can school track student westlaw accounts Forum

[Anonymous User]

I, like 99% of law students get my westlaw/lexis access through the school. They give us a username and password and we then change the username/password to our own choice. My question is whether the school can still access my history, account info, etc or if my changing the username/password blocks it.

If so is there any way to clear history? I accidently did a few searches for work a while back on my westlaw account that are pretty obviously work related and I'd rather the school not see them. I had a westlaw login for work but I was working on school stuff and switched over to work stuff without thinking about switching logins until after the fact.

[ben4847]

previous posts have suggested that if westlaw figures it out they will be mad at you; and that they have software which looks for suspicious stuff.

[Anonymous User]

previous posts have suggested that if westlaw figures it out they will be mad at you; and that they have software which looks for suspicious stuff.

I'm more concerned about my school seeing it as it's considered a "violation of the student code of conduct" or of westlaw notifying the school.

[seatown12]

I had a westlaw login for work but I was working on school stuff and switched over to work stuff without thinking about switching logins until after the fact.

If you had a work login this was obviously a mistake and not an instance of you cheating the system.

[03121202698008]

I had a westlaw login for work but I was working on school stuff and switched over to work stuff without thinking about switching logins until after the fact.

If you had a work login this was obviously a mistake and not an instance of you cheating the system.

This, they don't care. Our rep specifically advised us if we were unsure of our work search to use our student account to get down the structure of our search and then swap over and re-run under the work login so we didn't run up a huge bill trying to figure out what to search.

[turbotong]

I don't really think Westlaw or Lexis would care too much. The whole point of the reps showering you with free access, points, lessons, swag, smiles, and other niceties is so that you will like using their program. They hope that later on when you actually have to pay hundreds of dollars per search, you will choose one over the competitor.
Now, if say Nexis decides to be mean to you and report you, you probably wouldn't like them very much and you would probably avoid using Nexis later on. Nexis then does not get your hundreds of dollars per search/hour/whatever. That is not what they want.

[turbotong]

That said, don't abuse it. You might force their reluctant hand if you do.

[Anonymous User]

I was very freaked out about this myself once. Then I reminded myself that my school doesn't have enough time and manpower to do much of anything effectively, let alone have someone sitting there monitoring every student's every Westlaw search.

The worst that Westlaw will do is simply send you a bill for the search if they find out. The problem could be with your school. I do know that a student got expelled for an honor code violation from a TTTT a few years back for abusing Lexis/Westlaw at his shitlaw internship.

[ben4847]

I was very freaked out about this myself once. Then I reminded myself that my school doesn't have enough time and manpower to do much of anything effectively, let alone have someone sitting there monitoring every student's every Westlaw search.

The worst that Westlaw will do is simply send you a bill for the search if they find out. The problem could be with your school. I do know that a student got expelled for an honor code violation from a TTTT a few years back for abusing Lexis/Westlaw at his s---law internship.

Yes, but I bet it was really egregious. Probably wasn't for researching 5 or 10 times over a summer when they his job didn't have access to certain stuff. Probably was more like that he was systematically using it to save them money, and that was half the reason he was hired.

It never makes sense to use your student account. If they don't have access, then you don't have it. It ain't your problem, and there is certainly no reason to do something unethical and fraudulent.

[Anonymous User]

I've worried about this too because I've used my school account to access materials that aren't available on the firm account.

[Anonymous User]

Was anyone actually charged?

[ben4847]

So apparently the big firms all pay a flat rate regardless of how much searching you do. The whole point of keeping track is so the firm can pass some of that to the client.
Seems to me it would make more sense to stop harassing the associates about how they search, and just let us be productive.