Downloading Documents
Of course, you can access Casemaker from anywhere in the world with internet access – but sometimes you may find you need to download a copy of a case. Casemaker allows you to do just that. While reading a case in Casemaker you will notice a set of icons on the far right in the gray toolbar area – a printer, an envelope, a folder and a floppy disk. Click on the floppy disk icon. After you click on the floppy disk icon you will see a pop up offering you a number of options. You can select various formats for the document such as Word or PDF and how many columns per a page. You can also attach any notes you have made and including treatment, citing references and highlighting. Once you have selected the options you want – just click download. The document will save on your computer or laptop. Now you can access the case – no internet required. Tracking Client Research Need to keep track of time spent doing online research for a client? Utilizing the Client and Session Summary features of Casemaker can help. Simply create a Client and select that client each time you begin to conduct research for them. Once you have finished, click the Sign Out link to sign out of Casemaker and view the Session Summary. The Session Summary contains the date, time and client for each search, which can be used to keep track of billable hours for the client. Please remember to print this information as it cannot be retrieved after closing the Session Summary. Sorting Results Did you know you can sort your results by more than just relevance? Once you have completed a search, click on the View All link to see all the results in the document category you prefer. Once you do this you can sort these results by selecting a sort method from the dark gray bar above the results list. You can sort by Relevance, Most Cited, Date Decided or State (Ascending or Descending).
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Become a Casemaker Expert
Using a new tool can sometimes be overwhelming. Casemaker is here to help. We offer regular free webinars for our users. Simply click on the Webinar link in the upper right-hand corner of Casemaker or visit http://casemakerlegal.com/registerwebinar.aspx to register for the next available training session. You can attend as often as you like and it is always free. Don't have time to sign up for a Casemaker webinar? You can watch a short training session hosted by Samantha anytime day or night by clicking on the Videos link in the upper right of Casemaker. Here you will find our Introductory Training Video as well as other informative presentations available 24 hours a day. Archived Data The blue navigation bar on the homepage provides you with an Archive. Clicking Archive will allow you to select Administrative Code, Session Laws, or Statutes then the jurisdiction you wish to see the archives for. This is a great way to see previous versions of code and statutes or older session laws. It also helps you see statutes that may have been repealed. Citation Format and Autocorrect Casemaker uses the Bluebook citation format. Casemaker also will auto-correct your citations for you. For example, if you enter 567 f3d 1120 in the search bar, Casemaker will correct your entry to 567 F.3d 1120. If you need to disable this for any reason, simply check the Turn off Autocorrect box before performing your search. Make a Note of it.
You can add notes to any document you find in Casemaker. The note is unique to your account and cannot be seen by anyone else. When you are viewing a document you can add a note by clicking the “Notes” dropdown in the light gray bar and then selecting “Add Note.” A new window will appear and you can type in what you wish. Once you are done typing click save. The note is the stored at the top of the document. You can use the same notes menu to determine if notes or visible or hidden. Clicking the pencil icon on the note will allow you to edit the note and to delete it permanently click the “x” icon Follow Casemaker for Tips and more! Do you tweet? Facebook? So does Casemaker! You can follow Casemaker on social media to get information about new features, quick tips, and tricks, as well as information about upcoming training sessions. Visit https://www.facebook.com/casemakerlegal/ and Like Casemaker on Facebook and https://twitter.com/casemakerlegal to follow Casemaker on Twitter! Search Operators in Casemaker Casemaker has a number of search functions that allow you to create complex searches to locate the information you are looking form. Let’s have a quick review of them! AND searching – Example: Contract Binding To perform the AND search, simply leave a space. Casemaker sees the space as the AND operator. Our example will give us documents that have the word contract as well as the word binding. OR searching – Example: alimony OR support Using OR as the operator will find documents that use either word in the query. In our example, this query will pull up documents mentioning either alimony or support anywhere in them. NOT searching – Example: property NOT commercial Using the NOT operator will tell the system to find the documents that mention the first term but do not mention the second. In our example, the query will pull up documents that refer to property but do not mention the term commercial Grouping searching – Example: (alimony OR support) AND divorce This would be the one case where you should use the word AND in Casemaker. Using the parentheses tells the system we want to group these queries. In this example, the system will return documents that mention alimony or support but also mention divorce. Phrase searching – Example: “right of way” This search type tells the system to treat everything in the quotations as if it were one search term. In our example, this means it will only pull cases that mention right of way but not cases that mention the words right, of and way by themselves. Thesaurus searching – Example: ~parole The thesaurus search not only locates your search term but also words with the same meaning. In our example query, the search will pull up documents that mention the word parole as well documents that mention any synonyms of the word parole. Suffix searching – Example: run* This search will pull up documents that mention terms that begin with the letters prior to the asterisk. In our example, the query will find documents that mention not only run but also any words that start with run such as runner, runs, running and so on. Proximity searching – Example: tax w/10 property This search will pull up documents that mention your first term within the number of words you specify of the other term. In our example, this will bring us documents where tax is mentioned within ten words of the term property. Archived Session Laws
You likely have found the need to see the session law that affected a statute in the past. You can see these previous session laws in Casemaker. From the home page click on Archive in the blue bar above the list of states. Next click on Session Laws. From here you can select your state and then the year of interest. Note – Federal libraries are on this list as well! Support Chat Would you rather type than call? You can get help from Casemaker Support by clicking on the Live Chat link in the upper right of the screen from 8 am - 8 pm EST Monday - Friday. You can also email Casemaker at support@casemakerlegal.com Casemaker On the Go! You can access Casemaker on the go. Visit the iTunes or Google Play store and download the Casemaker App to your iOS or Android device. After downloading the Casemaker mobile application you will need to register online. Access the Casemaker website using your computer as you normally do. Once you have entered Casemaker look on the left side of the screen for the “Mobile Application” link. Clicking this will direct you to a form to fill out and submit to receive a reference code. Now, open the mobile application on your device. You will be asked for a username and password or for a reference code. Your username is the email address you used to register the mobile application. Your password is the reference code you received when you registered. Please note that the reference code is case-sensitive. That is all it takes to have the comprehensive power of Casemaker in the palm of your hand. Searching by keyword
The most basic Casemaker search is the keyword search. It can also be the most complex if you wish – just use the search operators found in the blue Search Tips link under the Search button. To search first select your jurisdiction from the jurisdiction menu, then type in your word or words in the search bar and hit the blue search button. The keyword search can be found in other places as well. When you are viewing the list of cases you discovered in a previous search you can narrow that search by keyword in the left menu. If you are looking at a list of citing references you can also narrow that list by keyword on the citing references page. The radio button selections below Casemaker search bar defaults to keyword. You may find that you can still enter things that are not keywords and get results, however, they may not be as accurate. You certainly can leave keyword selected and enter in a case citation – but you may get more than just the result you were seeking. In those cases, you may wish to choose a more specific search type. Client Tracking in Casemaker Need to keep track of time spent doing online research for a client? Utilizing the Client and Session Summary features of Casemaker can help. Simply create a Client and select the client each time you begin to conduct research for that client. Once you have finished, click the Sign Out link to sign out of Casemaker and view the Session Summary. The Session Summary contains the date, time and client for each search, which can be used to keep track of billable hours for the client. Please remember to print this information as it cannot be retrieved after closing the Session Summary. 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. Casemaker partners with Expert Search Group
Casemaker has partnered with Expert Search Group (also known as ESG) to help you find Expert Witnesses with ease. ESG is an expert search firm with a revolutionary billing model designed to save you and your client money. They typically charge a one-time flat fee for each expert hired. There is no hourly surcharge or hidden administrative fees added to the expert’s rate. ESG does not require a retainer like other companies and once placed, you and the expert move forward with none of the invasiveness of the three-way billing process used by expert referral firms. How? They provide you with a selection of fully vetted experts who are qualified, available, interested, and conflict-free. Once you decide on one, you engage the expert directly. Narrow by Circuit While the Jurisdiction menu will aid you to narrow your search to Circuit court cases, it will not allow you to narrow to a specific circuit. However, that option is still available! Once you perform your search, click to view all the case results. You can also click on the Cases link on the left. Either option will pull up your results list and a menu on the left side. This left side menu gives you the option to narrow your results by a variety of different ways. For example, you could use the Jurisdiction option to narrow to check the box for Circuit. Note you may have to click a link at the bottom of the category to get all your options. Next, you can the United States Court of Appeals you wish by checking off the appropriate box. Now your results should be narrowed to the Circuit court you prefer. Searching by Party Searching by party works best if the party or parties in question have a less than common name. Obviously, searching for the party name of Smith is going to yield a number of results compared to other less common names. To search by party simply type the name of the party in the search bar and select the circle (often called a radio button) under the search bar labeled party. This will pull up all cases where that name is mentioned as a party in the case. Become a Casemaker Expert
