service and they will assist you; 1.800.543.6862].

The Research System Tab --- Entry into the LN Total Research System

Click the “Search” tab (if your screen does not already default there). This click puts you into the LexisNexis Total Research System and you are ready to access the 4.8 billion documents and 18,000 different sources.

This screen is called the “Search Screen,” providing you access to additional tabs and links.

They are:

• Quick Search Box – enables you to select sources quickly and easily from multiple jurisdictions, practice areas, and source categories.

• Recently Used Sources List (within the Quick Search Box, second tab over) – search the sources you use most often from your customized “favorites list”.

• Custom Area of Law and Jurisdiction Tabs – You can look for a source using custom tabs or any of the standard tabs available to you; standard tabs include: Legal, News & Business, Public Records, and Find a Source. (Your agency/organization’s menu will determine which standard tabs appear as well as which sources will be available throughout the system). You can keep up to 18 standard and custom tabs at a time. Standard tabs cannot be removed, but you can add/remove a custom tab at any time by clicking the “Add/Edit Tabs” link.

o Custom tabs are those which you have added to provide quick access to your most commonly-used jurisdictions and/or areas of law.

o Standard tabs provide access to sources suggested by category, with links to additional sources.

• Find A Source – this tab enables you to search for a specific source on or look for all sources that might have a certain keyword in their title.

LexisNexis Part I: Familiarity

Pulling Cases, Statues, Etc.

There are eight basic functions or tabs at the top of your screen when you use the LexisNexis Total Research System, they are: Search, Research Tasks, Get a Document, Shepard’s, Alerts, Total Litigator, Transactional Advisor and Counsel Selector. You can see the tabs at the top of every screen page so you can quickly access them. With this system you will probably be performing one of these functions at any given time when researching---- so, if you get lost navigating the 4.8 billion documents on the LexisNexis Total Research System, simply scroll to the top and click one of these eight tabs again.

Click the Get a Document tab. This functional tab allows you to pull cases, statutes, journals, etc. when you have the citation, party name, or docket number to the document. Select Get a Document by Citation; type in this citation in the box: 222 NY 88 and click Get. Scroll down and read the “Case Summary.”

Case Summary—A LexisNexis Snapshot

Each Case Summary contains a “Procedural Posture”, “Overview”, and “Outcome” section. The Procedural Posture reveals the procedural history, that is, how the case arrived before that particular court. The Overview displays a concise review of the underlying facts, as well as the court’s holding on the legal issues involved. The Outcome portion sums up the court’s ruling on the issues before it. Last, the Core Terms section, located just after the Case Summary, list the prominent legal and factual terms taken directly from the opinion.

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Printing and Delivering Documents

Notice in the upper-right portion of this case, there are icons reflecting options for delivering the document. They are Fast Print, Print, Download, Fax, Email and Text Only.

Along with printing via your browser (i.e., file and print), you can opt for clicking the printer icon; this will open a pop-up box allowing for many different printing options. Go ahead and click the printer icon to see the pop-up box and your choices.

Printing LexisNexis documents is absolutely free.

Now close the printer option pop-up box.

(Research tip: If you are on a wireless laptop or at a place where you are not attached to a printer ---you can just e-mail the document to yourself using the email icon and print it later).

Pulling Cases by Party Name

Scroll to the top of your screen and click Get a Document again. Most of the time we have the case citation to what we want to pull, however, sometimes we need to find a case and we only know one or both party names. Click the red sub-tab titled “Party Name”.

Once you click Party Name, a searching “template” pops up allowing you to search for your case by simply typing in what you know, i.e., the name or names of the party you are searching for. Type in Fisher v. Lowe. Click the State Courts button, all State Courts Combined. Click Search or hit the enter key. You should receive a “cite list” reflecting several different cases where Fisher and Lowe appear as parties; select the third one.

(Research tip: Overviews are one sentence briefs of the case; they will help you scan Cite lists without having to pull each case and read them in their entirety---a very useful and efficient feature! Notice also that your terms appear in bold.)

Select the third case of Fisher v. Lowe by clicking on the blue linked name. I selected this case just for fun; notice the opinion is written in rhyme!

