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How to Create a Litigant Alert on Lexis CourtLink

Document ID

Document ID HT7186

Product

  • Lexis® CourtLink®

Category

  • Product Features

  • Legal Search

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Litigant Alerts on the Lexis® CourtLink® service look for newly filed cases containing the name of a particular litigant or litigants in the Litigants or Participants sections of a docket. You can create a Litigant Alert on the home page or from the results list.  

Note: If a party is added to a case after the initial filing, the service does not retrieve the case in a Litigant Alert because the Litigant Alert only runs against new dockets. 
 
Create a Litigant Alert from the Home Page
Litigant Alert Search Tips		 Create a Litigant Alert from the Results List
Create a Litigant Alert Page Options
 

Create a Litigant Alert from the Home Page 


Take the following steps to create a Litigant Alert on the home page:
  1. Select Dockets from the Search for drop-down list.
  2. Select your court from the Within drop-down list. 
  3. Enter your criteria in the Litigant field.
    Note: If the Litigant field is not available on your selected courts, you see the following message: You won’t receive results from these courts. Click these courts in the message to see the list of courts which do not support searching by Litigant field.
  4. Select Plaintiff, Defendant, Other or any combination of those choices to designate a party type for the litigant.
  5. (Optional) Click Add More to add an additional Litigant field. You can use up to five Litigant fields.
    Note: If you are looking for multiple litigants, select one of the following above the fields:
    •  AND to find dockets with all litigants.
    • OR to find dockets with one or more of the litigants.
  6. (Optional) Enter any additional search terms that you want to include as part of the search in the Keywords field.
  7. Click Create Alert.
  8. Select the options you want to use for the alert in the Litigant Alerts window. For more information about the available options, see Create a Litigant Alert Page Options below.
  9. Click Create Alert.

If you enter terms in the Keywords field as well as in the Litigant field(s), these terms are connected with an AND connector. You cannot connect the terms with an AND NOT connector. This works this way while creating an Alert or a search.  


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Create a Litigant Alert from the Results List 


Take the following steps to create a Litigant Alert from the Results list:
  1. Click Create an alert  near the top of the page. 
    Note:  If you used Search Within Results or the filters before creating the Alert, this additional criteria is added to your Alert.
  2. Select the options you want to use for the alert in the Litigant Alerts window. For more information about the available options, see Create a Litigant Alert Page Options below.
  3. Click Create Alert.

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Litigant Alert Search Tips 

 
Ampersands (&)

Note:  The ampersand is not the equivalent of the word AND.
  • When searching for a litigant name that has an ampersand in its name such as AT&T, omit the ampersand when searching for their name in the Litigant field. Enter the terms in the Litigant field with a space where the ampersand would be:  at t. 
Apostrophes (')
  • Apostrophes are searched when using the Litigant field.  If you are not sure if a name has an apostrophe in it, search with and without the apostrophe to ensure you retrieve both possible variations.
Business Names
  • Omit abbreviations like Inc., LLC., etc. as the court may or may not use these. 
  • Use quotation marks to keep the litigant's name together without any intervening terms. 
Carets
  • The caret is not a valid character in the Litigant field.
Hyphens (-)
  • Hyphens are ignored.
Individual Litigant Name
  • Avoid searching for common last names with no other criteria. Most courts allow you to search by last name only, but only do this when you are not sure about the first name.
  • CO - District and County Courts require at least 2 letters of the first name in order to search for an individual litigant.
  • The following courts require a first and last name in order to search for an individual litigant:
    • Indiana state courts
    • Missouri state courts
    • Washington District and Municipal Courts
Middle Initials
  • Avoid using middle initials whenever possible because the court may not have entered a middle initial. 
Noise Words
  • Noise words are ignored. For a list of noise words, see Noise Words on Lexis CourtLink . If a party name includes noise words, search with the name in quotation marks. For example, search "agency for the performing arts". 
Periods
  • Periods are read as a space.
Quotation Marks
  • Use quotation marks to keep litigant names together with no intervening terms. 


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Create a Litigant Alert Page Options 


When creating any of the alert types, some of the options may differ slightly based on the alert type, but the pages generally have the same options and selections. Use the following table for additional information about fields and options you see when creating an alert.

 

Tab Options
Overview

Title: Enter a name for the alert you see in your list of alerts. The Title defaults to the terms used for your alert.

Description: Enter information describing the purpose of the alert or any other information you find helpful.

Litigant: This displays the litigants you entered in the Litigant field(s).

Client: Select a Recent client or enter a New client to associate with your alert.
Monitor

This displays what will be searched for the alert and the terms that will be used for the alert.

Categories: For a Litigant Alert, you see that CourtLink will monitor Dockets.

Narrowed By: This displays the search string that includes the litigants you entered in the Litigant field(s) and any additional terms or filters you applied, such as terms from the Keyword field or the court you selected.
Deliver

Duration: Select a Start and End date. The service defaults to 2 years from the date you create the alert and the maximum End date is 2 years from the current date.

Delivery type: Select Online only to view your results Online only or Email + Online if you prefer to receive email notifications in addition to viewing results online.

The following options only appear when you select Email + Online as the Delivery type:

Email address: Enter an email address in the field and click Add recipient. You can add up to 50 email addresses.
Note: If you have already created an alert in CourtLink, the email address you used to create that alert automatically appears. If this is your first time creating an alert, you will need to manually add your email address.

Attachment Options: Select Include documents as attachments (up to 10MB) to receive full text delivery of alert results. You can select PDF or DOCX formats.

When you select Include documents as attachments, you see the option to select Zip files:

  • Select Zip files to combine all documents into one zip file attached to the email.
  • If you do not select Zip files, each full text document is attached to the email individually.
 

There is a limit of 100 full text documents that can be attached, in addition to the current 10 MB total email size limit. Depending on the size of the full text documents, you may not get all documents attached to the email because of the size limit. You can still see all the results using the links in the email or going to the alert results on CourtLink.
 

Frequency: Select As updates are available Daily, Business Daily, Weekly, or Monthly to receive notification of new alert results by email. You can still check for new results online at any time regardless of your Frequency selection. You only receive an email at the designated frequency when there are new results matching your alert criteria.

When you select Daily, Business Daily, Weekly, or Monthly you see options to select the time, day, or date to receive the email.


The following options only appear when you select Daily, Business Daily, Weekly, or Monthly as the Frequency:

Email Notifications: Select one of the following to choose how you want to receive the email notifications:

  • Only when an update occurs - you only get the email notifications when there are updates for the alert. You will not get emails if there are no updates.
  • Every time the alert is run, even if no update occurs - you get emails at your selected frequency, regardless of whether there are updates.
Share

Note: Some users do not have the option to share alerts. If you do not have the Share tab and would like more information about that functionality, contact your LexisNexis® Account Representative.

Enter a user's name: Enter the name of a user within your organization or email address of a user with whom you want to share your alert then click Add to share.
Note: When you enter a name in the Share tab, the service does not provide information about whether the person is an active CourtLink user.

Added Contacts: This is the list of users with whom you shared this alert.


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