Operator

How it works

Example

DEFAULT OPERATOR

when no operator is specified, ADJ is assumed

emotional distress damages; will find that exact phrase in the document; also used to search for a case by its citation – 123 P.2d 456

adj

proximity operator, immediate

anticipatory adj breach will find documents where the word anticipatory is immediately adjacent to the word breach
Note: if no operator is specified, ADJ is assumed

and

Finds both query terms

ethics and violation will find documents containing both ethics and violation

or

finds either query term

suspend or disbar will find documents containing either the term suspend or the term disbar

and not

finds first query term then excludes documents that also contain second query term

malpractice and not medical will find documents containing malpractice but do not contain the word medical

w/n

Proximity operator, finds query term within specified number of words of another query term

reckless w/5 misrepresentation will find documents where the word misrepresentation appears no more than five words on either side of the word reckless, e.g., reckless in his misrepresentation of the facts

Note: Stop words are counted as words when using the w/n search operator; negligent and intentional spoliation of evidence counts as six (6) words.

?

wildcard; single character

a?e will find ace, age, ale, ape, ate, awe; wom?n will find woman, women

*

wildcard; any string of characters

jud*ment will find judgment, judgement; negligen* will find negligent, negligence, negligently

( )

scope delimiters, used to group alternate search terms

(accountant or auditor) and (fraud or reckless or negligent)