A newsletter from West providing Westlaw® search tips for corporate counsel and staff

Want to know when a state or federal law has been passed but don't want to have to track the legislative process yourself?

Use WestClip. Once you set up a WestClip entry, you don't need to do another thing except check your e-mail.

Most state statutes are codified and updated only once a year. However, legislative activity that can amend, repeal, or invalidate a statute occurs throughout the year. This means that it is essential that you track session laws as part of your statutory research.

To simplify your research, set up a WestClip entry in the Multistate Legislative Service database (LEGIS-ALL), the United States Public Laws database (US-PL), or an Individual State Legislative Service database (XX-LEGIS, where XX is a state's two letter postal abbreviation) to track session laws that pertain to your industry or business. You can set the WestClip entry to automatically run your Terms and Connectors query and deliver the results to an e-mail address or another destination you select.

Use search terms that are related to your business, e.g., software or "natural gas". Or use the section number of a particular statute you are interested in tracking.

There is no charge to run a WestClip entry as long as you choose to run it on a daily, weekday, weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. You can also select Enhanced Cite List (instead of List of All Citations) for your result format and incur no additional cost. The enhanced result list includes your search terms and surrounding text for each document listed in your WestClip result.

There are several ways to create a WestClip entry:

• Click Alert Center at the top of any page, then click Create in the WestClip section. The WestClip: Create Entry page is displayed.
• While viewing a search result retrieved with a Terms and Connectors query, click the Result List tab, then select Add Search to WestClip from the Result Options drop-down list and click Go. The WestClip: Create Entry page is displayed with the client identifier, the database identifier, and your search terms already filled in.

Complete the WestClip: Create Entry page by typing information in the appropriate text boxes. If necessary, change delivery settings by clicking Edit. When you finish, click Save and then click Save again at the WestClip: Create Entry page.

Once you set up a WestClip entry, you don't need to do another thing except check your e-mail.

If you have any questions about setting up a WestClip entry, call the West Reference Attorneys for assistance at 1-800-900-WEST (1-800-900-9378).