1. TERMS AND CONNECTORS SEARCHING
ON WESTLAW
West’s Instructional Aids Series

2. CONTENT
• Introduction
• Terms
• Connectors
• Fields
• Conclusion
2

3. INTRODUCTION
• Terms and Connectors searching on Westlaw is
based on Boolean logic developed from the
theories of 19th century mathematician George
Boole. You’ll often hear a Terms and Connectors
search called a Boolean search.
3

4. ANXIETY OVER TERMS AND
CONNECTORS SEARCHING
• Beginning and experienced researchers alike, often
shy away from Terms and Connectors searching
because
– “it has to be exactly right or it won’t work”; or
– “the rules about which connector to use and the order of
processing are too complicated.”
• Neither perception is true. Although it takes a
little thought to construct an effective Terms and
Connectors search, this type of search is based on
simple rules and logical choices, not higher
mathematics.
4

5. WHY USE TERMS AND CONNECTORS
SEARCHING?
• All databases on Westlaw can be searched using
Terms and Connectors.
• Most, but not all, databases can be searched using
Natural Language.
• Terms and Connectors searching is very precise.
5

6. WHEN TO USE TERMS AND CONNECTORS
SEARCHING?
• You are looking for particular terms;
• You are searching for a particular document; or
• You need all documents containing specific
information, such as
– all cases classified under a particular key number
– all newspaper articles that mention a specific company, or
– all statutes containing a particular term.
6

7. CONSTRUCTING A SEARCH:
THE ITAC METHOD
• ITAC stands for: Issue, Terms, Alternatives,
Connectors.
• Issue is defined in legal terminology.
• Terms that are essential are selected.
• Alternative terms that are reasonable are selected.
• Connectors that connect the terms in reasonable
relationships are added.
7

8. STEPS IN CONSTRUCTING A TERMS AND
CONNECTORS SEARCH USING ITAC
• Step 1: Clearly state the ISSUE, using legal
terminology whenever possible.
– Stating your issue as a question is a good way to clarify
your thoughts. For example:
• “Is a social host liable for injuries caused by his intoxicated
guests?”
• Step 2: Select a few key TERMS from your issue.
– Using three to five key terms works well for most issues.
For example:
• host injury intoxicated guest or host intoxicated guest
8

9. STEPS IN CONSTRUCTING A SEARCH
CONT.
• Step 3: Enter reasonable ALTERNATIVE terms for
your key terms.
– Use acronyms and antonyms as well as synonyms.
– A term that may seem to have little relationship to a key
term may be a reasonable alternative. For example:
• The host of a party could be a corporation, an association, or
a club
• Try using:
– host hostess  corporation association club
– intoxicated  drunk D.U.I. D.W.I. sober
– guest  attendee invitee
9

10. STEPS IN CONSTRUCTING A SEARCH
CONT.
• Step 4: Add appropriate CONNECTORS to specify
the relationship you want each term and its
alternatives to have to the other terms and their
alternatives. For example:
– host hostess corporation association club /p intoxicated
drunk D.U.I. D.W.I. sober /s guest attendee invitee
• Once you get the hang of Terms and Connectors
searching, it’s fun.
10

11. CONTENT
• Introduction
• Terms
• Connectors
• Fields
• Conclusion
11

12. TERMS
• For this exercise, let’s assume you want to retrieve
all cases in a database that address the following
issue:
– A social host’s liability for injuries caused by intoxicated
guests.
• There is no right or wrong way to construct a
search; just proceed using common sense.
• Host, intoxicated, and guest will be the key terms
for this exercise.
• We could have chosen more terms but it’s wise to
stick with the essential terms.
12

13. TERMS
• Get into the habit of placing your key words in a
horizontal line in your mind, if not actually on
paper.
host
hostess
intoxicated
drunk
alcohol
guest
attendee
invitee
•
Under each key word add any word that is a
reasonable alternative.
•
You can probably think of additional alternatives
for the exercise, but right now, let’s keep this
exercise simple.
13

14. USING THE THESAURUS TO FIND
ALTERNATIVE TERMS
The Thesaurus feature
on Westlaw provides
synonyms & acronyms
for your query’s key
words and lets you
add them to your
search.
Alternatives
NOTE: The Thesaurus does
not provide antonyms and
other irregular alternatives.
You can always add these
terms yourself.
14

15. EXPANDERS: MAKING THE MOST OF
TERMS
• The Root Expander (!)
– The root expander (!) retrieves all extensions of words
with variant endings (up to 16 characters).
• For example: drunk! retrieves drunk, drunken, and drunkard.
– Be careful not to truncate your root term too severely.
• For example: depo! retrieves not only forms of deposition, but
also deposit, depositor, deposited, deport, deportation, etc.
15

