Using the "by Topic or Headnote" subtab to Find a Legal Topic

Use this search form to find legal materials based on areas of law and related legal topics. With the "by Topic or Headnote" search form, you can:

• Target your legal topic
  
  
• Identify an appropriate source
  
  
• Search case law for cases related to your topic
  
  
• Retrieve all LexisNexis® headnotes on your topic
  
  
• Retrieve cases that discuss your topic outside of headnotes
  
  

For more information, click one of the following links.

Selecting a Topic

To begin your research, you can choose either the topic you used most recently or All Topics, then click Find. Or, you can look for a topic.

Look for a Legal Topic

You can look for a topic using either of two options: "Find a Legal Topic" or "Explore Topics".

Option 1: Find a Legal Topic

Use Find a Legal Topic to search for legal topics anywhere within the topic classification system regardless of practice area. For example, a search on plan terminations will return topics under both Tax Law and Pensions & Benefits Law (among others).

To perform a search, enter a word or phrase relevant to the topic, then click Find. Note that the system will search both the topic title and content description for your search string.

Option 2: Explore Topics

Use Explore Topics to browse all the topics under a specific area of law by navigating the topic hierarchy, level by level. For example, you can browse two levels down into Labor & Employment Law to find the topic Plan Terminations.

To begin browsing, click a practice area to display an interactive "tree" representing its underlying topics. You can then expand the tree hierarchy until the lowest-level topic within a branch is displayed. You can also perform a content search on any level topic.

To view a summary of the content covered within a practice area, click the icon next to it. Topic summary Information can include a description of the topic, cross-references to related topics, and important search terms used to retrieve documents about the topic.

Click a topic to open an interactive representation of the topic taxonomy. Using this interactive list you can choose to further refine your search for a topic by navigating further down the hierarchy or performing a keyword search. Once you have located the desired topic, click the topic to open a search form. From the search form you can:

• Search for your topic across different sources
  
  
• Enter search terms to find cases related to your topic
  
  
• Retrieve all LexisNexis headnotes and additional cases related to your topic