LibGuides: Legal Research Databases: Lexis

Connecting to Lexis

Lexis
Available to Law Students, Faculty, and Staff.
LexisNexis IPhone App
Lexis+ on Google Play Store

Permitted Uses of Lexis

Lexis Policy on Use of Law School Educational IDs
Students may use their LexisNexis Law School Educational ID only for academic purposes. Academic purposes include:
* class preparation and assignments
* research associated with moot court or law review/law journal
* service as a research assistant to a professor (either paid or unpaid)
* an unpaid internship, externship or clinic for school credit

Academic purposes do not include research conducted for a law firm, corporation or other entity that is paying the student to conduct said research or that is passing along the costs of said research to a third party. These are deemed commercial purposes. See below for special summer exception or access after graduation.
Summer Access to Lexis
Lexis permits students to use the database for non-educational use, such as working at a law firm, during the summer only. No additional steps are needed to obtain summer access.
Graduates Access to Lexis-
Students can use their Lexis passwords for 6 months after graduation.
Lexis ASPIRE
ASPIRE to Support a Non-Profit This Summer or After Graduation
Your legal research support can make a difference to an organization doing good this summer. Apply for an ASPIRE ID for access to Lexis as long as your qualifying non-profit employment - 501(c)(3).

Need Help?

LexisNexis Law School Customer Support
1-800-45-LEXIS (1-800-455-3947)

Chat
When in the Lexis+ research system, click on MORE in the upper left, and select LIVE CHAT SUPPORT.

Our School's Lexis Representative:
Jennifer Durkin
jennifer.durkin@lexisnexis.com

Law Library Lexis Contact:
Sarah Starnes
sstarnes@uakron.edu

Tutorials, Training and Guides

Terms and Connectors for Lexis

Videos and Tutorials

Lexis Learn
Tutorials with questions.
Lexis Support & Training
Not specific to law school. For all users. Videos and written handouts.
LexisNexis Law School Youtube Channel
More instructional videos.

Written Materials

When in Lexis, click on HELP in the upper right for help based upon the screen in Lexis you are viewing.

Lexis Segment (Field) Searching
Lexis Support & Training
Written handouts as well as videos.
Shepards - list of editorial phrases & their definitions
ALSO, when you are in Shepards, click Help in the upper right to get information about Shepards.
Shepard's At Risk Notification
"The At Risk notification on the right alerts you to the fact that there may be some indirect treatment that calls the case into question"

Lexis AI

Check with your professor to see if you are allowed to use Lexis AI for a particular assignment.

HOW TO GET TO LEXIS AI:

When you sign in to Lexis, you first arrive at the Law School Homepage.
Click on Go to Lexis+ (red button on the left)
Click on AI Assistant in the left navigation bar, or use the blue AI icon in the top right.

You can copy the results by scrolling down to the end, past the citations and there is an icon for Copy in the lower right. There are other document delivery options too, such as email and download.

Terms and connectors and natural language on Lexis+

BOTH the big search box AND Search within Results can process natural language and terms and connectors.
If you use and, or, /p, /s, /n your search will be converted to terms and connectors. If you have some words in the terms and connectors search that do not have connectors, Lexis+ interprets this as a phrase (interprets it as a blank space between the words. ) Example: dna sample arrested and "serious crime" should be: dna and sample and arrest! and "serious crime" (or even better: dna and (collect! or sample or profile) and (arrest! or accus! or custody or "facing charges:) and "serious crime"
If you use quotation marks or ! it will NOT convert the search to terms and connectors. It will still be run as a natural language search. Example: "undue influence" will

For a list of Lexis terms and connectors see:

USING SEARCH COMMANDS AND CONNECTORS AT LEXIS ADVANCE® (Lexis handout)

Why it is important to Shepardize

Lexis and Westlaw Order of Operations

Note that Westlaw uses BUT NOT or % for not.

You can always use parenthesis, (), to change the order of processing.

Shepards Signals

Shepards At Risk Indicator
This is not a signal but a separate indicator that shows if the cases relied upon by a particular case have been subsequently overruled.