Casemaker Tips for 5.17.2017

Countdown! Mark your calendars! Do not miss this!

May 22nd-26th - vLex is giving Casemaker members a gift valued at $645 in free access to its global platform:
•             Case Law & Legislation for 100+ common & civil law countries
•             Digital Library of 8,000+ law journals, treatises, books & magazines
•             Automatic Translation into English
•             Full-text downloads
•             500+ Databases aggregated into one platform & one subscription

Explore the largest collection of primary & secondary legal materials in the world on a cutting-edge platform powered by artificial intelligence.

vLex is a leading global online intelligence provider and the exclusive distributor for William S. Hein in Continental Europe and Latin America.

How to access the Free Trial:
1.            Casemaker users select the International Law by vLex tab in the left-hand column of the home page
2.            On the vLex search page, simply begin a search on your topic of interest (ex. Divorce)
3.            A yellow alert box will open prompting you to Create a Free Account
4.            Creating your own account will allow you to customize your search preferences
5.            Enjoy unlimited access to primary & secondary legal materials from 100+ countries during this free period of May 22-26!
 
And Searches

The AND search is the simplest search to do in Casemaker. Simply put any number of words in leaving a space between each, and Casemaker will retrieve documents which contain all the words you mentioned. Contract binding will find the documents which mention both the word contact and the word binding. The search string handgun felony minor will find the documents with the words handgun, felony and minor in them. Please Note: You do not need and should not use the word AND in your search. The system already sees the space between your terms as an AND search unless you say otherwise. Using the word AND may yield the wrong results.
 
Support and Training

Casemaker Support is available from 8 AM to 8 PM EST, Monday through Friday. You can reach support by phone (877) 659-0801, email support@casemakerlegal.com or by clicking the Live Chat link in the upper right of Casemaker. You can also find educational videos by clicking the Videos link and you can sign up for free live webinar training sessions by clicking on Webinar while in the system.
 
Searching for Cases with Citation

The most frequently used function of Casemaker for most users is searching by citation. From the home page you can simply type your citation in. You do not have to worry about being too picky if you use the wrong spacing, punctuation, or capitalization; Casemaker will automatically correct that for you. You do however need to make sure you are using only the reporter citation and the proper abbreviation. Casemaker goes by the Blue Book citation guidelines if you have any questions regarding abbreviations. For example, with Kearns v. Ford Motor Co., 567 F.3d 1120 (9th Cir. 2009), all you would put in the search bar is 567 F.3d 1120. Be sure you select the correct jurisdiction, however – you will not be able to pull up a New Hampshire Superior Court case when searching in US Court of Appeals!

Sometimes a particular citation brings up more than one result, and there is a very good reason for this. The other case shares a page with the case you were searching for. For example, your case may end on page 104 and another case begins on the same page of the reporter. This means even if you are typing in a pin cite, you will still be able to locate the case you are looking for.