Now that you see how that works, let’s try a different case. Go back to Get a Document by Party Name and enter Bush v. Gore and click the U.S. Supreme Court button to restrict your search. Click Search or hit the enter key. This time, the case we want is the second one.

LexisNexis Headnotes: The Black Letter Rules of the Issues in a Case

Scroll down past the Case Summary until you see “LexisNexis Headnotes.” LexisNexis Headnotes reflect the black letter rules of all issues in the case, as stated by the court. The blue links associated with each point of law will allow you to link to a place on LexisNexis where you can perform more legal research on that specific issue.

LexisNexis Headnotes are key legal points of a case drawn directly from the language of the court by LexisNexis ® attorney-editors. You can hide or show LexisNexis Headnotes depending on your research needs. Just select the "Hide Headnotes" link. The "Hide Headnotes" link changes to "Show Headnotes." You can select the "Show Headnotes" link to redisplay the LexisNexis Headnotes.

Notice the green down arrow link on the left-hand side of each LexisNexis Headnote. Click the green arrow (HN4) associated with the Headnote for “Scope of Protection.” This will allow you to link inside the case where the Court discusses that particular legal issue. You can now click back using the green (HN4) link. This should take you back to the Headnote located at the beginning of the document.

Before leaving this case, notice in the lower left-hand corner of your screen there is an Outline link. Click it. You are now seeing options that allow you to navigate through documents on Lexis; particularly handy in a long case such as this one. For instance, maybe we want to read the dissent of Bush v. Gore. Simply click dissent.

Go back to the top of the screen and click Get a Document again. Click the “by Citation” tab to make sure it’s in citation mode. Instead of pulling a case, I want a statute.

In the box, type: FL Code 316.187 in the box and click Get.

According to this statute, what is the “maximum allowable speed limit” on Florida’s limited access highways? ____ miles per hour. Because I sometimes have a lead foot, you need to remind me of this statute, so now scroll to the top of the screen and in the right-hand corner select e-mail. Now e-mail this statute to me with a brief note describing the e-mail, i.e., “Lexis Certification Statute” and your name. (Don't forget your name because the e-mail comes from Lexis headquarters not your e-mail address). My e-mail is arielle.goldhammer@. Make sure I get it as this is part of the verification process for certification and you may just get some bonus points for your efforts.

Need Help with what we’ve just gone over?

Click here for an online tutorial on Case Law Summaries and LN Headnotes

or here for a self-paced walkthrough.

Shepard's—One Click to Find Out if a Case is Good or Bad Law!

Now let’s take a look at Shepard’s. By now you have seen a number of “signals” on the research system reflecting the “treatment” of cases. We call these "Shepard’s Signals." Here is a brief listing of what those signals mean:

|[pic| |Warning: Negative treatment is indicated |

|] | |The red Shepard's Signal indicates that citing references in the Shepard's® Citations Service contain strong negative history or |

| | |treatment of your case (for example, overruled by or reversed). |

|[pic| |Warning: Negative treatment is indicated for statute |

|] | |The red exclamation point Shepard's Signal indicates that citing references in the Shepard's® Citations Service contain strong |

| | |negative treatment of the Shepardized™ section (for example, the section may have been found to be unconstitutional or void). |

|[pic| |Questioned: Validity questioned by citing refs. |

|] | |The orange Shepard's Signal indicates that the citing references in the Shepard's® Citations Service contain treatment that questions|

| | |the continuing validity or precedential value of your case because of intervening circumstances, including judicial or legislative |

| | |overruling. |

|[pic| |Caution: Possible negative treatment indicated |

|] | |The yellow Shepard's Signal indicates that citing references in the Shepard's Citations Service contain history or treatment that may|

| | |have a significant negative impact on your case (for example, limited or criticized by). |

|[pic| |Positive treatment indicated |

|] | |The green Shepard's Signal indicates that citing references in the Shepard's Citations Service contain history or treatment that has |

| | |a positive impact on your case (for example, affirmed or followed by). |

|[pic| |Citing refs. with analysis available |

|] | |The blue "A" Shepard's Signal indicates that citing references in the Shepard's Citations Service contain treatment of your case that|

| | |is neither positive nor negative (for example, explained). |

|[pic| |Citation information available |

|] | |The blue "I" Shepard's Signal indicates that citing references are available in the Shepard's Citations Service for your case, but |

| | |the references do not have history or treatment analysis (for example, the references are law review citations). |

When we Shepardize a case, we are typically trying to do one or two things: 1. Find out if a case is still good law or 2. Look at other sources (cases, treatises, statutes, etc.) that have cited our main source (a case or statute, etc) for researching purposes. Let’s see how it works.

