Quick Tips for Loislaw

Click on a question below:

• What's the fastest way to find all materials that reference a particular case, law or regulation?
• How should I format a search when I'm looking for a proper name, say in a case title?
• How current are Loislaw’s case law databases?
• What Boolean connectors and wild cards are utilized for Loislaw word searching?
• Why is it that after copying and pasting a selection of text into the Loislaw Find Cases by Citation box, the number of retrieved cases often does not match the number of case citations entered?

What's the fastest way to find all materials that reference a particular case, law or regulation?

After you've retrieved a case, law or regulation within Loislaw, take advantage of the GlobalCite function which automatically searches Loislaw’s entire collection of databases (even if outside of your subscription, at no additional cost!) GlobalCite provides a categorized results list of all material that cite the current or 'active' document, and can help you determine whether a case is still good law.

From any document, click the GlobalCite command (in the lower left corner of your Loislaw screen) to open the GlobalCite results pane. You'll see the total number of citing documents, listed by content type. You can sort cases in ascending/reverse chronological order, drill down to a specific court, and view case treatment terms highlighted in blue.

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How should I format a search when I'm looking for a proper name, say in a case title?

When searching for proper names, use NEAR3 as connector to force terms to occur within 3 words of each other. Proper names, such as the names of appellants or judges, or the names of buildings and landmarks, often appear inconsistently in the law. For example, some jurisdictions use middle initials in reference to judges, whereas others use the judges' full names. To cover the range of options, use the 'near' connector when searching for names.

For example:

• Type: william near3 johnson - to find 'william' within 3 terms of 'johnson' to locate occurences such as "William P. Johnson," "William Paul Johnson," "Johnson, William P.,".
• If a jurisdiction used just the first and middle initials, for example, W. P. Johnson, then type: W near3 P near3 Johnson.
• To combine the two above searches, type: (William or W) near3 (Paul or P) near3 Johnson

The NEAR connector can also be a short cut when looking for multiple names in a case name. For example, the case, Texas Teachers Assn. v. Garland School Dist., can be retrieved by searching in case name for: teachers near garland.

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How current are Loislaw’s case law databases?

Loislaw typically adds new cases to its databases within 24-48 hrs after the cases are released. To view the most recent cases:

From the Loislaw Start Page, use commands under Jurisdiction:

• Click Federal or State (and then desired state library)
• Click the red R next to a case law database to display the most recent cases from that court, going back about 30 days.
  

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What Boolean connectors and wild cards are utilized for Loislaw word searching?

Loislaw uses a simple, effective connector system that is a little different than other systems. Loislaw utilizes four connectors: AND, OR, NOT, NEAR and a few special characters:

• dog AND cat = both 'dog' and 'cat' must be found in the document
• dog NEAR cat = 'dog' and 'cat' must be no more than 20 words apart (default). You can specify a different proximity by tacking on a number. For example, dog near5 cat
• dog OR cat = one or the other term (or both) must be found in the document
• dog NOT cat = 'dog' must be found while the term 'cat' does not occur in same document.
• * (asterisk) = truncator. For example, child* = childless, childish, childbearing.
• ? (question mark) = replaces a single character. For example, si?nk = sink, sank or sunk.
• ~ (tilde) = Thesaurus. Activated by placing ~ (the tilde symbol, top left of your keyboard) in front of a term.

For additional information, click the “Online Help” link at the bottom right of any Loislaw display to open additional instructional material.

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Why is it that after copying and pasting a selection of text into the Loislaw Find Cases by Citation box, the number of retrieved cases often does not match the number of case citations entered?

Most likely the results list is correct. Two possible reasons for this "apparent" discrepancy are:

1. Many cases have more than one citation number, an official and a parallel citation. For example: 384 U.S. 436 and 86 S.CT. 1602 are the citations for the case Miranda v. Arizona. If you input both cites into the Find Cases by Citation box only one case will be retrieved. (There would be little purpose to show the Miranda case twice on our results list). Legal writing rules require the inclusion of all citations when referencing case law, so anytime you copy and paste text from briefs, treatises or cases into the Find Cases by Citation box fewer results than citations entered are likely.
2. Sometimes multiple cases have the exact same citation. Often short or one line cases such as "cert. denied" or "appeal denied" will all be listed in case reporters on one page so that all of those cases have the same citation. For example: inputting the NY state case citation 16 N.Y.2d 614 into the Find Cases by Citation box retrieves two cases. So you may retrieve more results than citations entered in some instances.
   

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