WESTLAW UK 2012 IN REVIEW ACCOMPLISH MORE TOGETHER
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REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth
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JANUARY 2012
WONDERFUL WORLD OF LAW The Court of Appeal held that an employer was vicariously liable for an employee attacking his manager after being given an instruction. The violence could be said to be in the course of employment as it was closely related to the employment in both time and space. However, in a conjoined case, there was no vicarious liability where an employee came drunkenly from his home to assault his manager as he was not acting in the course of his employment.
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WESTLAW UK 2012 IN REVIEW ACCOMPLISH MORE TOGETHER 2012 was a year that saw many things accomplished through the power of collaboration. All around the world, great things were achieved and disasters overcome by people working together. In the UK, we ignored the weather and together celebrated the Queen’s Jubilee. For five weeks we put on our best smiles, stayed clear of the Tube, threw our support behind Wiggo, Andy, Jess and Mo and showed the world how to host an Olympic and Paralympic Games. We watched an extraordinary collaboration of teamwork and technology, come to fruition, as man jumped from the edge of space and into new world of possibility. And for the first time ever we all gathered around our desktops, laptops, tablets and smart phones to watch a South Korean rap artist on YouTube 1 Billion times… Back in our own legal world, and on a much smaller scale, we hoped we helped you accomplish more. Whether it was saving you time during your working day, making it easier to find exactly what you need when you need it, or keeping you up to date and ahead of your competitors. Throughout 2012 we listened and worked hard to improve our services in the ways you asked for. But we are not one to gaze longingly at what we’ve done in the past. 2013 is well underway and we have more exciting developments planned. As always we’re focusing on you, your research, your efficiency, your success. Let’s accomplish more together. The Westlaw UK Team
3 July
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(FROM 01 JANUARY 2012 TO 31 DECEMBER 2012)
CASES
9,722
825
THE NUMBER OF CASE DIGESTS WE ADDED
6,114
THE NUMBER OF FULL-TEXT TRANSCRIPTS/LAW REPORTS ADDED
71
THE NUMBER OF EXTEMPORE JUDGMENTS ADDED
%
TOTAL INCREASE ON 2011
JOURNALS
10
33,013
NEW JOURNALS ADDED
CURRENT AWARENESS
JOURNAL ABSTRACTS WERE ADDED TO THE LEGAL JOURNALS INDEX
25,000 NEW RECORDS ADDED
250
5,045
THE NUMBER OF CURRENT AWARENESS SOURCES WE MONITORED IN 2012
OF THESE ABSTRACTS HAD CORRESPONDING FULL-TEXT RECORDS
FEBRUARY 2012
WONDERFUL WORLD OF LAW An Australian community warden who claims he was racially abused by colleagues who repeatedly greeted him with “G’day sport” is bringing a case against Kent County Council to the European Court of Human Rights.
4 January
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REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
697
439
THE NUMBER OF CIVIL EXTEMPORE JUDGMENTS ADDED
NORTHERN IRELAND SRs ADDED
LEGISLATION
341
3,836
RE
SCOTTISH SIs ADDED
UK SIs ADDED
23 5
THE TOTAL NUMBER OF NEW PIECES OF LEGISLATION ADDED
NORTHERN IRELAND ACTS ADDED
3,917 2
WE CURRENTLY HAVE
115
FULL-TEXT JOURNALS, INCLUDING 10 TITLES ADDED IN 2012
WELSH ACTS ADDED
UK ACTS ADDED
11
SCOTTISH ACTS ADDED
2
LOCAL ACTS ADDED
BOOKS & LOOSELEAFS
48
THE NUMBER OF BOOKS AND LOOSELEAFS ADDED TO WESTLAW UK
5 July
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INSIGHT
WONDERFUL WORLD OF LAW
MARCH 2012 Zack Thompson was jailed for six years at Nottingham Crown Court for raping a girl in Portugal after his defence that he was sleepwalking at the time was challenged by expert Professor Mark Pressman. Mr Thompson did not deny committing the act but refused to take criminal responsibility, insisting he had been sleepwalking. Professor Pressman concluded the memory loss was highly likely to have been the result of excessive alcohol. It is the first time that sleepwalking as a criminal defence has been successfully challenged in a sexual offence case.