First, click Get a Document (by Citation) and type in this citation: 163 U.S. 537 (Full Text). Shepardize this case by either clicking the red stop sign or clicking “Shepardize.” This is your one click report.

(Research Tip: If you are trying to find out quickly whether a case is good or bad law, Shepard’s is merely a one-click process: Type the cite in the Shepard’s box and click “Check” or when you have a case simply click the Shepard’s signal or Shepard’s blue link.)

As of the time of this editing, 5,292 cases, law reviews and other publications have cited this case. (Note: the number at the top of your screen next to “Total Cites” reflects this answer). This number is likely to change as it is updated every 24-48 hours.

Is this case good or bad law? The answer to this key question is found in the “Unrestricted Shepard’s Summary” report. The Shepard’s Summary report is a short and concise box that explains exactly how the case stands within the last 24-48 hours. In this instance we can tell that the case has been “Overruled” not only once, but three times. We can also tell by the summary that it was questioned 56 times and over 4000 law reviews have cited it for some reason.

After viewing the Summary report, you should ask, “What cases overruled Plessy and why?” The answer will come up after you click the bold “Overruled” link. So simply click the “Overruled” link. You should see the famous Brown v. Board of Education case.

To view the next case which “Overruled” our case, Plessy v. Ferguson, simply click the arrow in the bottom right corner (located above the clock in your Windows Toolbar). You will see that we are on 1 of 3; by clicking on the arrow, we will go to the 2nd instance of “Overruled” in the Shepard’s report.

Scroll to the top of the screen and click the Shepard’s tab. Shepardize these cases to find out if they are good or bad law. Email me your answers and include what type of signal each case/Code section had:

• Search Activity #6: 404 S. E. 2d 895

• Search Activity #7: 240 F. Supp. 2d 24

• Search Activity #8: 18 U.S.C. sec. 921

• Search Activity #9: 908 F Supp 1248

• Search Activity #10: 242 F. Supp 2d 363

• Search Activity #11: 2002 Ohio 5183

Now go back to the top of the screen and click Get a Document again. Type 392 U.S. 1 in the box and click enter. Notice this search should produce the famous Terry v. Ohio case. You may have heard the term, a “Terry stop” or “stop and frisk”. This case is why! If you don’t know about this case, click on Outline and then click on Syllabus to jump to the location in the opinion where the background facts are provided.

The Shepard’s “Smart Box”: Using Shepard’s for Research Purposes

Let’s assume that we were hired to analyze the constitutionality of a new statute proposed conducting some research on the issue of searching back-packs, purses, or other items a person may be carrying in the 9th Circuit, Supreme Court (always important), and the D.C. Circuit. Shepard’s is a great tool to use to start such a research project. Initial research would quickly produce the case Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 as important in the overall issue and therefore the logical first step would be to Shepardize Terry v. Ohio. Shepardize this case by either clicking the “[pic]” signal or the blue “Shepardize” link---they both do the same thing.

After Shepardizing the case, you quickly notice the following information:

• No Shepard’s Summary or Report is present; however, there is a note saying that this case has received over 20,000 references! (30,601 in fact!)

o As such, we need to limit the Shepard’s report to make it viewable – and manageable!

So, let’s click on the link that will allow us to do just that – FOCUS. Look in the top center of the page, to the right; you will see a blue “FOCUS – Restrict By” link. Click it.

This brings up what I like to call, Shepard’s “Smart Box.” The Smart Box allows you to select only the citations that you would like to see. Do you only want to see cases from a certain jurisdiction? Time period? Law reviews? Perhaps a combination!

