CALR – Computer Assisted Legal Research

General Information - Lexis & Westlaw

As a part of IT Orientation, all incoming students receive passwords for Computer Assisted Legal Research (CALR). Specifically, students receive passwords for access to LEXIS and WESTLAW to use while here at Thomas M. Cooley Law School. LEXIS and WESTLAW are on-line services that are used by members of the legal community to do research, read cases, check citations, or find current law. Initially, student access is limited to finding documents for which you have a citation.

During IT Orientation, students register their WESTLAW and LEXIS passwords. The Westlaw password will also provide access to TWEN (The West Education Network), which Cooley Law School uses to host professors' course materials.

During your Research and Writing course you will be taught how to use the search functions of these services.

Remember:

These passwords are for educational use only.

Students wishing to access LEXIS and WESTLAW may use any of the computers in any of the computer labs on the third or fourth floors of the Library (Note: fourth floor labs are teaching labs and are frequently used for classroom instruction).

To access LEXIS and Westlaw from home, students may use their Cooley Internet account or any other ISP.

LEXIS – To Access LEXIS from the Internet:

• Sign on to the Internet, following the procedure for your Internet provider.
  
  
• Type the address http://lawschool.lexis.com in the Location box.
  
  
• Click on Research.
  
  
• When prompted, enter your LEXIS ID (provided to you at IT Orientation).
  
  
• Once you have gained access to LEXIS, click on Get a Document.
  
  
• Enter the citation of the case you wish to see.
  
  
• To logoff, click on sign off and then log off the Internet as you normally would.

WESTLAW – To Access WESTLAW from the Internet: (A.K.A: TWEN)

• Sign on to the Internet, following the procedure for your Internet provider.
  
  
• Type the address http://lawschool.westlaw.com in the Location box.
  
  
• When prompted, enter your WESTLAW (provided to you at IT Orientation), password and three random characters as the Client ID.
  
  
• Enter the citation of the case you wish to see in the field "Find a document by citation".
  
  
• To log off, click on "sign off" and then simply log off the Internet as you normally would.

WARNING: Always log off or sign off from any Web site to which you have to login or sign on. Otherwise, your connection to the site's server remains open until the server times you out - even if you exit your browser and disconnect your phone. This leaves the server open to all kinds of abuse with your account.