Skip to main content

Westlaw Asia (new) Guide - Unlocking the value of FirstPoint

This guide demonstrates the advantages of FirstPoint features that are included in Australian case law on Westlaw Asia (new).

Key FirstPoint feature FirstPoint advantage
1 Case Status Flags: clear status flags inform you immediately if your case is good law (that it hasn’t been doubted or overturned). Status flags also appear in the Litigation History and Cases Cited and Citing blocks. Within 2 business days of receipt, more than 90% of new cases receive point-of-law classifications, litigation history and, for superior courts decisions, case relationships. These relationships drive the flag status.
2 Classification to the FirstPoint Key, which is powered by the Australian Digest. You can use these classifications to browse within Westlaw Asia and find cases – including obscure cases – on the same point of law. The online Classification Key is unique to FirstPoint. It’s simple and easy to browse, covering more than 19,000 points of law. Like the law, the Key grows and evolves every year.
3 Summaries: targeted on-point digest notes written by Australian legal editors with local legal qualifications and experience.

14 Australian legal editors work on FirstPoint.

The editors have local legal qualifications, local experience and Australia-wide expertise. Their point-of-law summaries are a fast brief when users want more detail than just court catchwords.

 

Key FirstPoint feature FirstPoint advantage
4 Related Cases: click through to cases that are Cited by or Cite your case, including the treatment of that case within the judgment and the current case status flag. FirstPoint is integrated with unreported judgments and the largest online library of authorised and specialist report series in Australia, including the Commonwealth Law Reports.
5 FirstPoint verified is a list of significant cases or legislation provisions that are referred to within the case. The case citation links to the full-text unreported judgment (via the media neutral citation) or law report (via report citation), where available. To save users research time, the FirstPoint Legal Team has analysed the case and extracted a list of significant case and legislation references. The significant case references are also verified for correctness.
6 Other References: we also provide lists of other cases and legislation that are considered in the case to enable further research. The Other References feature was developed in response to customer feedback. This recent feature complements FirstPoint verified, which displays significant references only.

 


Note: The above screenshots of the FirstPoint record for Attorney-General (SA) v Corporation of the City of Adelaide have been cropped in order to fit the FirstPoint features in this document. As a result, the images may show only part of the available FirstPoint content for some of the highlighted FirstPoint features.

Weight
0
UK Case Law on Westlaw Asia (new) (6:45 min)

This video demonstrates how to research and access United Kingdom case law on Westlaw Asia (new).

Case law

What do I do if I use a proxy server (or any third party services) and the new URL for IP access doesn't work?

Technical Issues and Fault Notifications

We are aware of issues some customers have been experiencing accessing Westlaw Asia via IP authenticated links. 

Customers experiencing issues have been using Proxy IPs to enable links for onsite and offsite access. Although it has been possible to modify Westlaw Asia links to...

Date & Time

What do I do if I use a proxy server (or any third party services) and the new URL for IP access doesn't work?

We are aware of issues some customers have been experiencing accessing Westlaw Asia via IP authenticated links. 

Customers experiencing issues have been using Proxy IPs to enable links for onsite and offsite access. Although it has been possible to modify Westlaw Asia links to accommodate proxy access in the past, the bespoke nature of the links means that they cannot be supported or tested in the way standard IP links can. 

Thomson Reuters do not provide support for any third party services. You will need to contact your third party service provider about configuring your settings. Due to security reasons, we would like to advise all users who are currently using third party services to access Westlaw that Westlaw Asia cannot guarantee the integrity of these links moving forward. 

We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience. 

Westlaw Asia Guide - Terms and Connectors

A list of Terms and Connectors you can use on Westlaw Asia.

Attachments

Weight
0

Westlaw Classic (Previously Known as Westlaw Next)

Enhancements

What is Westlaw Classic? 

To create clarity across our Westlaw offerings, Thomson Reuters Westlaw or Westlaw Next was renamed to Westlaw Classic in the product starting the 18th of August 2020. Westlaw Classic customers will not experience any contractual changes. They will still...

Date & Time