A Quick Guide to lawindexpro

lawindexpro sets out to help you identify which cases might be of interest to you, and to point you to them. Our content can be viewed in several ways according to where you start from and where you want to go:

• Search
• Area/Year lists
• Citation Browsing
• By Statute

Search

The search box is found at the top of of every page, and has three elements:

• The 'Search' button itself. When ready, 'click and go'.
• Content Field
  • Type here the words to be looked for. It is rarely worth typing more than two or three words. Punctuation and case are ignored.
  • Choosing the best words is something that just has to be learned.
    • Choose strong words.
• Name or Ratio or Cite

  Choose (by pulling down the option list) to search either within the name of the case, or within the headnotes.

  Name. This is the name and or court and or date field only. To search for all cases in the HL for 1893 simply use the term HL 1893.

  Ratio/Headnote. This will search within the text of the case notes. For example, a search for 'interlocutory' will find all headnotes containing that word.

The search returns a results page, with a table showing the case name, court, date, case reference and the areas of law in which it has been allocated.

If you hover your cursor over the case name, you can see also the first few words of any case note.

To see the case note and link to any judgment, click on the 'Go' button in the rightmost column. It is at this point where you will be asked for your ID and password.

Good and Bad Searches

Area Year Lists

These pages bring together case entries for any particular year according to the area of law. It can be a useful way of checking on progress on a particular topic over a time period. It allows readers to browse case law. In fact this is often the most fruitful way of reading case law. Take the second row option and pull down the boxes to select your time period and then the area of law. When ready press 'list'.

Cases Cited/Citers

• A new and unique element in lawindexpro is the ability to see the head note for a case in the context of the cases which either it cites (in which it is CITED) or which cite it (its CITERS).
• The resulting page offers the same facility again making the facility recursive.
• The number of such cross references is still only 12,000, but is rising rapidly.
• This can be a remarkably fruitful way of reading the law. It breaks down the elements of a case into its underlying concepts and then allows readers to follow as desired any particular element. We like it. We really like it.

By Statute

• Use the 'By Statute' sub-menu under 'cases'. This pulls up a page which lists the cases under the statute and section to which they make reference.

General

Tips:

• At many places in lawindexpro, you will find that by hovering the cursor over a piece of text, further information will come to light: a tool-tip pops up. This is frequent whenever you see a graphic element, but happens on other occasions.

URL: http://www.lawindexpro.co.uk/iguide.shtml
Copyright: David Swarbrick 2004