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Introducing Westlaw Precision

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Last month, Westlaw upgraded our accounts to Westlaw Precision, which provides a different interface and some new features. Highlights of the changes are summarized below:

Precision Research (back to top)

What is Precision Research or Westlaw Precision?

  • With Precision Research (also called Westlaw Precision or simply Precision), you can find cases using the following new tagged facets:
    • Legal issue and outcome
    • Fact pattern
    • Material facts
    • Party type
    • Cause of action
    • Motion type and outcome
    • Area of law
  • If a case is covered by Precision, you will see a Browse Box in the search results, which contains important information such as the legal issues, outcome, material facts, resolution, cost of action, motions, and motion outcomes.
  • Selecting Material Facts will lead you to the most relevant headnote.
  • To find similar cases, use the More Cases on This Issue tab on the Browse Box or the More Like This tab at the top of the opinion.

Which cases are covered by Precision?

  • Published cases from 2010 and older leading decisions in selected topics are covered by Precision.
  • In addition, there is now a Best Headnote Box for published cases that fall outside Precision’s scope.

How can I use Precision?

  • Run a search from the Precision Research tab located under the main search bar.
  • You can also run a search in the main search bar and suggested Precision results may appear below.
  • Finally, Precision facets can be applied post-search from the menu on the left side of the screen.

Outline Builder (back to top)


What is Outline Builder?

  • Outline Builder allows you to create a research outline by dragging and dropping text snippets and citations and adding your own notes.
  • The Outlines panel can be opened from the right side of a document.
  • Highlight text and left click to add the text to your outline. Select the Add to Outline link or drag and drop the text into your outline.
  • The outline can be edited by adding headings and notes. Drag and drop can be used to rearrange outline sections.
  • You can also widen the panel and collapse the outline.
  • When you are ready, download the outline or email a copy in Microsoft Word.

KeyCite Updates: Citing With (back to top)

What is Citing With?

  • Citing With shows related cases that have a pattern of being cited together whether or not the cases cite each other.
  • Select the Cited With tab to view a list of all the cases that are commonly cited with the case you are viewing. Cases that cite to both the base case and a Cited With case are listed in a panel on the right.
  • Also, selecting the Co-Citing Button opens a panel that  allows you to review a list of cases citing both cases.
  • There is also a Full Page Button.
  • The base case is in yellow the cited case is in teal.

What filters are available?

  • The Citing Relationship filter gives you three options:
    • No direct citing relationship
    • Cited by (case in the Cited With list is cited by your base case)
    • Cited to (case in the Cited With list cites your base case)
  • The Citing Proximity filter allows you to filter a Cited With list based on where both Cited With items appear in relation to each other in a single document. These options include:
    • String Citation (note that strings that begin with the Bluebook signals “quoting” or “citing” are not categorized as string cites)
    • Same Paragraph (includes instances where the case in a group that is preceded by the Bluebook signals “quoting” or “citing” and other instances of both citations appearing in the same paragraph)
    • Same Section (in the same section but not the same paragraph; sections are determined by the author of the document)
    • Same Document (also applies for documents with no sections)

KeyCite Updates: Overruled in Part (back to top)

How does the new flag look?

  • The Overruled in Part flag has red and white stripes.

What does it mean?

  • This flag lets you quickly figure out if the grounds for overruling a case relate to the issue that you are researching.

How can I view the information in the case that relates to the Keycite flag?

  • Selecting Overruled in Part from the Document Toolbar will take you directly to the relevant text, which will be highlighted for you.

Graphical View of Search History (back to top)

How do I find the Graphical View of my search history?

  • At the top of any page, select History.
  • The history can either be viewed as a list or graphically. (If you don’t see these options, select View All.)

How is the Graphical View of history organized?

  • Graphs are organized according to anchor events, such as searches and document retrievals. These mark the beginning of each visualization. Event bundles are used to group visualizations.
  • Events are listed in reverse chronological order.
  • Visualizations that bundle 10 or more events are highlighted with a blue line on the left side.
  • Listed for each event bundle are the date, duration, and number of related events.

How do I use Graphical View?

  • When you select an event bundle, all steps are numbered according to the order in which you conducted them.
  • On the right side of the screen, there is a gear that can be used to emphasize high activity documents and minimize low activity documents. You can also download a copy of the display.
  • High activity documents are identified by tracking your actions on the site such as delivering, filtering, annotating, linking to other documents, opening KeyCite tabs, and viewing resources.
  • If you select an item from the graphical history, a preview pane will appear with additional details, including notes or highlights you added or filters you applied.
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