New to Casemaker? Want to learn about all that Casemaker can do? Need a review of how to look up something in Casemaker? You can attend our web-based training sessions at no cost as often as you like. Just click on the link for Webinar in Casemaker or visit https://casemakerlegal.com/registerwebinar.aspx to register! Using the OR Search Sometimes you may find you actually want a case that mentions either one term OR another term. That is where the OR search comes in. For example using the query alimony OR support will give you cases which mention either word. Finding Your Search Terms You’ve done your search with your keyword or keywords and you have pulled up your first result to read the case. Now where in the world are your search terms even mentioned? You can find them using the Search Terms arrows in the gray toolbar. Located just above the title when you are reading the case is a gray toolbar. Here you see options to return to results, arrows to move around your list of results documents, as well as the phrase Search Terms with arrows on either side. Clicking on either arrow will take you to the next search term above or below where you are in the case you are viewing. Casemaker and Cosmolex
Did you know Cosmolex, a leading cloud-based, law practice management software provider, is integrated with Casemaker to allow you to easily track and bill your research time? As part of this partnership, you can create a free trial with Cosmolex or attach your existing account to your Casemaker account. To get started simply click any of the Cosmolex links in Casemaker. After you click any of the Cosmolex links you will be shown a new screen with two options. To link an existing account, simply click the “Link my existing Cosmolex Account” button. You will be asked to log into CosmoLex and allow Casemaker to report time and information. Don’t have a Cosmolex account? You can get started with a free trial by clicking the “Start my free Cosmolex Trial” button. Using a Pin Cite Have a pin cite? No worries, Casemaker knows what to do. Enter the pin cite in the search bar and Casemaker will pull up the case that particular page is located in. Simple and easy! Related Federal You can select a jurisdiction or any combination of jurisdictions to search by clicking the Jurisdiction menu. This is located in the box located between the search box and the blue search button. There is a blue downward pointing arrow in the right side of this box. Clicking on this arrow will pull up the pop-up menu and from here you can check as many or as few boxes as you need. At the top of the list of states in the Jurisdiction menu, you will notice a check box for Related Federal. This tells Casemaker to not only pull cases for the state you selected, but also for the Federal District and Circuit courts related to that state. So if you select Virginia and also select Related Federal you will get not only Virginia state level cases but also the Eastern and Western District of Virginia court cases as well as cases in the Fourth Circuit. This means you will get cases from other states in your circuit as well, in the case of our example – Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia cases would also be included. However, this would again only be cases in your circuit, not any outside of it. Finding a Case by Docket Number Sometimes a case is so new you may not have a citation. Perhaps you want to reference an unpublished opinion that does not have a state or regional reporter citation. If you have the docket number you can still find the case. Under the search bar on the homepage, you will see words with circles next to them. These circles are called radio buttons. The options you will see are Keyword, Citation, Party, Section, and finally Docket No. Make sure you have selected the correct jurisdiction from the jurisdiction menu drop down to the right of the search bar (it is the box with the downward pointing blue arrow); then select the radio button next to Docket No. Enter the docket number of your case and hit the blue search button. You should be able to pull up the case you are looking for. Browsing Statutes In Casemaker
Browsing statutes is another great way to research your issue. At times, you may not know the exact citation for the statute that is relevant to your issue. On other occasions, you may want to see the surrounding statutes as well. Instead of searching, we can browse the statutes. Start by clicking on the jurisdiction you wish to view from the list of states on the homepage. Then click on Statutes. From there you can drill down in the Statute library to find what you need. Clicking on Titles, then on Subtitles, then Chapters and so on. There is a trail at the top of each page indicating what level of the hierarchy you are on. This can help you get your bearings in complicated statutes titles with many layers. Clicking on the links that have [Combined] at the end will lead you to pages where the entire chapter or section is on one page – saving you the time of clicking between the contained portions of code. Follow us on Social Media You can get news and tips about Casemaker on social media as well. Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/casemakerlegal/ or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/casemakerlegal Excluding Terms with a NOT search Are your results giving you a bunch of cases that are not relevant but still contain your terms? Do those irrelevant cases all seem to have a term in common? Maybe you should try excluding a term. For example, maybe you want documents that mention property but not commercial property. In the search bar, you can enter property NOT commercial and Casemaker will give you cases that mention property that do not contain the word commercial. Printing in Casemaker While viewing a document in Casemaker, you will notice a set of icons on the far right in the dark gray toolbar. These icons allow you to print, email, save to a folder, and download. Let’s discuss Print. After clicking the icon for Print, you can choose the document format you are printing to. You can also choose if you would like to print the case in single or dual column layout. You can include highlighting for the terms you searched for, print the citing references, as well as the negative treatment if you have Case Check + access. Here you can attach your notes as well as a cover page. Once you are done you can click the blue Print button and the system will give you document to print out in the format you selected. |
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January 2018
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