Westlaw Reclassifies Hundreds of Thousands of Digest Headnotes

This should be of interest to Canadians doing U.S. legal research.

Westlaw has introduced a number of changes to its Key Number topical classification system for case digests:

• Two new digest topics have been created: "Privileged Communications and Confidentiality" and "Protection of Endangered Persons"
• Complete revision of four topics: "Convicts and Prisons", "Disorderly Conduct", "Products Liability" (many points of law are classified once under the product type and again under the legal concept or procedure)
• Minor improvements in "Criminal Law", "Indians", "Infants", "Negligence", and "Process"
• Deletion of "Breach of the Peace", now part of the topic "Disorderly Conduct"

The changes mean the reclassification of more than 300,000 headnotes.

[Source: Law Librarian Blog]