TIPS ON SEARCHING
LawHelp.org/NY uses the Verity search engine. This supports both simple word searches and boolean queries - meaning that you can refine your queries using logical operators such as "and", "or" and "not". The information below introduces how to search this site, and covers:
What is searched?
Search indexes include all of the major fields associated with each piece of content (Title, Author, Description), and includes the body of file attachments in most common file formats, including Word, WordPerfect, Excel, HTML and most PDF files.
Basic Queries
Most queries can be written by entering the words and phrases you are interested in.
Words: If you want to see documents dealing with custody you can start with a single-word query, such as:
| protection |
Your query finds all items that include the word "protection." |
Phrases: To see documents that refer to a series of words that occur in a specific order, such as "order of protection" or "in forma pauperis," enter the whole phrase:
| order of protection |
Your query finds only items that include that exact phrase in that exact order. |
Note: Searches will be case-insensitive unless you use uppercase. The query apple will return Apple, apple or even aPpLe, whereas the query Apple will return only Apple. This means that all search words should be in lower-case, unless you are searching for a word that always has the same capitalization.
Refining Queries
You can make your queries more specific by combining the words you used for basic queries with operators. Operators are special words that are used to indicate logical relationships between the descriptive terms that make up your query.
| and |
Returns results containing all specified words regardless of order. |
| or |
Returns results containing any of the specified words, regardless of order. |
| not |
Eliminates results containing a specified word.
Ex: "support not spousal" |
| <near> |
Returns results containing specified search terms in proximity to each other.
Ex: "Aker <near> Kennedy" returns results with the case name Aker v. Kennedy |
<sentence>
<paragraph> |
Returns results where the word before and after the operator must be in the same sentence or paragraph.
Ex: "custody <paragraph> protective order" |
" "
(double quotes) |
Use quotes to make sure that only the specific word is found. (Can also be used to find phrases.)
Ex: " bank" will only find the word bank and not banking, banked or banker. |
| ? |
Wildcard operator that represents any one character. You can use a ? to specify the first letter of a word.
Ex: " mari?uana" |
| * |
Wildcard operator that represents one or more characters. You cannot use a * to specify the first letter of a word.
Ex: " bank*" (finds bank and bankrupt) |
Search Results
Search Results are displayed by tool, with the first 3 results for each tool visible on the default results page. Click on the "more..." link below any set of results to see additional returns.
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