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Lexis Library
Academic User Guide• Back to contents page

Lexis Library Academic User Guide®

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LexisLibrary
Academic User Guide
Contents
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Searching across your entire subscription

2

Working with your results

3

Finding authority as cited by your lecturer

3

Cases

6Legislation

9Journal articles

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Searching all Content (Cases, Legislation, Commentary andJournals) Simultaneously.

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Research Case Law

13

Finding Commentary

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Using Halsbury’s Laws of England/Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia

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Using your Halsbury’s/Stair Results

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Lexis Library
Academic User Guide• Back to contents pageSearching across your entire subscription

You can use the large central search box to search across yourwhole LexisLibrary and LexisPSL (where applicable) subscription.
Later in this guide, you will be taught on how to use search
connectors; you do not have to employ any of these in this searchbox. It supports natural language, so you can type in a series of key
words/phrases and simply search.

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Academic User Guide• Back to contents page

Working with your results

Sometimes, Lexis
Recommends willsuggest key or populardocuments that are
relevant to the terms you
have searched.

Use the filters to the leftof the search results tonarrow by content type
(here you can also see
results from lexis PSL –subscription dependant)’,
filter by an additional key
word, select a particularpublication and sort bylegal topic.

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Academic User Guide• Back to contents page

Finding authority as cited by your lecturer

Cases
Enter the case name, one or both party names is effective here.
(e.g. Patel or Patel v Mirza)
Alternately, you can also search via citation, however, remember
to omit any square brackets when doing so.
For example, [2015] Ch 271 would be entered as “2015 ch 271”.

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Finding authority as cited by your lecturer (cont’d)After pressing FIND, you will be linked to a list of results.
It is always useful to start with the Case Overview result. This will include a range of handy features, such as:
1.

Links to all of the available law reports – click on a link to open the law report.

2.

A list of catchwords, describing the case.

3.

The appeal history of the case (where applicable).

4.

The cases considered in reaching the judgment.

5.

Subsequent which have since referred to this case.

6.

If there are any ongoing appeals, an appeal status tracker, letting you know of any future appeals and court dates.

Remember referring to the appelate history, cases considered and subsequent cases demonstrates deeper research and can significantly
improve your grade

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Finding authority as cited by your lecturer (cont’d)

You can return to the Case Overview using this link

You can view a PDF of the law report
as it appeared in the original print
volume. This is particularly importantas it provides the lettered paragraphs– lecturers are impressed if you citethese e.g. [2015] Ch 271 at p 275 para d

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The Find out more box links you
to related Case law, Commentary(practitioner text books) andJournal articles as appropriate.
Using these links is a great way to
improve your grades and save you
research time®

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Finding authority as cited by your lecturer (cont’d)Legislation
Enter the Legislation title into the Legislation Field
You must tick the SI box to return secondary
legislation results
To find Welsh Assembly Acts & Measures you need to
un-tick both the Act and SI box
If you want to find the Primary Legislation and theassociated Secondary Legislation you need to tick
both Act and SI box To search for a specific section
enter the title followed by the section number e.g.
Equality Act 2010 s6

If you have not searched fora specific section you will seeone result for each section ofthe Act/SI
Click on to the title result

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Academic User Guide• Back to contents page

Finding authority as cited by your lecturer (cont’d)

You will now see thearrangement of the Act/SI andfrom here you can link to yourspecific section

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The Find out more box links you to Caselaw, Commentary, Journal articles andSubordinate Legislation for the Act as awhole. It is better to link from a specificsection to focus your results

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Finding authority as cited by your lecturer (cont’d)Use the Table of Contents button
to move quickly between sectionsof the Act/SI you are viewing

Click on the yellow notes symbol to see
Halsbury’s Annotations and Words andPhrases Judicially Considered. This lists allof the definitions the courts have applied tothe wording of the Act and links to that Caselaw. This will help you improve your marks

If you need to see how theLegislation looked at a past point
in time you can use the Historical
Version links8®

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Finding authority as cited by your lecturer (cont’d)

Journal articles
These tips will help you when you have to researchfrom first principles
1.