APRIL 2012 The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruled that stripper Nadine Quashie was an employee of Stringfellows club, and can therefore pursue a claim against the club for unfair dismissal. The EAT based its ruling on the admission by the defence that a contract existed between the appellant and respondent, meaning that Ms Quashie was employed by the club. NB: this was then reversed on Appeal in December
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REUTERS/Luke Macgregor
WESTLAW UK INSIGHT Our biggest enhancement of 2012, Westlaw UK Insight is an online, dynamic, continually updated and ever-growing encyclopedia of UK law. Built for online, and in tune with the way you work, it connects you to expertly penned analysis of legal topics. Starting with a broad subject overview, Insight then goes deeper with detailed statements of the law. A springboard from which you can start your research, Insight not only helps you join the dots on a particular subject, it also gives links to related content on Westlaw UK and elsewhere online.
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LEGISLATION
LEGISLATION OVERVIEW DOCUMENT ENHANCEMENTS New Overview Section – Legislation Citing
To streamline and simplify your research we replaced the General Materials section with a new Legislation Citing section within the Overview Document. This allows you to clearly review all the amendments to the sections, by provision (chronological order), type of amendment (section order) or by modification. Extended Coverage
*
Westlaw UK also extended coverage to Annotated Statutes .
*Available as an Add-on to your Westlaw UK subscription.
Previously, you could only view legislation Annotations for the Law in Force, but you can now view Annotations for the following:
■■ Law in Force versions ■■ Future versions ■■ Post-2007 superseded or repealed versions General Notes
You can now link to the General Notes Library from the Legislation page. Customers who have access to Annotated Statutes will be able to view a General Notes Library on their Legislation search screen. By clicking on the General Notes Library link, you can access all General Notes available on Westlaw UK.
An accountant successfully sued a dissatisfied client who had attempted to pay a £800 bill by dumping crates of coins in his garden. Phillip Lawrence took Robert Fitzpatrick to court arguing that it is illegal under the Coinage Act 1971 to settle debts above £10 with coins and suing him for the debt owed, interest and the cost of storing the crates of coins. The judge ordered Mr Fitzpatrick to repay Mr Lawrence in full with interest but could not award him the storage costs due to a lack of contract.
WONDERFUL WORLD OF LAW
MAY 2012
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NORTHERN IRELAND LEGISLATION Last year content for Northern Ireland was extended to cover back to 1996. Coverage now includes: Westminster Enactments
■■ Public, General and Local Acts (1920 to 2011) ■■ Statutory Instruments (1940 to 2012) Northern Ireland Assembly Enactments
■■ Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly (2000 to 2012) ■■ Northern Ireland Orders in Council (1992 to 2009) ■■ Northern Ireland Statutory Rules (1996 to 2012)
IMAGES IN DOCUMENTS ON WESTLAW UK Continuing on from our work in 2011, last year Westlaw UK launched over 19,000 original images for display within provisions of legislation, as well as in the body of full-text documents in case reports and journal articles.* You can view these images online, as well as have the ability to print, save and email images within documents, with all of them appearing as they do in the original document. This lets you work more efficiently as you will no longer have to refer to the print version to locate images or tables, or print images separately and then re-sort or to the correct order. Images are available for all cases and journals from 2002 onwards and for legislation from 1987. * Images will not be available in official transcripts.
JUNE 2012 A businessman took out injunctions against an internet “troll”. Andie Steele-Smith has secured a High Court injunction against a former employee, Jim Morrison, who allegedly set up hundreds of websites designed to ruin Mr Steele-Smith’s reputation. Under the lifetime injunction, which Mr SteeleSmith pursued at a cost of £150,000, Mr Morrison cannot access online accounts linked to Mr Steele-Smith, publish comments about him online or make defamatory comments about him to third parties.
