Legal Studies Librarian
Understanding the Federal Government
WestLaw Search Tips
General Search Strategies
Types of Searches
There are three different types of searches in WestLaw:
- Natural language searching (using basic key terms in a general search box -- what you most likely do in tools like Google).
- Boolean searching (searching using specific operators, resulting in a kind of equation built of your search criteria. You may have encountered a version of this searching before with AND/OR/*).
- Field searching (searching for key terms in specific places in a document).
Tricks to Know
When just getting started, if you don't know exactly what you are looking for (i.e., a specific case), it's easiest to start with a very simple and broad, natural language search. Use as few key terms as possible. Then, use search within and the database filters to explore further.
- You can enter a singular version of a term ("contract") and WestLaw will also search for the plural ("contracts"). However, if you search for the plural ("contracts"), WestLaw will not look for the singular version.
- Hyphens matter! -- "rule making" vs. "rule-making" will produce different results.
- If you select a "Content Type" before searching and then go into Advanced Search, WestLaw will provide you with a list of the fields that you can search against and a diagram of where they are in the document ( very useful if you are not familiar with the parts of that document!). For example, here is the breakdown of fields for a Case.
Special [Boolean] Operators
You may have learned how to use simple Boolean operators -- such as AND, OR, NOT and/or the * -- in other research databases. WestLaw uses its own set of operators, called connectors and expanders: You can also find these operators in the Advanced Search menu of WestLaw.
*An important difference to note: While in most of our databases, "AND" is the default key term, in WestLaw the default is OR. So, while in CrossSearch a search for contract law would search for contract AND law, in WestLaw this will produce contract OR law,
| Operator | Meaning/Purpose |
|---|---|
|
& /s or +s /p " " +p % [a space] /n ! +n * # |
AND in the same sentence as... OR within the same sentence and before... in the same paragraph as.... [search for a specific phrase, ex. "Supreme Court"] within the same paragraph and before... but NOT OR within n words of expander -- ex. leg! = legal, legislative, etc. within n words before... universal character - wildcard prefix which turns off automatic searching for plurals, etc. |
Example:
breach! /3 contract /s third-party
searches for any term beginning with "breach" (breach, breaches, breached, etc.), within 3 words of the term "contract," within the same sentence as "third-party."