Unit 7 Assignment: Keycite for Current Information
Kaplan University

PA201-04
Legal Research
February 5, 2012

The ability to Keycite primary and secondary sources of law is a very important tool provided by the Westlaw database. With this tool, the ability to know whether a law is still “good law” is very simple to do. Keycite can also be used to find other sources of law that can be helpful to the case we are researching, making it a valuable multipurpose program in Westlaw. It can narrow results using West's digest topics and key numbers which makes it easy to pinpoint other cases dealing with the particular issue that is being researched (Teshima, 1999). Ruetgers-Nease Chemical Co. Inc. v. Firemen's Ins. of Newark, 566 A.2d 227 (N.J. Super. 1989), is a case where the plaintiff brought declaratory action to establish insurance coverage because of environmental contamination claims that were made against it. The insurance company did not want to cover the claims and moved to dismiss it for lack of jurisdiction. The court denied the motion and affirmed the chemical company’s claim because they have insolvent carriers that provides long-arm jurisdiction in New Jersey. The parallel citation to this case is 236 N.J. Super. 473. By using Kecite I found that the earliest case to cite this one is Rhulen Agency, Inc. v. Alabama Ins. Guar. Ass'n, 896 F.2d 674, 677 (2nd Cir. (N.Y.) 1990). Nine years later it was criticized in the case of Texas Property and Cas. Ins. Guar. Ass'n v. Boy Scouts of America, 947 S.W.2d 682, 687 (Tex. App. 1999). However, in this same year it was also given positive treatment by General Elec. Co. v. California Ins. Guar. Ass'n, 997 S.W.2d 923, 933 (Tex. App. 1999). Keycite provides a section that separates positive treating cases from the negative ones, making it easy to distinguish both of them. It also lets me know