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BOOKS & LOOSELEAFS
Over the last year we continued to add Sweet & Maxwell Books & Looseleafs onto Westlaw UK, increasing the number of titles available to you, and enhancing the functionality to ensure you can access content as efficiently as possible.
*Available as an Add-on
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ENCYLOPEDIAS ON WESTLAW UK*
to your Westlaw UK subscription.
As part of that drive, we were delighted to announce the move of Localaw UK content onto Westlaw UK. This move brought numerous benefits. With easier navigation; quicker and more efficient searching; a vastly improved index search; links to up-to-date content throughout the text; and ultimately the benefit of having access to all of your research tools from one online service.
The Local Government titles now on Westlaw UK include:
■■ Encyclopedia of Compulsory Purchase and Compensation ■■ Encyclopedia of Environmental Health Law and Practice ■■ Encyclopedia of Highway Law and Practice ■■ Encyclopedia of Housing Law and Practice ■■ Encyclopedia of Local Government Law ■■ Encyclopedia of Planning Law and Practice
WONDERFUL WORLD OF LAW
■■ Encyclopedia of Road Traffic Law and Practice
JULY 2012 Samira Hassan, who fractured both wrists after slipping and falling on “mushy” grapes outside a grocers, has won £111,859 from owner Onkar Singh Gill. The Court of Appeal ruled the County Court judge did not misdirect himself on the law or make any factual findings which were not justified by the evidence.
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IDS BRIEF & EMPLOYMENT LAW CASES ON WESTLAW UK* IDS Employment Law Brief on Westlaw UK makes it easy for you to stay on top of major developments in employment law from unfair dismissal to annual leave, and enables you to conduct detailed employment law research more quickly than ever. We provide clear advice on the law and how it applies in practice from a source you know you can trust: the in-house team of specialist employment lawyers at IDS.
*Available as an Add-on to your Westlaw UK subscription.
At the heart of the service is the IDS Employment Law Brief journal, an unrivalled source of employment law current awareness for over 40 years and now available as a full-text journal on Westlaw UK. Providing a mix of case reports, editorials, and in-depth articles, ensuring you’re kept abreast of all the key developments in this rapidly evolving practice area.
IDS EMPLOYMENT LAW HANDBOOKS*
AUGUST 2012 Men don’t grasp how important a handbag is, says angry judge. Dismissing a male barrister’s argument that the theft of a handbag was merely a crime of “inconvenience”, Judge Zoe Smith said the victim was often left suffering from stress, anxiety and fear, and that such crime should not be trivialised.
Our biggest change to IDS Handbooks last year was the launch of IDS Discrimination at Work, which now incorporates all previous IDS discrimination titles, including: IDS Age Discrimination, IDS Sex Discrimination, IDS Disability Discrimination and IDS Race and Religion Discrimination, into one easy to read online volume. As well as IDS Discrimination at Work, we also launched the new title IDS Continuity in Employment as well as a new volume of IDS Maternity and Parental Rights.
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JOURNALS
We added the following journals to Westlaw UK in 2012:
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION Coverage: Begins with 2012
PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION Coverage: Begins with 2012
THE JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW Coverage: Begins with 2004
THE POLICE JOURNAL Coverage: Begins with 2004
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PLANNING LAW AND PRACTICE MONTHLY BULLETIN Coverage: Begins with 2010
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT LAW BULLETIN Coverage: Begins with 2012
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LAW AND MANAGEMENT Coverage: Begins with 2008
CAMBRIDGE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW Coverage: Begins with 2012
CAMBRIDGE STUDENT LAW REVIEW Coverage: 2005 to 2011
EMMET AND FARRAND BULLETIN Coverage: Begins with 2012
12 January
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OTHER KEY ENHANCEMENTS
FAMILY LAW HUB ON WESTLAW UK*
*Available as an Add-on to your Westlaw UK subscription.