In this instance we are only interested in relevant Supreme Court cases and those coming from the 9th and D.C. Circuit. So first click the “Select All” link for all types of treatments (negative and positive). Then scroll down to the jurisdiction section and click the US Supreme Court box and the 9th Circuit box and the D.C. Circuit box. Click Apply. Now you will see that there are a total of 371 cites to work with.

Since we are also only interested in cases that mention our issue, i.e., searching someone’s bag or belongings, we will narrow down the Shepard’s report again in the same manner. Click on “FOCUS – Restrict By” again. In the “Focus Terms” box, enter the following terms: bag or container or purse w/s search. Then click the red “Apply” button. At the time of this editing, over 30,000 results were restricted to 93 at the date of this publication. This is a classic example of the power of Shepard’s for research purposes! Click here for more info via the online tutorial.

Get and Print – Pulling, Printing, and Shepardizing Multiple Cases in One Click!

Click Get a Document at the top of your screen. Click the blue link for “Get and Print” which is located towards the bottom of the box, in the middle. After you click the link, it will take you to a sign-on screen; simply enter your same ID / Password.

Get and Print is a function on LexisNexis that allows you to pull, Shepardize, and deliver multiple cases in one click.

You should see an open box under the category/command titled: "1. Enter Your Citations". Notice that you can enter multiple citations, separating each one by a hard return or semicolon. Type in the box: 531 US 98; 419 us 834; 349 US 294; 410 US 113

Under the category “Select Report Services”, make sure you have “Retrieve Full Text of Citations” checked. Check the option for Shepardizing but in the “Report Format” drop-down, set it to KWIC; in the “Restrictions” drop-down, set it to Negative only. In the third category, “Delivery Method”, select “Deliver to Browser” Click Get. Your report will appear in a separate window.

Close the separate Get and Print Report box. In the main Get and Print screen, click on Go to . This will take us back to . Click on the sub-tab underneath Search titled “Search by Topic or Headnote”.

Searching by Topic or Headnote —Pointing and Clicking Your Way to Your Legal Issue

Searching by Topic or Headnote is an alternative way to search legal issues on the LexisNexis Total Research System. The idea is to start out with your broad topic (area of law) and then click your way to your narrow legal issues. Once you are comfortable with your selected point of law, you will have the choice to search databases in case law, law reviews, news, treatises or even agency materials. In short, instead of picking a database and searching your issue, you are picking an issue and then searching relevant databases. Click here for more info on this feature via the online tutorial.

Let’s suppose you are working on an issue regarding employment law – an individual was discharged for poor performance but he/she claims that his alcoholism is a disability that protects him from being fired. You are tasked with finding out whether alcoholism is a recognized or protected disability.

Type in the Option 1, “Find a Legal Topic” box: disability. Scroll down and click the first, bold entry “Disability Discrimination”, in black text.

This new screen allows for two search options: 1). to Search across Sources or 2). Searching by Headnote. In the Search Across Sources box select Federal from the Jurisdiction drop-down. In the Sources section, click on the Select Sources box. From the options provided, scroll down and select the following:

• Labor and Employment Cases, Federal;

• CFR;

• EEOC Public Sector Decisions;

• Merit Systems Protections Board Decisions;

• Larson on Employment Discrimination;

• US & Canadian Law Reviews, Combined;

Tthen click the red box titled, “OK, Use Selected”. In the “Search Terms” box, enter the following search terms: alcohol! w/5 disabilit! At the time of this editing there were 361 documents addressing our issue, from various sources.

FOCUS -- Conducting a "Search Within a Search"

Whether you retrieve 3000, 300, or 30 documents, you can still “FOCUS” in on specific language in the cite list by conducting a “search within a search.” This functionality on LexisNexis is called appropriately enough---“FOCUS.” FOCUS will always be available to you when you are viewing a Cite List, document or Shepard’s report using LexisNexis. In the top left corner, above your results, you will see the “FOCUS Terms” box where you can type in additional words to narrow your search results.

