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F.I.U. Library Home | About F.I.U. Libraries | Research |
Legal Research Pages: Basic Law — Citations & Abbreviations — Finding the Law — Databases — Connectors — Truncation, Wildcards
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Most databases allow the use of Boolean connectors as a means of specifying relationships between terms. There are 3 connectors which are fairly universal:
| OR | Used to give other, alternative terms: | "drugs or narcotics or meth" specifies that at least one of the terms mentioned must be in every case. | ||
| AND | Used to combine two topics: | "automobiles and theft" requires that both terms show up in every case selected. | ||
| AND NOT NOT | Used to exclude a term: | "cook and not 'cook county' specifies that cases including the second term be excluded. In the example given, all cases located in Chicago, IL, would be excluded because Chicago is located in Cook County, Illinois, regardless whether there was any other mention of cooks. |
Other options can vary from one database to another. Below is a brief, incomplete guide:
| STANDARD/ DESCRIPTION | LEXIS | WESTLAW | COMMENTS & EXAMPLES |
|---|---|---|---|
| OR | OR | OR, or use a space | Specifies alternative terms. This is about all you can do to increase your results, besides eliminating a topic. |
| AND | AND | AND or & | Specifies different topics to combine. |
| NOT AND NOT | AND NOT | % or NOT | Specifies terms to exclude cases. |
| W/n | W/n | /n | Find within "n" number of words; "Smith w/5 Wesson" means find cases where the word "smith" is within 5 words of "wesson", but without regard for which comes first. |
| PRE/n | PRE/n | +n | Find within "n" number of words in specified order: "Smith pre/3 Wesson" means find cases where the word "wesson" is preceded by "smith" within 3 words. |
| W/s | W/s | /s | Find within the same sentence: "fraud w/s 'real estate'" specifies that the word "fraud" must be found in at least one sentence which also contains "real estate" but the order is irrelevant. |
| W/p | W/p | /p | Find both words within the same paragraph. |
| W/seg | W/seg | Find both terms within the same segment of the case. |
While "AND" works well for joining topics in most databases of journals, it is usually too general in a database searching case law. In case law, you are actually searching the wording of decisions handed down by judges; these can be very lengthy. Therefore, it is better to use one of the proximity connectors (w/ or pre/, especially within the same paragraph) to focus your search.
In Lexis, because you are needing to write the search in a big box, put all terms with "OR" within a pair of parentheses ( ) to make sure the computer understands that they are to be treated as a set: (drugs or narcotics or amphetamines) w/p (automobiles or car or truck or SUV) This search would find cases that have one of the first 3 words in the same paragraph as one of the last 4 words.
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This page created and maintained by Steve Morris,
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Content Last Updated : August 26, 2009 |
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