April 2009
WHAT WILL TOMORROW'S LEGISLATION LOOK LIKE?
It's important to know how the law stands today, of course. But in many situations, you will need to know how the law will look a week, month, or year from now. Without expending much time or effort, you can use Westlaw to ensure that no development in a particular legal area catches you off guard.
Problem 1: You want to know whether proposed federal legislation might affect the sale of prescription drugs on the Internet.
Solution: Congressional Bills (CONG-BILLTXT)
To determine whether there's a federal bill in the works on a particular topic, run a Terms and Connectors or Natural Language search in the Congressional Bills database (CONG-BILLTXT). For example, to retrieve federal bills related to the sale of prescription drugs on the Internet, access CONG-BILLTXT and type a query in the Bill Text text box, e.g., type "prescription drug" /s internet web!
Problem 2: You want to know what proposed bills may affect section 220 of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C.A. § 220).
Solution: KeyCite proposed legislation
KeyCite statute history lists proposed federal and state legislation. If you retrieve a statute in which a KeyCite status flag appears, click the flag or click History on the Links tab. If the KeyCite statute history lists proposed legislation, you can display that legislation in the Link Viewer by clicking the citation's hypertext link.
Problem 3: You want to be notified whenever any pending legislation or citing references affecting 26 U.S.C.A. § 220 are added to Westlaw.
Solution: KeyCite Alert
KeyCite Alert automatically monitors the status of cases, statutes, or administrative materials and sends you updates when their KeyCite information changes. For example, you can access the KeyCite Alert wizard (click Monitor with KeyCite Alert on the Links tab) and follow the step-by-step instructions, indicating you wish to monitor full history and citing references. KeyCite Alert will notify you when there are any changes to the statute's KeyCite history and citing references.
