Legal Research Basics: Methods of Finding Cases: Full-Text Searching

Basic Search

• Enter your search terms in the main search bar
• Optional: pre-filter your search by choosing a specific jurisdiction
• Search
• Change the view of your search results to Cases (left-hand side of screen)
• You can sort your list of results (from the top of the list) by: relevance, date, most cited, and most used
• Narrow results by: searching within results for new terms, limiting the jurisdiction, limiting the date, choosing reported or unreported cases, choosing civil or criminal cases, or limiting by a specific judge, attorney, law firm, party, or docket number
  • NOTE: Another narrowing option for your results, between Law Firm and Party, is to narrow by Key Number.  For more information on Key Numbers, see Westlaw Key Numbers on the next page of this guide.

Advanced Search

• WestlawNext also offers an advanced search option, available by clicking the 'advanced' link to the right of the orange Search button.  This will give you different options for defining what search results you get, including:
  • A term frequency option, which allows you to restrict your search results to those documents that contain your search terms a certain number of times.
  • A description of other Connectors and Expanders you can use to refine your search string
  • Field searching - search for your terms in specific parts of a document
• NOTE: Advanced Search in WestlawNext is much more powerful when you use it within a subset of the database.  This is because the available fields you can search in change depending on what part of the database you're planning to search. 
  • For instance, to use advanced search for cases, it would be better to click on Cases in the All Content tab within the Browse Box and then click the 'advanced' link next to the Search button.  You will then have case-specific fields to search.
  • Not sure which field to search in a case?  In the Advanced Search box, you should see a picture of a document on the right.  Click on this and you'll see an annotated case opinion, highlighting the different possible fields to search.

For more information on search strategies in WestlawNext, consult our Search Strategies research guide.

Lexis Advance has only one search bar, but you can use it for both basic and advanced searching:

• Enter search terms in the main search bar
• Optional: pre-filter your results by choosing a content type, jurisdiction, and/or practice area and topic (below the search bar)
  • If you've added anything to your Favorites or would like to repeat a search you've done recently, you should see these in your Recent & Favorites list, also below the search bar.
• Tip: click the Search Tips link to help create advanced searches from the main search bar
  • This link will show you a list of available Connectors you can use to construct your searches in Lexis as well as how to run a Shepard's search to pull up a document's Shepard's report.
• Search
• Select Cases from the list of content types to the left of the results list.
• Sort results by: relevance (default), document title, jurisdiction, or date (top-right of results list)
• Narrow results by: searching within results for more keywords, limiting jurisdiction, court, timeline, source, practice area & topic, attorney, law firm, most cited, keyword, and/or judge (narrowing options are on the left side of the screen)

For more information on search strategies in Lexis Advance, consult our Search Strategies research guide.

There are several ways to enter searches in Bloomberg Law.  The simplest is to go directly to the <GO> bar at the top:

• Enter your search terms
• Watch for the list of suggested searches to populate - select All Legal Content
• On the left of the screen, narrow search results by:
  • Changing Search Criteria - in the Search Criteria box, click Modify
    • Enter a specific source in the Select Sources box, or
    • Choose your sources manually using the box provided - you can select content type, jurisdiction, or practice area using the tabs at the top of Select Sources box.
    • Once you've made your selection, scroll to the bottom of the screen, modify your keyword search and date if needed, and hit Search
  • Filter your Results (below Search Criteria box) - by content type
  • Tip: While looking at your search results, if you want to improve your search string, click the Search Help link to the right of the green Search button.  This will tell you what kind of connectors and expanders you can use to strengthen your searching.

For more information on search strategies in Bloomberg Law, consult our Search Strategies research guide.