Legal search essentials user guide

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PUBLIC SECTOR LEGAL SEARCH ESSENTIALS USER GUIDE SOLCARA

Getting Started

SEARCHING CONTENT SETS

SEARCH RESULTS

BOOKMARKING

SAVED SEARCHES

RESOURCES AVAILABLE

SOLCARA

GETTING STARTED Legal Search Essentials is an easy-to-use, Web-based system, tailored for public sector lawyers, that lets you search across multiple content sets at the click of a button.

Essentials lets you search your subscription services such as Westlaw UK, Lawtel, PLC and online commentary, as well as specially selected government websites.

Essentials is an effective and efficient research tool that saves you time and effort, allowing you to search across multiple services and sources with a single search. What’s more, our must-have application also lets you bookmark search results across services as well as save your searches for later recall and reuse.

Browse across all resources or target your search to practice area specific content including: Property, People, Planning, Procurement, Environment and Roads, The Council, The Court, and Employing People.

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SEARCHING CONTENT SETS Begin your search by using the search and resource selection functionality on the right-hand side of the page.

You can expand each option to see the information resources included by clicking the arrow to the left of the name.

The content from the different services and sites is organised into different information types and practice areas.

When searching, you can select an information type to search all resources within it, or choose the individual resources you want to search by checking/ un-checking the boxes.

Remember, you can also carry out practice area specific searches.

For example you can choose to search all the information resources appropriate to “Case Law”.

Getting Started

SEARCHING CONTENT SETS

SEARCH RESULTS

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The Quick Search field supports basic search syntax.

Searches for any documents containing the word ‘construction’ and the word ‘contracts’

construction contracts

“construction contracts”

Searches for the phrase ‘construction contracts’

construction or contracts

Searches for any documents containing either ‘construction’ or ‘contracts’ Searches for any documents containing the phrase ‘construction contracts’ and the phrase ‘development completion notice’

“construction contracts” and “development completion notice”

Type in your search terms and click the magnifying glass or press ENTER on your keyboard to submit your search.

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Your search results will be displayed on the left-hand side of the screen containing the list of resources searched, and how many items were found which match your search terms within each resource. Essentials shows you the information types selected, along with the total number of results within each information type.

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Total number of results found matching your search terms Information type (total number of results found within that information type)) Don’t forget, you can also select and search by practice area such as Planning, Property or The Council Resource (number of results found within each resource) You can click on the name of an information type or an individual resource to jump straight to those results whilst hiding others that may not be relevant.

You can also click the arrow next to an information type to show/hide the resources underneath it.

Your results are ordered by information type and then by resource as they appear in the search selection panel.

Within each resource, results are ordered by the database default. For Cases and News, results are ordered by date. For others, results are ordered by relevance.

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SEARCH RESULTS The grey bar along the top of the search results contains your search terms, and options to Save Search, Show/Hide details and Share results.

For each set of results, the name and a brief summary of the item found are shown.

The first 5 results from each resource are displayed by default; however, you can choose to display all results (typically limited to the first 50 by date or relevance) within a resource by selecting the “Show all results” link at the end of the 5 results, or by clicking the Show all results button.

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The length/content of the summary depends on the resource.

You can choose to show/hide information types or show/hide results from a resource.

In addition you can choose to show/hide the summary of each document which can make browsing through results easier.

You can also click the Show/Hide icon in the top grey toolbar to show or hide all details for every result.

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SEARCH RESULTS You can access the items returned in the search results by clicking on the name/title of the result.

If the result is a case from Westlaw UK then you can also click on the Case Analysis or citation to access that document. If it is a journal result from Westlaw UK, you can also access the LJI abstract or full-text article.

When you click to access the content of a search result, a new browser window will open up to display the content within the relevant service. You will either be taken straight to the relevant item (if you are IP authenticated), or taken to a password screen where you must log in (and then be taken to the item).

You can Email, Export and Print All or Selected Results by clicking the icon

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BOOKMARKING

T he star is for creating a bookmark to a result.

The star turns yellow when bookmarked or if an item returned in a results set has been previously bookmarked. This enables you to see at a glance which results have been previously bookmarked.

Clicking a highlighted (yellow) star removes the bookmark to that item.

You can access documents previously bookmarked by clicking the star icon above the search box.

T he ‘show results’ icon takes the user back to the results page.

