By Linda Hauck

Through March 15, 2020, the Library is running a trial to Westlaw, which is most well known as a research database for legal materials.

It offers access to US primary law, including judicial cases, state and federal legislative materials, and regulatory publications. The great benefits of using a dedicated legal research database over Google Scholar case law or statues on the free web are the enhanced finding tools and supplementary editorial content. These features—along with secondary sources such as encyclopedias, law reviews, treatises (law books), and case annotations—promote understanding the legal landscape.

In addition to US legal resources, Westlaw offers a Company Investigator tool, news, and international legal materials. The Company Investigator highlights the type of information litigators might be interested in, such as family trees, financial information, and legal filings.  The news content is weighted heavily toward business sources and U.S. regional news; however, BMI, EIU, and Reuters are notable content contributors.

There is considerable overlap between the content in Nexis Uni and Westlaw.   Both Westlaw and Nexis Uni are available from Databases A-Z .  The library would be interested to hear your opinions about both.  Email Linda.Hauck@villanova.edu or Merrill.Stein@villanova.edu.

Linda Hauck, MLS, MBA, is the Business Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.