Did you know that roughly 35% of a new associate’s time is spent doing legal research?
To help further develop your skills, the Law Library has a popular Excellence in Legal Research Program that provides instruction in advanced research techniques.
By taking part in this program, you will become a more efficient and effective researcher who will impress your future employer.
The Excellence in Legal Research is an extracurricular research program that will help you develop your research skills. Although you won’t receive course credit, you will become a more efficient and effective researcher, and you’ll impress your future employer!
There are many ways you may choose to run a search through a legal research database. You may be more familiar with the use of keyword searching in which you enter a few terms that describe what you’re looking for. Your typical Google search is a great example of how we use this method daily. Although this method may be helpful for quick and easy research, you’ll want alternatives when conducting more complex legal research.
What are Boolean search terms and connectors?
A boolean search is conducted by entering a few specific terms and symbols that tell the search engine what you want it to return and/or what you want it to exclude. These specific terms can be used with connectors to specify the relationship between those terms. For instance, you may specify your terms be used in the same sentence (/s) or the same paragraph (/p). Boolean searching allows you to have full control over the types of results you see. This is especially useful when trying to narrow your results and cut down your research time.
The following is a table of Boolean terms and connectors that may be used to run a search through a legal research database like Westlaw or LexisNexis. Each database contains a list of connectors you may use which can be found in the advanced search.
Westlaw Connectors:
Term
Explanation
Example
& (AND)
Results shown will include both search terms.
Landlord AND Tenant. Your results will show only resources that include both the terms Landlord and Tenant. You will not receive results with only one of the terms.
Use a Space (OR)
Results shown will include at least one of your search terms.
Landlord OR Tenant. Your results will show resources that include either the term Landlord or the term Tenant or both terms.
NOT
Results shown will exclude words after NOT.
Landlord NOT Tenant. Your results will show resources that include the term Landlord and exclude the term Tenant.
n/
Replace the n with a number to receive results of search terms within “n” words of each other.
Landlord /3 Tenant will show you results that contain the term Tenant within 3 words of the term Landlord.
s/
Results shown will include terms within the same sentence.
Landlord /s Tenant will show you results of the terms Landlord and Tenant within the same sentence.
p/
Results shown will include terms within the same paragraph.
Landlord /p Tenant will show you results of the terms Landlord and Tenant within the same paragraph.
!
Results shown will include different root endings of a term.
Damag! will show you results with any words that start with Damag such as: Damages, Damaging, Damaged.
*
This allows for the results to show different letters where you include an asterisk.
Plea* will show you results with any word that has a letter where the asterisk is such as: Pleas, Plead.
“ “
Results shown will include the exact terms within the quotation marks.
“Plea bargain” will only return results with the terms Plea Bargain as opposed to Plea and Bargain separately.
( )
Can be used for group search terms.
Property AND (Landlord OR Tenant) will show results that include the term Property and either the term Landlord or Tenant.
+s
Results shown will include the first term preceding the second within the same sentence.
Landlord +s Property will show results that include the term Landlord preceding the term Property within the same sentence.
+p
Results shown will include the first term preceding the second within the same paragraph.
Landlord +p Property will show results that include the term Landlord preceding the term Property within the same paragraph.
% (but not)
Results shown will exclude terms after the % symbol.
Landlord % Tenant will show results that include the term Landlord but not the term Tenant.
+n
Results shown will include the first term preceding the second within n terms of each other (where n is a number)
Landlord +3 Property will show results that include the term Landlord preceding the term Property within three terms of each other.
#
Results shown will exclude plurals and equivalents.
Perm# will not include terms such as permanent or permission.
LexisNexis Connectors:
Term
Explanation
Example
& (AND)
Results shown will include both search terms.
Landlord AND Tenant. Your results will show only resources that include both the terms Landlord and Tenant. You will not receive results with only one of the terms.
Use a Space (OR)
Results shown will include at least one of your search terms.
Landlord OR Tenant. Your results will show resources that include either the term Landlord or the term Tenant or both terms.
w/n or near/n or /n
Results shown will find documents where the service locates the first term within a specified number of words of the second term.
Landlord w/3 Tenant will show you results that contain the term Tenant within 3 words of the term Landlord.
AND NOT
Results shown will exclude terms after AND NOT.
Landlord AND NOT Tenant will show results that include the term Landlord but not the term Tenant.
