Westlaw: Term Defined: Misplaced
Case Law, LIS, Law, Librarians February 3rd, 2012Westlaw UK is a service I have a lot of time for generally. Has a better UI and general look and feel than a certain competitor in the market and also tends to be better for most case and legislation searches.
However …
The other day I need to do a search to look for a definition of ‘market price’. In particular if it had been defined in case law. I open up Westlaw, select case search, and look at my options for search:
Free Text
Party Names
Citation
Term Defined
As I’m looking for a definition of a term, it looked like Term Defined would be my logical first place to search.
I entered into the search box: Market Price. As I do so, Westlaw suggests that I want to search for market price of the article. I don’t so I leave it as Market Price. I hit search.
I get an error message:
Your query contains a misplaced connector. A search term must precede and follow a connector.
Hmm. I wasn’t aware my search contained ANY connectors, unless Market or Price were connectors Westlaw used, that I was not previously aware of. Next to the search box, is a handy ‘i’ for information symbol. Hovering over that it says: e.g. international agreement
I try again. Same result.
I decide on a different approach. I decide to use quotation marks, so this time search for “market price”
Doesn’t like that either.
“” Your query contains misplaced quotation marks. Search terms must appear between a set of quotation marks.
Err, My search terms ARE between a set of quotation marks.
So, it must be broke, right?
Wrong. According to Westlaw the Term Defined box only works with terms that are included in their ‘Word Wheel’ - such as ‘market price of the article’ , it seems. They didn’t actually explain, why they don’t explain anywhere that that is how the Term Defined search works, nor why the error messages associated with it are totally nonsensical. How about an error message that says, that the term can’t be found beacuse not in Word Wheel and a link to what the Word Wheel is, and just what it is for?
In the end I used Free Text search and connectors to find what I was looking for, but still ended my session more than a little annoyed.
February 6th, 2012 at
I still didn’t get it. I never knew what Term Defined is and I still don’t.
February 6th, 2012 at
Here’s the command in the U.S. version of Westlaw:
wp(”market price”)
“WP” stands for “words and phrases.”
Be careful, though, this search in case law may not yield all the definitions of “market price.” It’s still worth your time to look it up in “Words and Phrases,” either the online or print version.
Another thing: When you have difficulties like this, call a reference attorney. You’ve ALREADY PAID for their services! It costs nothing extra.
February 7th, 2012 at
This problem clearly demonstrates why classic Westlaw is superior to WestlawNext. Not only are you paying 25% more for your research, but it does not have the content of classic Westlaw. Who needs to be confined to what they limit their word wheel to contain? I hope that Lexis Advanced does not make the same mistake!
February 7th, 2012 at
Ruth: I know what it is, but agree - It really isn’t very clear.
John: The joy is that UK version of Westlaw and US version don’t play well together. A search for wp(”market price”) in UK version will get you a An unknown search error has occurred message.
In the actual case, I found what I was looking for quite easily, as I’ve been a legal librarian for over 12 years. My issue was the lack of clarity about what the search options cover, and error messages that both make no sense and fail to help you as a searcher understand what the search isn’t working.
Cookie: Again, in UK - certainly in many lawfirms - it is (or can be) a different version altogether - Westlaw UK. Things that work in one don’t always work in the other [and yes, that is stupid].
February 20th, 2012 at
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May 20th, 2012 at
Ruth- I also agree that this wasn’t that clear cut. I would just report the error and see what happens. That must have been frustrating.