Research Tip: If you want to narrow down your results by date, segment, or see the “cheat sheet” of terms and connectors available to you, click on the blue link titled “Advanced”. (It is located to the right of the red “Go” button.”) This will bring up a FOCUS form with more “Advanced” options.

Remember our issue, i.e., being fired because of poor performance; and whether alcoholism is a protected a disability that should have protected this individual from being fired. In the open “FOCUS Terms” box type: wrongful! terminat! and then click the red "Go" button. You now have narrowed your initial results down to those that have this additional term mentioned; leaving you with a number of relevant articles to start your research!

Click on Cases to view the cases that match our search criteria.

Show Hits and Hide Hits: Highlighting Your Search Terms for Easy Reading and Scanning

In the middle of your screen—beneath the number of retrieved results---there is another function in the form of a small blue link called "Show Hits" or "Hide Hits." Click either the Show hits or Hide hits link depending on what is showing on your screen. The Show Hits function allows you see each occurrence of each of your search terms in each document in the Cite list. Each search term appears in bold type and is surrounded by text from the document. Notice that after clicking Show Hits you should see one sentence blurbs below the title of your document allowing you to quickly scan each cite to see if it is on point. Click Hide Hits and you should see that it allows you to eliminate the terms for simply scanning the titles of the documents. (Note: the last one you click will be your default).

(Research Tip: FOCUS is probably the most important function on LexisNexis for many reasons. There are three main things you should know when you use FOCUS: 1. You can only use terms and connectors when using FOCUS---not natural language; 2. You can FOCUS as much as you want – whether you continue to narrow down your results until you get just the right document(s), or you use the “Exit FOCUS” button at the top of your cite list to go back to your original results and then FOCUS again using different criteria; and 3. If you want to set up an Alert on your search results, you need to do this before you FOCUS).

Now click the back button 2 or 3 times until you get back to your main screen for Searching by Topic or Headnote. This time we will look at Option 2, Searching by Headnote.

The Headnote selected for our search is “Disability Discrimination.” Select Labor and Employment Cases, Federal for your search Jurisdiction. Select a date restriction of previous year and click Retrieve All.

Notice at the top, left of your results you will see the term View, which lists the different options for displaying your results (Cite; Digest; KWIC; Full; Custom). We are currently in the Digest view (this is the default for a “Retrieve All Headnotes” search). This view gives you a list of cases; and for each case, the citation and overview are displayed as well as the LexisNexis Headnotes which relate to your legal topic.

At the top of your screen find and click the second tab called Research Tasks.

Research Tasks: A Practitioner’s Look at LexisNexis

The Research Tasks function approaches the navigation of LexisNexis from the point of view of a Practitioner. This function should bring you to a screen with various blue link options for easy “Area of Law” researching pages.

Click the blue link for Labor and Employment on the left side of your screen. What you now see is a single screen specifically created for Labor and Employment law research. Inside the gray Search Labor and Employment Sources box you will see the top databases that LexisNexis users typically search with – search one source or combine sources. You will see several other boxes, each with its own search focus: news, shortcuts to topical searches in case law, legislative history, and more.

On the right side of the screen you will see sub-research task pages. Click on the Employment Discrimination link. You will now see search options relevant to this particular area of Labor and Employment law and be able to do additional tasks like search forms.

The Search Screen: Finding and Searching the LexisNexis Databases

At the top of your screen click the Search tab left of the Research Tasks tab. Underneath the Search tab make sure the red “by Source” tab is clicked and highlighted. Now we are back to the Search Screen and we have come full circle to where we default when we enter the LexisNexis Research System.

(Research Tip: The Search Tab works as the Total Research System “Home Key.” If you want to get back to the beginning of your search project, simply click the Search Tab and you will be back to the Search Screen which is the system’s default page.)

Underneath the sub-tabs, you should see a box titled “Option 1 – Search” and underneath that, another box titled “Option 2 – Look for a Source”. In the Option 1 box, there are two tabs; click on the tab titled “Recently Used Sources.” Clicking the down arrow will allow you to see and access your most recently searched databases. Notice you can also edit these same sources with a blue link to the right.

Now let’s look at the second search option, the large grey box titled, “Look for a Source”. Under the Look for a Source frame you will see the main categories available to you, listed as four “files” or tabs: Legal, News and Business, Public Records, and Find a Source.

