CALI Lesson: Introduction to Search Logic and Strategies

Principal II.  A Successful Legal Researcher Gathers Information through Effective and Efficient research strategies.
Standard B.  An information-literate professional constructs and implements efficient, cost-effective search strategies.
Competencies 4. c.  Possess a basic understanding of the means by which online search engines process queries and generate results, including the potential of algorithmic bias associated with machine learning.

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There are a number of reasons why it is important to use terms and connectors in your searches.  One is that it focuses your attention on the search query – you need to think about what terms to use for your search (what terms would expect to see in the case, treatise, statute,, etc.) and how the search should be constructed to achieve the best search results.

The learning outcomes for this lesson were:
1. Create searches that work on both Westlaw and Lexis. 
2. Use parentheses to control the order of operations.
3. Change connectors to expand or limit search results.
4. Truncate terms that may appear in more than one way in documents.

You may want to consider periodically throughout law school to revisit the lesson to refresh your skills.

Consider this scenario:
You want to retrieve documents about a dog or canine or German Shepherd biting or scratching a suspect:

Which search is more likely to find a case on point?

 dog  AND bite AND suspect
dog OR canine OR “german shepherd” /S bit! OR scratch! /P suspect

Think about the first search – you are requiring Westlaw and Lexis to retrieve cases that have the terms Dog, Bite and Suspect to be anywhere in the case.  Dog could be on page one, Bite on page 25, and Suspect on page 30.  Clearly, the cases you are looking for may not be at the top of the results list.

And the second search – you are requiring Dog, Canine or “German Shepard” to be in the same sentence as Bite or Biting or Bitten or Scratch and that sentence to be in the same paragraph as Suspect.  Much more promising.

You still may need to adjust your search to find the best cases but you definitely will be further along with the second search.

Let’s say that you decide to adjust your search to be more specific.  You decide that you want to be sure that the case mentions a dog that works for the police department.

What would you do?

You want to be sure that the term “police” and “dog” were in close proximity to each other.  You might consider a phrase search if you were sure that judges would always use the phrase “police dog” in their opinions.  But, just in case, they do not.  Consider this addition: police +5 dog. The term “dog” must be within 5 words of the term “police.”

dog +5 police OR canine OR “german shepherd” /S bit! OR scratch! /P suspect

A search engine reads the connectors in a search string in a specified order. This is called the default “order of operation.”  Many of us had to “work with” the “order of operation” before it became a natural part of our search strategy.  You may want to keep it simple at the beginning and not include parenthesis, etc. until you feel comfortable in their use. 

But, I have seen way too many students keep their strategies way too simple – that is to say, simply using this type of search – “dog and bite and suspect.”   

This type of search does not harness the strengths of Lexis and Westlaw and will not be a productive search for you or your client. You may find “something” but in all probability you will have missed very useful results.  Remember the discussion in the lesson about “Overly Broad Searches” and “Overly Narrow Searches.”

From the Lesson:   
Keep it Simple

The easiest way to not get confused by the order of operation is to keep your searches simple until you decide to work on your advanced searching skills in the future. Then you could consult your system’s help screens to refresh your memory.

Single Term/Phrase Examples

blind! /S pedestrian /S hit!
blind! OR sightless /S pedestrian /S hit!
blind! OR sightless OR “impair! vision” /S pedestrian /S hit! OR strik!
blind! OR sightless OR “impair! vision” /S pedestrian /S hit! OR strik! AND “wrongful death”

Grouped Terms Example

blind OR (impair! /5 vision) /S pedestrian /S hit!
blind OR (impair! /5 vision) OR (wear! /5 glasses) /S pedestrian /S hit!

End of From the Lesson:

And, remember that you also have the ability to filter the results and to search within the search.

Remember that searching is a process.  It is an iterative process. You may want to keep notes on which searches worked and which did not. And, keep notes on filtering, etc.

You also need to consider the type of materials you are searching for.  Your search queries for cases may be different than your search queries for law review articles since the terms the author use and the placement within the materials may be different.  And you may decide for statutes that you will use a natural language search rather than a terms and connectors search since statutes are written very differently than cases.

The searches that most of us use for Google or Bing or any other search engine rarely will suffice in a complex, legal database.

In the discussion forum question,  you were asked to find cases dealing with the issues involved in a search of passengers arriving at MIA.  One of the questions asked why you did not necessarily find the same cases in Lexis and Westlaw.  One of the reasons for this question was to allow you to see the reason that when you are working on a research project you need to understand the search protocols of that database and you need to iterate the search process.