Westlaw tips for associates
March/April 2009
Westlaw PeopleMap: Uncover someone's connections—in an instant
Westlaw PeopleMap is the dynamic new tool that lets you quickly discover relevant information about people and their connections. Thorough cross-referencing helps you quickly discover relationships between people, their assets and other public information, and other individuals. Use Westlaw PeopleMap to visualize the "big picture" and focus your research.
Westlaw PeopleMap is fast, intuitive, and easy to use. Just supply a name (and permissible use), and Westlaw PeopleMap brings you the following:
- A Microsoft® Virtual Earth map that shows the geographic location of each person with the name you typed.
- A graphical display of public records and other individuals connected to the person selected, with links to the underlying records.
- Information drawn from up to 35 different databases, including business records, voter registrations, political donations, real property transactions and tax assessments, stock ownership, motor vehicle and boat ownership, unclaimed assets, criminal records, professional licenses, hunting and fishing licenses, liens, court dockets, marriage and divorce records, legal filings, and bankruptcy filings.
- The ability to create a report containing some or all data types in any of several formats.
How to access Westlaw PeopleMap
To use Westlaw PeopleMap, you must select the PeopleMap page on Westlaw. Complete these steps:
- Click Add a Tab at the top of any Westlaw page. The My Tabs page is displayed.
- At the next page, click Add Westlaw Tabs to display a list of available tabbed pages.
- Click PeopleMap under General. The tabbed PeopleMap page is displayed.
How to run a PeopleMap search
To search for information and connections available for a particular individual, complete these steps:
- At the PeopleMap page, type your subject's name or Social Security number in the What do you know about the person? section.
- Select the appropriate items from the Permissible Uses drop-down lists. (Before running a PeopleMap search, you must determine whether your intended uses for the information you retrieve are permissible under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Drivers Privacy Protection Act, and laws protecting voter registration information. If you do not have a permissible use, select No Permissible Use in the drop-down list to run a PeopleMap search that excludes the protected information from the search.)
- Click Next. The Results page is displayed.
Results page: Is this the right John Smith?
The Westlaw PeopleMap Results page can spare you embarrassment and time wasted from investigating the wrong person. In the left frame, the names and current addresses of the individuals matching your search criteria are displayed. (Prior addresses, birth year, and partial Social Security number may also be included.) In the right frame, a map is displayed with alphabetical markers showing the location of each individual.
To retrieve more information about an individual listed in the left frame, select the check box next to the individual's name, then click Next.
Information is displayed in an interactive graphical display.
Interactive graphical display: Which records and people are connected to this person?
The left frame of the interactive graphical display lists the records that Westlaw PeopleMap has found for the individual you selected. A confidence level next to each record indicates the likelihood that the record is in fact related to that individual.
In the right frame, the interactive graphic display shows the relationships between the individual and other individuals named in the records. You can then
- click a record icon to view the underlying record
- click the name of a related party to display the full range of records pertaining to him or her
- restrict the details shown in the display by using the tools available in the toolbar at the top of the right frame
Tip: For comprehensive listings of the jurisdictions and coverage dates available for each document type, click Back on the Links tab of the graphical display to return to the Result page. Click Coverage at the top of the right frame. Then click the link for the coverage of a particular document type.
Westlaw PeopleMap report: Can all Westlaw PeopleMap information available for this person be compiled in a document?
To compile some or all of your Westlaw PeopleMap result into a report in PDF, Microsoft Word, Corel® WordPerfect, or HTML, complete these steps:
- If more than one individual is listed on the Links tab of the interactive graphical display, click the name of the individual for whom you want to create a report.
- Click Create Report.
- The Report Confirmation page is displayed. From the Select your report type drop-down list, select Comprehensive (information from all 35 databases), Core (a Comprehensive report minus criminal and Office of Foreign Assets Control records), Asset Only (asset information only), or Potentially Adverse (adverse information only).
- Select PDF, Word, WordPerfect, or HTML from the Choose your delivery format drop-down list.
- Click Go.
Westlaw PeopleMap reports are saved in the Report Manager for 14 days, during which time you can reaccess a report and without incurring a transactional charge. You can access the Report Manager via the Site Map by clicking Report Manager under Tools.
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