May/June 2001

Search Tip

Problem:

You want to see how a judge ruled in cases discussing a particular issue.

Solution:

Include a judge field restriction in your query.

To retrieve cases in which a particular judge wrote the majority opinion, restrict your search to the judge field (ju). For example, to retrieve opinions discussing sentencing guidelines written by Judge Wallace from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, access the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Cases database (CTA1) and type a query such as the following:

ju(wallace) & sentenc! /s guide-line

To retrieve cases in which a particular judge sat on the panel, search for the judge's name in the panel field (pa), e.g., pa(wallace) & sentenc! /s guide-line. The judge may or may not have written an opinion in the case.

You can also retrieve cases in which a particular judge wrote a dissenting opinion by restricting your search for the judge's name to the dissenting field (dis), e.g.,

 dis(boudin) & sentenc! /s guide-line.

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Note:  Clicking the database name before the  icon will take you to a free detailed description of the database on the Internet.

Clicking on the database idenitifier (e.g., CTA1) will take you to the query screen on westlaw.com so that you can enter a database search.