Pre/n
Use pre/n to find documents where the service locates the first term within a specified number of words before the second term.
pre/n connector is used in situations where a different word order changes the meaning of a statement. For example, “summary judgment” is different than “judgment summary”, so for results that include summary judgment, enter: summary pre/2 judgment
w/sent
Results shown will include terms within the same sentence.
Landlord w/sent Tenant will show you results of the terms Landlord and Tenant within the same sentence.
w/para
Results shown will include terms within the same paragraph.
Landlord w/para Tenant will show you results of the terms Landlord and Tenant within the same paragraph.
w/seg
Results will show documents where the service locates search terms in the same segment of a document, approximately within 100 words of each other.
Landlord w/seg Tenant will show you results of to find Landlord in the same segment, within approximately 100 words of Tenant.
pre/p or +p
Results shown will include the first term preceding the second within the same paragraph.
Landlord pre/p Property will show results that include the term Landlord preceding the term Property within the same paragraph.
pre/s
Results shown will include the first term preceding the second within the same sentence.
Landlord pre/s Property will show results that include the term Landlord preceding the term Property within the same sentence.
not w/n
Results will include the first term where there is no mention of the second term by at least the specified number of words. (Where n is a number)
Landlord not w/3 Property will show results that include the term Landlord not within three terms of the term Property.
not w/s or not w/sent
Results will include the first term where there is no mention of the second term by at least a sentence.
Landlord not w/s Property will show results that include the term Landlord not within a sentence of the term Property.
not w/p
Results will include the first term where there is no mention of the second term by at least a paragraph.
Landlord not w/p Property will show results that include the term Landlord not within a paragraph of the term Property.
not w/seg
Results will include the first term where there is no mention of the second term by at least a segment (approximately 100 words).
Landlord not w/seg Property will show results that include the term Landlord not within a segment of the term Property.
ELR is a extracurricular legal research program. The interactive classes help you to develop your research skills. Email excellenceinlegalresearch.law@ttu.edu to sign up.
You can learn more about the program by going to the ELR guide.
Scholarly legal research is not an easy task. Whether you are writing for a law school journal, an advanced writing course, a CLE, or a legal magazine, the process is likely going to be largely the same.. All writing endeavors begin at the same place: research. Especially in today’s digital age, information (and misinformation) is so easy come by, and it comes and goes more quickly than ever. On top of the speed at which information comes and goes, it is even harder to hold a potential reader’s attention for longer than the length of a TikTok video.
Well, the process doesn’t have to be so daunting. And whether or not your work gets read, gets published, or gets an “A” does not mean that the legal research process has been a waste of your time. As up-and-coming legal scholars, all of our most valuable skills come together and are strengthened throughout the legal research process. Below you will find some resources and tips for getting started and staying organized throughout your writing project.
Choose a topic that interests you. If you are going to spend the amount of time and energy that scholarly legal research requires, try to choose a topic that you get excited about. This is the step where spending extra time can go a long way—you will thank yourself later if every time you sit down to research or write you don’t fall asleep or feel like throwing your laptop out of the window. This is also the step where you get to be as creative as you want to be when it comes to research. Some good places to get topic ideas include blogs, news outlets, or tracking current legislation.
Secondary Sources—use them! Secondary sources are the quickest way to find relevant cases, statutes, and regulations on point. Examples of secondary sources include: scholarly articles, treatises, and legal encyclopedias. If you are writing a student comment or a paper for a writing course, do a quick search for other articles written on something close to your topic. I like to think of secondary sources as letting someone else do the background research for me. When you research secondary sources, you are checking a lot of boxes off of your scholarly research to-do list:
Preemption check
Background research on your topic
Quickly locating primary authority on your topic
Wow! Did you know you were being so productive, just by locating some articles and skimming O’Connor’s? However, don’t stop there. It’s important to stay organized while you do this!
Staying organized. Lastly, the importance of organizing your research can’t be stressed enough. Just as it is important to do good legal research, it is important to keep track of your research so that you do not unnecessarily repeat work. Utilizing folders on Westlaw and Lexis is a good way to stay organized. If you like hard copies, print out your research and create a research binder. For more information, visit our scholarly research guide https://libguides.law.ttu.edu/scholarlyresearch
If you get stuck, feel free to reach out to your friendly neighborhood law librarians!
The Reporter 