Family Law Hub is a resource built with the busy family law practitioner in mind. Launched late last year, it contains highly useful content covering a wide range of areas within the family law field, and ensures that you have the tools you need to get the job done. Written by the highly acclaimed family law team at Mills & Reeve LLP and supplemented by 29 Bedford Row Chambers, the content is both reliable and of the highest quality.
WESTLAW UK’S NEW LOOK WEBSITE
WONDERFUL WORLD OF LAW
At the start of December last year you may have noticed the launch of Westlaw UK’s new look marketing and pre-login website. We stripped back the site to allow you to get to the information, videos and training you want faster and with less effort.
SEPTEMBER 2012 A Scottish Sheriff ruled that man’s 46 dogs are his “family”. Sheriff Susan Raeburn has allowed Andrew Debidin to continue living with his 46 dogs, saying they constitute his family under human rights law. Moray Council was bidding to impose an antisocial behaviour order on Mr Debidin after neighbours claimed the dogs’ barking was causing them “alarm and distress”.
OCTOBER 2012 The High Court ruled that three estate agents from Bycroft & Co must stand trial for allegedly making false statements about the size of gardens surrounding a house.
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PLANNED FOR 2013
Archbold and Criminal Law Week Enhancements*
Relevancy Search
Search Westlaw UK from the homepage using word wheels and retrieve results ranked by most relevant.
Legislation Enhancements
Filtering
Westlaw UK will be launching a suite of improvements to how we display legislation, including adding editorially defined notes, improving the clarity of jurisdictional flags and conditional amendments.
Use Westlaw UK subject and keywords to filter your results and ensure that you capture all the content you are looking for. Use content specific filters for granular searching and even transfer those filters to a Westlaw UK alert.
Insight, Phase II
Webparts
Improved navigation for Archbold on Westlaw UK. View the main work, supplement and weekly updates on one page. View Criminal Law Week as integrated and searchable content
Westlaw UK will continue to add content to Insight and will be implementing design and functionality upgrades after conducting extensive usability testing.
Westlaw UK will be able to offer customers webparts widgets which they can embed in their existing intranet.
Network Authentication
Westlaw UK will allow users to access Westlaw UK with all their personalised features but without having to remember a username and password.
14 January
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Mobile
Westlaw UK will offer a customised mobile experience for users accessing cases or legislation on any smart phone or tablet device.
Reuters With NewsRoom*
Precedents*
Westlaw UK will offer 14 authoritative precedent titles in a fully searchable format. Download and amend precedents straight into word.
Commentary Enhancements
Bookshelf Functionality
Westlaw UK will offer global news content in the familiar Westlaw UK user interface optimised for News Content. Filter your results using Thomson Reuters Smart Terms.
Westlaw UK will offer improved relevancy search for books and looseleafs. Index search and navigation will be improved allowing users to move between index references in an intuitive and useful manner. Books content will also be integrated into the global search.
Westlaw UK will allow users to customise the books tab and organise titles in a way they see fit. DECEMBER 2012
WONDERFUL WORLD OF LAW
NOVEMBER 2012
*Available as an Add-on to your Westlaw UK subscription.
A Northern Irish man who has accumulated the biggest criminal record in British or Irish legal history, has been jailed for 28 months after pleading guilty to seven road traffic offences. He came before the Crown Court with 465 previous convictions.Legal sources said this was believed to be the greatest numerical record of offending known in the history of both islands. It works out at an average of more than 20 offences for every year of his adult life. One legal expert said his prolific record would “never, ever, ever be equalled” because of a change in the law several years ago, making driving while disqualified an indictable offence.
Victory for McDonald’s worker sacked over topping on 99p McFlurry. Sarah Finch a McDonald’s worker sacked for being “over generous” with a dessert topping has won a four-figure payout as compensation for the loss of her job. Ms Finch, dismissed for gross misconduct accepted an out-ofcourt settlement before her claim for unfair dismissal was heard by an employment tribunal.
15 July
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