Under the Legal tab you should see all of the “favorite” sub-categories (links) available on the LexisNexis Total Research System. Again, the idea is to point and click your way to the database that you want to search and then perform the search in that specific database. Scan down the page and check out the various links. Notice that underneath the bold links you will see the most popular or commonly searched databases in the form of live links for one-click access.

(Research Tip: Folders have a file folder icon next to them. Databases have a document icon next them If you see a folder link, then there are more databases once clicked.)

For instance, under the blue Cases—US link, you will see the six most commonly searched case law databases: Federal and State Cases; Federal Court Cases, Combined; State Court Cases, Combined; U.S. Supreme Court Cases, Lawyers’ Edition; U.S. Supreme Court Briefs; and Case-in-Brief Expanded Research/Analysis.

The idea, of course, is to allow you to quickly point and click your way to a database that you use the most often. Click the link to the database file “Federal and State Cases, Combined. (Note: Clicking the boxes to the left of databases allows for multiple source searching – combining sources - but does not directly access the database---so you simply click the live link, not the box).

Search Topic: Let’s assume you have been asked to find a few relevant, recent cases on post-conviction DNA evidence.

On your screen you should see a search box for your database, Federal and State Cases, Combined. Select the “Easy Search” dial to designate a searching method.

Easy Search: A “Quick and Easy” Search Method Similar to Google

Easy Search is exclusive to LexisNexis. It allows users to run a “quick and easy” search only using a few terms, similar to the way you would search a popular search engine on the internet.

Search 23: Using Easy Search, type this in the search box: Post Conviction DNA Evidence. Click Search.

In this instance, Easy Search will retrieve the results similar to a natural language search, i.e., top 100 most relevant cases. However, it eliminates the user having to determine which method is best between terms and connectors and natural language and decides for you based on what you typed in the box.

(Research Tip: Easy Search is best used when you have just a few relevant terms (2-6) to search and you might want to search in various databases like cases, news and journals.)

At the top of your Cite List (scroll to the top), find and click the small blue link “Edit Search.” Now we are going run a different search.

Terms and Connectors---Searching Specifically While Thinking Like a Computer

Click the Edit Search blue link. Select the Terms and Connectors radio button as a searching method.

Terms and connectors searching (also known as "Boolean searching") is searching for words or phrases using connectors such as “and,” and “or.” For the purposes of basic LexisNexis research, you really only need to know a few connectors: and, or, !, *, and the within signs, also known as: w/s, w/p, w/10. It is the most popular method of searching due to the precision and relevancy.

Connectors Cheat Sheet:

And / & = links words or phrases that both must appear in the same document.

e.g.: bank and deregulate

cruel & unusual punishment

Or = links synonyms, acronyms etc.

e.g.: doctor or physician

mouse or rat or rodent

Eighth Amendment or 8th Amendment

! = root expander which replaces an infinite number of letters following a word root.

e.g.: litigat! (litigator, litigated, litigation, litigation)

* = replaces letters or a letter in a word.

e.g.: bernst**n; wom*n; bank***

w/s, w/p = looks for documents with search words in the same sentence or paragraph respectively.

e.g.: sanction /s frivolous; circumstance /s mitigat!

w/5, w/10, w/25, w/35 = looks for documents with search words within a designated number of words from another.

e.g.: john w/5 doe; market w/10 share; slip w/3 fall

In the search box, type: Post Conviction w/10 DNA evidence.

Searching the United States Code

Scroll to the top of the screen and click the Search tab. You should now be back to the original Search screen. Directly under the Federal Legal—US bold blue link, click the first live link, “United States Code Service---Titles 1 through 50. You are now looking at the entire US Code as if you had the entire set (all volumes) on your desk.

This set of books (USCS in the form of a searchable database) is annotated and updated within 24 to 48 hours. The box on your screen allows you to search the USC in three different ways: 1). Searching the text of the USCS; 2). Searching the Table of Contents of the USCS; or 3). Browsing the titles and sections of the USCS.