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BOOKMARKING

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BOOKMARKING From the Bookmarks page you can access and view items by clicking on the title of any item.

You can delete a bookmark from this page using the red cross, or by clicking the yellow star on a search results page.

You can also sort the bookmark list by clicking on any of the column titles, i.e. by Title, Source, Date Bookmarked.

To search across the Titles and other text held for each bookmark, use the search box in the top right-hand corner.

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SAVED SEARCHES You can save search criteria to be run again on demand.

Saved Searches can be accessed by clicking the disk icon on the toolbar above the search field.

Enter in a name for the Search, and a description.

The search selections (information types and specific resources) are saved along with the search and the specific search terms used.

To save the search, simply click the ‘Save Search’ from the top grey icon toolbar on the search results page.

Click the name of the Saved Search to run that search, copy the details to a clipboard, or delete the search.

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RESOURCES AVAILABLE Resource Groupings

Resources Available for Searching

Insight

Westlaw UK: Insight

Planning Portal

Case Law

Westlaw UK: Cases

EU site - Procurement rules

Lawtel: Cases

Environment Agency

Westlaw UK: Legislation

Department for Transport

Lawtel: UK Legislation

Information Commissioner’s Office

Parliament: Bills

Department for Communities and Local Government

Westlaw UK: Journals

HM Courts Service

Westlaw UK: Current Awareness

Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service

Legislation

Journals and Current Awareness Know How

Resource Groupings

PLC: Public Sector

HM Revenue & Customs

PLC: Employment

News and Current Awareness

Westlaw UK: National News and Newswires

PLC: Property

Westlaw UK: Regional News and Tabloids

PLC: Construction

Westlaw UK: International News

PLC: Commercial

Westlaw UK: Business, Trade and Industry News

Land Registry

Property Books

Encyclopedia of Local Government Law

Work and Pensions

Encyclopedia of Housing Law and Practice

Department for Work and Pensions

Woodfall: Landlord and Tenant

Department for Communities and Local Government

Handbook of Business Tenancies

Department for Education

Handbook of Rent Review

Ofsted

Handbook of Dilapidations

Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service

Getting Started

Resources Available for Searching

SEARCHING CONTENT SETS

SEARCH RESULTS

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BOOKMARKING

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RESOURCES AVAILABLE

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RESOURCES AVAILABLE Resource Groupings

People Books

Resources Available for Searching

Resource Groupings

Resources Available for Searching

Emmet & Farrand on Title

Environment and Roads Books

Encyclopedia of Environmental Health Law and Practice

Encyclopedia of Compulsory Purchase and Compensation

Encyclopedia of Environmental Law

Landlord and Tenant Factbook

Encyclopedia of Local Government Law

Ruoff and Roper: Registered Conveyancing

Encyclopedia of Highway Law and Practice

Encyclopedia of Local Government Law

Encyclopedia of Road Traffic Law and Practice

Encyclopedia of Housing Law and Practice Housing Law

Planning Books

Wilkinson’s Road Traffic Offences The Council Books

Cross on Local Government Law

Encyclopedia of Social Services and Childcare Law

De Smith’s Judicial Review

Encyclopedia of Planning Law and Practice

Encyclopedia of Data Protection and Privacy

Sweet & Maxwell’s Planning Law: Practice and Precedents Encyclopedia of Local Government Law Procurement Books

Encyclopedia of Local Government Law The Court Books

Chitty on Contract

A-Z Civil Litigation The White Book

Keating on Construction Contracts

Encyclopedia of Local Government Law

Hudson’s Building and Engineering Contracts

Employing People Books

IDS Employment Law Cases

Boilerplate: Practical Clauses

IDS Employment Law Handbooks

Delay and disruption in construction contracts

Encyclopedia of Local Government Law

Drafting commercial agreements

Encyclopedia of Employment Law

EU Public Procurement: Law and Practice The Interpretation of Contracts Encyclopedia of Local Government Law

Getting Started

Schofield’s Election Law

Woodfall: Landlord and Tenant

SEARCHING CONTENT SETS

SEARCH RESULTS

Solcara Essentials also offers the option to search all books on Westlaw.

For more information or guidance, email solcara.essentials@thomsonreuters.com

BOOKMARKING

SAVED SEARCHES

RESOURCES AVAILABLE