By Brian Malcom  

If this hasn't happened to you yet, it most likely will. You are on the road, away from your desk, away from a computer, and you need to research an issue or pull a case.  What do you do?   

One solution might be to call a friend or your assistant, ask them to pull a case and send you an email so that you can read it on your PDA.  This may be a good solution if you are just looking for a case and have the citation readily available.  However, if you are researching a specific issue or are not quite sure of the case you are looking for, this may not be a practical solution.   

Westlaw Wireless is a very useful tool in this situation.  All lawyers should be aware of this tool, but young lawyers will likely use the resource more often.  While not perfect or pretty, Westlaw Wireless is fast.  At times, this may be its most important feature.  Westlaw has streamlined their site in an effort to make it more compatible with PDAs.  The site prompts you to enter your login information and the client ID.  Then, you are taken to a text menu with the following options:

• Find a Document - allows yo to search for a document by citation or party name

• Find&Print - allows you to find a document by citation and deliver the ful text or KeyCite information for the eocument to an email address or Westlaw printer

• KeyCite a Citation - allows you to enter a citation and immediately retrieve KeyCite information and citing references

• Search Westlaw - perhaps the most versatile tool on Westlaw Wireless.  It allows you to select a popular database from a drop down menu or enter a database name and search for the database.  Then, you can search within the selected database using a terms and connectors search or a natural language search.  Westlaw Wireless will then display twenty (20) results per page.