Identify the key words and phrases in your taskquestion. For example, if my question read “Apregnant woman may not be made redundant.
Discuss” you would need to search using terms
like pregnant, maternity and redundancy.

2.

Build these into a search strand using theconnectors below.

3.

You are now ready to use your search strand onLexisLibrary

You can search by9a.

Citation e.g. 157 nlj 248b.

Author e.g. Ruth Costiganc.

Title e.g. Are digital natives equipped
to conquer the legal landscaped.

Key word e.g. Unfair dismissal

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Searching all Content (Cases, Legislation, Commentary andJournals) Simultaneously.

From the home page
select the General tab

Enter your searchstrand in theSearch terms box

You can also Add topics to search
to focus your results on your topic
area. Use the little pluses to openup the subtopic options

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Searching all Content (Cases, Legislation, Commentary andJournals) Simultaneously. (cont’d)

You can work with all of your results
simultaneously or you can select particular
document types, publications, topics or
add additional keywords.

11Top tip. You can create an alert which willautomatically re-run your search and email you
if there are new results using the Create an alert
link. This is an excellent way to demonstrate you
are keeping up to date with the development ofthe law and will help increase your grades®

Lexis Library
Academic User Guide• Back to contents pageResearch Case Law

Click on the Cases tab

The Search terms box will lookfor your words and phrases
anywhere within the entire Law
Report or Judgment (transcript).
This is the widest search andshould be used when looking for
unusual fact patterns. You canalso Add topics to search tofurther filter your results

You can restrict your search toa particular date range. This canhelp improve your marks as you
can demonstrate the attitude of
the courts in the current climate
The Summary box will only lookfor your words and phrases
within the Catchwords andHeadnote of a case. This is a far
more focused search and should
be used for broad legal concepts
e.g. murder and mens rea

12Top tip. If you are researching the approachof a particular Judge (e.g. Lord Denning) orare preparing for an interview use the Judgeor Counsel boxes to find all the cases heard
by that Judge/represented by the barrister,
solicitor or firm you are researching®

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Finding Commentary
You will need to select the Commentary tab from the home page.
Using practitioner texts is a great way to find points of critical analysis and discussion on
the law, everyone will cite their student textbook but practitioner texts show you are able toconduct proper legal research and have identified leading sources in the area of law you
are studying.

The Heading box will only search for yourwords and phrases within the chapter
titles and sub-titles. This will focus yoursearch and is useful when looking to findthe primary rules in an area

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The Search terms box will look for yourwords and phrases anywhere within
the book. This is the widest searchand should be used when conducting
detailed research. Remember that
this is a connectors field, so natural
language searching will be ineffective.
(Use the search tips button for helpwith connectors).

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Using Halsbury’s Laws of England/Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia
Halsbury’s Laws of England is an encylopaedia of the law in England and Wales. It provides
unbiased commentary on how the law operates in these jurisdiction and provides links
through to associated legislation, case law and further reading. Stair Memorial Enyclopaedia
provides the same information but in relation to Scotland.
Both publications work in the same way. The guide below takevs screenshots from
Halsbury’s but the same techniques should be applied to Stair for Scottish users.

To search the publication click on
the Search link and use the “FindingCommentary” techniques (above)

The Index will allow you to see all
the content relating to a particularlegal term. From your bookshelf
click on the Browse link14

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Using Halsbury’s Laws of England/Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia (cont’d)

1.

Click on the plus tothe right of the blue
headings to explorethat chapter

2.

3.

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Click on the word
you require e.g.
Easement

Click on the pageicon to open adocument thatlooks relevant.

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Using your Halsbury’s/Stair Results

If there is an Update box make sure you
click on it. This will reveal all of the update
information you will need to consider
including case law and legislation which
affects the information in the main text.
This is very important if there has been achange in the law.
(This is Subscription sensitive).

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The Legal Terms box will link
you to associated terms. Selectthese to access a definition, keycase law, key legislation and key
commentary relating to the term

The location box tells you all
the information you need toaccurately cite Halsbury’s/
Stair in your essays

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