Option 1, at the top of your screen, is a simple search box. You can write your terms and connectors or natural language terms in the box and simply click "Search." Note, however, the two different ways to search – Full Text of Source Documents of Table of Contents Only.

Try this next search using Terms and Connectors and select the radio button titled “Full Text of Source Documents”. Enter unlawful employment practices in the search box. These results reflect the Titles of the USC that have the phrase unlawful employment practices anywhere in the document. Now click back.

(Research Tip: When searching phrases on LexisNexis, you do not need quotes or parentheses. Note that we are using Terms & Connectors as our search method, but are using a phrase: unlawful employment practices. LexisNexis will not separate your phrase so long as it contains a string of adjacent words and doesn’t contain a connector (i.e. sexual harassment vs. health and human services.)

Option 2 allows you to search the same database but restricts where your search terms appear. Still using Terms and Connectors, this time select the radio button titled “Table of Contents”. Type Unlawful Employment Practices and click Search. Notice that the results reflect where your terms appear within the Table of Contents – chapter headings, etc. Click Back.

Pointing and Clicking Your Way through Statutes

Option 3 allows you to browse through the U.S. Code by expanding sections of interest. You can continue to expand all the way down to the level of the document or to a higher level, like a chapter.

Scroll down until you see Title 42 (The Public Health and Welfare). Click the + button on the left. Now click the + button next to Chapter 21 (Civil Rights). Click the + button next to Equal Employment Opportunities.

Click § 2000e-2. Unlawful employment practices [Part 1 of 4].

(Research Tip: Notice the helpful research guide located to the right of your statute. LexisNexis provides a “Practitioner’s Toolbox” that allows you to quickly view important areas of the statute including History, Notes, Related Rules, etc. as well as links to additional sources that will help your research – Matthew Bender treatises, etc.).

Flipping Back and Forth: Book Browse

This feature allows you to move easily through any preceding or succeeding sections, without having to re-run your search.

At the top of the document you will find several blue links; click on the blue link titled Book Browse. Notice that at the top of the document, your Code section is listed as well as blue arrows to the right and left of it. Click on either arrow to see how Book Browse works.

News and Business Tab: The “Nexis” side of LexisNexis

Click the Search tab at the top of the screen. Click the News and Business tab under the Look for a Source box. Click on the source/file titled News, Most Recent 90 Days. Select Terms and Connectors as your searching option. Type the following into the search box: telecommute. Now click the Search tab at the top of your screen once again.

(Research Tip: This database, News, Most Recent 90 Days, is a very popular database for any current events searching on LexisNexis. This database is the most common choice for relevant and timely alerts. Click on the “I” in the box or the Source Information button located to the right of the file/source name for information about a source on LexisNexis.)

Find a Source Tab: The Answer to the Question, “Does LexisNexis Have it?”

Click the Search Tab at the top of your screen. Click the Find a Source Tab.

Does LexisNexis have the Washington Post? Type: “Washington Post” in the box and click the Find button). If it shows up as a database link then LexisNexis does have the database allowing you to link right to it for searching; note – your results may vary depending on your menu.

Click the Search tab and then the Legal Tab to get back to the main Search Screen.

In the upper right-hand corner of your search screen, click the small, white “History” link. Click it. It should reflect the searches you have performed so far in the LexisNexis Take-Home Certification Program. The links allow for re-running the search as it was initially run or, on the right, you can re/run/Edit the search.

(Research Tip: The History link allows you to see all of the searches you have performed under your LexisNexis Id for the past 30 days. The Today’s Results display the research activity for the past 24 hours. LexisNexis will archive your searches for 30 days. The last 30 days worth of searches will be located in the “Archived Activity” Tab.)

Congratulations for completing LexisNexis Part I: Familiarity!

Congratulations!

You have completed Part I (Familiarity) of the Take Home LexisNexis Certification Program!

▪ Click the small “History” link in the upper-right-corner of your LexisNexis screen.

▪ Copy and paste your LN Take-Home results into an e-mail.

▪ Then e-mail those results to me at arielle.goldhammer@.

▪ Upon receipt and verification of your searches, you will receive your Certificate for completing Part I: Familiarity.

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