Karen Yap, Law Library

JUSTIS Weekly Law CD-ROM contains the complete archive of the Weekly Law Reports, volumes 1, 2 and 3, dating back to 1953. The Weekly Law Reports is a series of authoritative reports of cases that influence the application and development of the law in England and Wales. Each case report contains the full text of the judgment and includes full headnotes, catchwords showing the subject matter of the case, lists of cases referred to in the case, and additional cases cited. It is updated six times a year. To find out how current the cases are after starting the database, click on Help, About Data, then Weekly Law Reports.

Producer and Software Used

Getting Into the Database

Click on the Justis LR ver 5 icon and the copyright or the Select Database(s) screen should appear. If the Database Manager screen appears instead, click on Cancel to get the Select Database(s) screen.

There are two main boxes on the Select Database(s) screen. If there are words on the right hand side (rhs) box, click on the word at the first line then click on the De-Select button.

On the left hand side (lhs) box of the screen, you will see a list of databases like Case Reports and European Law. Click on + to the left of Case Reports to show another list. Click once on Weekly Law Reports to highlight it then click on the Select button below the box.

On the rhs box, you will now see Case Reports with Weekly Law Reports below it. Click on OK. At the Copyright screen, click on OK to get the search screen.

Getting Help Online

To get help on topics like search techniques, click on Help, Contents & Index, JUSTIS 5 functions. For help on functions of the toolbar, click on JUSTIS 5 features.

Search Techniques

The most common method of searching is by Form. Click on the tab Form. You can key terms in one or more fields; Court, Parties, Headnote, Catchwords, Counsel, Year and Free text. The default connector of the fields is AND. You can change AND to OR or NOT, e.g. court and parties not judge. Within a field, you can use Boolean operators and parentheses, e.g. kidnap and (sentence or punishment).

Three wildcards can be used.

*

replaces one or more letters, e.g. liab* retrieves liable, liability, liabilities, etc.

?

anywhere in the word or number replaces a single letter or number, e.g. Sm?th retrieves Smith, Smyth.

-

means a space, no space or a hyphen, e.g. nation-wide retrieves nationwide, nation-wide and nation wide.

You can use more than one wildcard in a single word, e.g. data-base*.

There are five date operators as below:

Operator	Symbol	Definition
before	<	Before the date
after	>	After the date
on	=	On the date
from		Range start (use with TO)
to		Range end (use with FROM)

Click on the Search button on the toolbar at the top of the screen when ready.

Viewing/Navigating

At the Profiles screen, the Document Reference & Title, and Summary of the case(s) are shown. To see the full text, double-click on the required case. You are now at the Document screen. To view the document screen of another case of the same search, click on the Profiles button, then on the required profile and double-click.

Navigating WITHIN a Particular Case

Particular Section

To go to a particular section of a case, like Citation Judgment, click on the Outline button, then on the required section listed in the Outline dialogue box. You can re-size and move the dialogue box to the side by clicking and dragging it.

Search Term

Click on the left and right arrows of the Term button at the foot of the screen to find further instances of a search term. The terms are highlighted in blue.

Other Terms

Click on the Find button to search for words within the displayed case. Use the left and right arrows to find further instances of the term. Wildcards cannot be used.

Words in Cyan (Blue-Green) or Green

These are page numbers that refer to other pages within the current case. Double-click on them to jump to the page.

Jumping to ANOTHER Case

If the hand icon appears over a case name, double-click on the name to see the full-text, but make sure the case is in Weekly Law Reports, Electronic Law Reports, Lloyd's Electronic Law Reports or Times Electronic Law Reports.

Case Names in Red

Cases referred to in the headnote are in red. These are cases that are judicially considered in the judgments.

Case Names in Black Italics or Small Capitals

These are case references in other sections of a case report.

Crossref Button

Click on the 7th button of the toolbar, if it is not grayed. The Cross References dialogue box opens. It displays lists of earlier case reports cited in the current one, and later case reports that cite the current one.

Getting Back to Original List of Cases

To get back to the previous list of cases, click on the Profiles button, then on the tab Search.

Go Back button

This button has two functions. Click on the black arrow to see the list of all documents visited during the search session.

Click on the box on the left to see the case you were looking at prior to that shown on the screen.

Selecting Records at the Profile Screen

Select records by marking. To mark when you are viewing the profile, click on the left of the Document Reference, a red tick appears. To unmark, simply click on the red tick again. You can mark items from different searches within the same search session, or cases you come across as you navigate. To view the list, click on the downward arrow on the Mark button of the toolbar.

Selecting Records From the Document Screen

Click on the red tick of the Mark button. If you have clicked outside the red tick, the Mark List dialogue box appears. Click on Add, then on Close. You will see a red tick at the bottom of the screen. To unmark, click on the red tick of the Mark button again.

Exporting the Results into a Disk

Documents can be exported from either the Profiles screen or when you are viewing the full text at the Document screen. Exporting from the Profiles screen allows you to export multiple documents.

Exporting from the Profiles Screen

After marking the profiles to export, click on the arrow of the Mark button, then on Export. To export only profiles, choose All Profiles (NOT Selected Profiles because you are exporting ALL from the Marked List.). To export the full text, choose All Documents (NOT Selected Documents). If you choose All Documents, two further options become available:

[You can select which fields to include in the records by clicking on Save Selected Fields, then Fields. The Field Selection dialogue box opens, click to select or clear a check box. Field names that are too long to fit in a column can be seen in full by leaving the mouse pointer over them for a few moments; the complete field name will be displayed in a popup window.

DO NOT CLICK THE CHECK BOX TO RETAIN CARRIAGE RETURNS, as you might have problems retrieving your records with your word processor.

Change the directory to A:, type in a file name and click on Save. Do not save using rich text format if you using Microsoft Word to open your file. If you save another list of profiles or documents, use a different file name, otherwise the previous list will be lost.]

Exporting from the Document Screen

From the Document screen, you can export only the current document but you have the option to export specified pages or a block of selected text. To export the current document from the Document screen, click on the File then Export. The above 3 paragraphs in [ ] apply and you can choose to print selected fields.

Printing the Results

After marking the records, click on the arrow on the Mark button then on Print. To print only profiles, choose All Profiles (NOT Selected Profiles because you are printing ALL from the Marked List.). To print the full text, choose All Documents (NOT Selected Documents). Click on Remove Colour and (optional) the Page Break After Each Document. The above 3 paragraphs in [ ] apply and you can choose to print selected fields.

It is recommended to print just the profiles, and then photocopy the case from the hard copy especially if you are printing a few cases using a shared printer. Please note that a single case can be more than fifty pages.

If you need the full text, choose All Documents, then click on Remove Colour, and (optional) Page Break After Each Document.

You can also print at the Document screen. Click File then Print. The advantage is that you can select to print portions of the text.

Doing Another Search or Exiting

If you want to do another search, click on the Query button. To exit, click on File then Exit.

Other Law Library CDROM Titles which use JUSTIS Windows software

1. CELEX
2. Electronic Law Reports
3. Lloyd's Electronic Law Reports
4. Times Electronic Law Reports

The search techniques are about the same. Only CELEX is not on the campus network and you must request it from the Law Library Loan Counter.

New CD-ROM titles on NUSNET

These existing titles are now mounted on NUSNET for easy access from your desktop:

1. Current Legal Information
2. The English Reports: 1220 - 1865 CD-ROM
3. Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals