When you pull up a statute in Westlaw, if you see a red or yellow flag, that means that there is negative treatment for that statute. A red flag indicates that the statute has been amended, repealed, superseded, or held unconstitutional in whole or in part. A yellow flag indicates other negative treatment.
How do I find negative references in Westlaw?
Aug 04, 2019 · The Negative Treatment tab provides the negative history for a case, which includes all negative direct history and negative citing references. Westlaw Edge will mark the document with the most negative treatment so you can quickly spot the most relevant information. To identify the “most negative” document, KeyCite editors consider the nature of …
What does negative treatment mean on a case report?
Oct 15, 2021 · Negative Treatment: Westlaw also offers a "Negative Treatment" tab containing negative direct history and negative citing references. Clicking on the status flag next to the case name will also bring you to this Negative Treatment …
How do I use the negative treatment tab?
Sep 10, 2021 · Negative Treatment: Westlaw also offers a "Negative Treatment" tab containing negative direct history and negative citing references. Clicking on the status flag next to the case name will also bring you to this Negative Treatment report. West Key Number System
How do I know if a statute has strong negative treatment?
Feb 18, 2022 · When you pull up a statute in Westlaw, if you see a red or yellow flag, that means that there is negative treatment for that statute. A red flag indicates that the statute has been amended, repealed, superseded, or held unconstitutional in whole or in part. A yellow flag indicates other negative treatment.
What does it mean when a case has negative treatment?
When you pull up a statute in Westlaw, if you see a red or yellow flag, that means that there is negative treatment for that statute. A red flag indicates that the statute has been amended, repealed, superseded, or held unconstitutional in whole or in part.Feb 18, 2022
What does depth of treatment mean on Westlaw?
The depth of treatment bars in the Depth column indicate the extent to which the citing case discusses the cited case, and the headnote numbers in the Headnote(s) column indicate which headnotes in the cited case contain the points of law discussed by the citing cases.
What do the green bars mean in Westlaw?
Green flags mean the case has received positive treatment from other cases and is good law. Yellow flags mean the case has received some negative treatment from other cases. Part of the case maybe overruled.Jul 31, 2019
How do you tell if a case is still good law on Westlaw?
The only way you can know if your case is still good law is to validate your research. "Validating" your case research means to run your case through a citator service to see if there are subsequent legal authorities that invalidate your case and then reading those cases that negatively impact your case.Feb 18, 2022
What is negative direct history on Westlaw?
The Negative Treatment tab provides the negative history for a case, which includes all negative direct history and negative citing references. Westlaw Edge will mark the document with the most negative treatment so you can quickly spot the most relevant information.Aug 4, 2019
How do you read a case on Westlaw?
0:006:11Reading a Case on WestlawNext - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipRecord for that particular case. So if we look at this really quickly you'll notice that theMoreRecord for that particular case. So if we look at this really quickly you'll notice that the citation is at the very top it also indicates what court heard this case and you have your plaintiff.
What does H mean on Westlaw?
A yellow flag warns that the decision has some negative history or treatment, but has not been reversed or overruled. It is also displayed if a treatment has been recently added, and has not yet been editorially analysed. A blue H indicates that the decision has some direct history but it is not known to be negative.
What is a KeyCite in Westlaw?
KeyCite is the powerful citation research service available exclusively on Westlaw. You can use KeyCite to view the history of a case, statute, administrative decision, or regulation to help determine whether it is good law and to retrieve citing references.
What is a key number in Westlaw?
Westlaw assigns a topic and key number to each legal issue within a case. The West Key Number System allows you to efficiently find other cases addressing your legal issue in any jurisdiction because all federal and state cases included in the system are organized using the same topics and by the same points of law.Oct 15, 2021
What is a Westlaw signal?
Westlaw, like Lexis Advance, uses signals to indicate what kind of treatment a case has. Westlaw uses a yellow flag as opposed to the yellow triangle that Lexis Advance uses. A full list of KeyCite signals is available in KeyCite on Westlaw guide (pdf).Aug 22, 2019
What does it mean to Shepardize a case on Westlaw?
The term Shepardize means the process of checking a case's prior precedents. The term comes from the citation service called Shepard's, which up until the late 1990s was the only real game in town. Then Westlaw quit using Shepard's, Shepard's went to Lexis (Westlaw's main competitor), and Westlaw launched KeyCite.
What does Distinguished mean in Westlaw?
In law, to distinguish a case means a court decides the legal reasoning of a precedent case will not wholly apply due to materially different facts between the two cases.
How to determine if a case is still good law?
To determine whether a case is still good law, you need to check the subsequent history of the case as well as subsequent citations to see how other cases have treated your case by using citators (Shepardizing on Lexis or KeyCiting on Westlaw).
What is a reference in a case?
Citing References include all cases that cite to this case. Citing References also include other materials such as secondary sources and court documents, but to ensure that a case is still good law, you only need to check the cases.
Does Westlaw have a negative treatment tab?
Westlaw also offers a "Negative Treatment" tab contain ing negative direct history and negative citing references. Clicking on the status flag next to the case name will also bring you to this Negative Treatment report.
Can you cite unpublished opinions?
For instance, the case might be bad law on a different issue, the case itself might have been overturned, or the case may simply be unpublished (in some jurisdictions, court rules indicate that you cannot cite unpublished opinions).
Use Citators To Validate Your Statute
As discussed in more detail in the section of this guide pertaining to Cases: Validating Your Research, it is critical that you validate your research to insure that the primary source authority you are relying upon is still good law. Statutes can get amended. Courts can declare statutes unconstitutional.
Citators: Shepard's & KeyCite
KeyCite® is the citator in Westlaw. KeyCite, quite literally, flags statutes that are not good law.
What does the green quotation mark mean in a case?
The green quotation marks mean that your case is directly quoted.
What does the green flag mean in a case?
Some cases will have flags in front of the name. Green flags mean the case has received positive treatment from other cases and is good law. Yellow flags mean the case has received some negative treatment from other cases. Part of the case maybe overruled. Look at the negative treatment tab and the distinguished by to read the other cases. Red flags mean the case has received negative treatment and has been overruled by a higher court. The case is no longer good law.
What is the table of authorities?
The Table of Authorities tab shows you a list of cases your case used to make its argument. The treatment, depth, and quoted columns will show you in how much detail the cases were used in your case's arugment.