16. EXPANDERS: MAKING THE MOST OF
TERMS
• The Universal Character (*)
– The Universal Character (*) is used in place of a letter
(like a wild card or a blank tile in Scrabble).
• For example: dr*nk retrieves drank, drink, and drunk.
– The universal character cannot be used in place of the
first letter of a word.
– When you place the universal character within a term, it
requires that a character appear in that position.
• For example: fea*t retrieves feast but not feat.
– The universal character can be used at the end of a term
to specify how many letters may be added.
• For example: object** would retrieve object, objects, and
objected but not objective.
16

17. EXPANDERS: MAKING THE MOST OF
TERMS
• More than one expander can be used in a term.
– Try s****holder, which retrieves both shareholder and
stockholder.
– Also try dr*nk!, which retrieves drank, drink, drinkable,
drunk, drinking, drunken, and drunkard.
17

18. TERMS: AUTOMATIC ENHANCEMENTS
• The singular form of a word automatically retrieves
the plural and possessive forms of the word,
including irregular forms.
• The plural or possessive, however, will not retrieve
the singular. For example:
– woman retrieves women, woman’s, and women’s
– women or woman’s will not retrieve woman.
• Use the singular form of a word unless you have a
good reason not to.
• You can turn off plurals of a particular term by
placing the # symbol in front of the term. To
retrieve damage but not damages, type #damage.
18

19. TERMS: AUTOMATIC ENHANCEMENTS
• When searching statutes, the section number will
automatically retrieve subdivisions.
– For instance, search term 415 also retrieves 415.5,
415(b), and 415(b)(1)(A).
– However, a search for 415.1 or 415(b) will not retrieve 415
by itself.
• This is helpful when you are looking for mention of
a statute that may or may not be cited as a
particular paragraph or section.
19

20. TERMS: AUTOMATIC EQUIVALENCIES
• Most accepted variations of the spelling of a term
will retrieve other accepted variations:
– Judgment = Judgement
– Millennium = Millenium
• Automatic numerical and postal equivalencies are
built into Westlaw. For example:
–
–
–
–
Three = 3
First = 1st
New York = NY
Avenue = Ave.
• Placing the # symbol in front of a term also turns off
the automatic retrieval of equivalencies. To retrieve
perm but not permanent, type #perm.
20

21. TERMS: OTHER ENHANCEMENTS
• Hyphenate compound words in your search.
• A hyphenated term will retrieve the term whether it
is one word, two words, or a hyphenated word.
– For example: good-will retrieves good will, good-will, or
goodwill.
• If you have any question whether a word might or
might not be hyphenated, add the hyphen. It can’t
hurt.
21

22. TERMS: OTHER ENHANCEMENTS
• Use periods between the letters of an acronym to
retrieve all variations of the acronym, including:
– periods between letters
– spaces between letters
– periods and spaces between the letters
– no period or spaces between letters
• For example: E.P.A. retrieves E.P.A, E P A,
E. P. A., and EPA.
22

23. CONTENT
• Introduction
• Terms
• Connectors
• Fields
• Conclusion
23

24. CONNECTORS
• After you have decided on the terms that you will
use in your search, the next step is to connect each
key term and its alternatives with the other key
terms and their alternatives.
• A connector specifies the relationship between the
terms on either side of the connector.
• Here is a sample of a query using connectors:
– host! /p intoxicat! dr*nk! alcohol! /s guest
24

25. MOST COMMONLY USED CONNECTORS
• Space = Or
– A space between two terms means “or”.
– You could type in the word “or” if that is easier to
remember. For example you could write:
• host! /p intoxicat! dr*nk! alcohol! /s guest ; or
• host! /p intoxicat! or dr*nk! or alcohol! /s guest
– In the query above, host! and guest are required terms
along with the expansion of any one, two, or three of the
terms intoxicat! or dr*nk! or alcohol!.
25

26. MOST COMMONLY USED CONNECTORS
• /p = Within the Same Paragraph
– The /p connector requires that the terms on one side of
the /p connector be in the same paragraph as the terms
on the other side of the connector. No particular order is
required.
– In the search below, any expansion of host! must be in the
same paragraph as any expansion of intoxicat! or dr*nk!
or alcohol! (or any expansions of the any two or all three
of the alternative terms).
• host! /p intoxicat! dra*nk! alcohol! /s guest
26

27. MOST COMMONLY USED CONNECTORS
• /s = Within the Same Sentence
– The /s connector requires that the terms on one side of
the /s connector be in the same sentence as the terms on
the other side of the connector. No particular order is
required.
– In the query below, guest must be in the same sentence
of the expansion of intoxicat! or dr*nk! or alcohol! (or any
expansions of the any two or all three of the alternative
terms).
• host! /p intoxicat! dra*nk! alcohol! /s guest
27

28. MOST COMMONLY USED CONNECTORS
• & = Within the Same Document
– The & connector requires that the terms on one side of
the & connector be in the same document as the terms on
the other side, whether two terms or 200 pages apart.
• host! /p intoxicat! dr*nk! alcohol! /s guest & insurance
– The & connector is valuable only in limited situations. For
instance, a document with good on page two and faith on
page 50 most likely won’t be discussing a good-faith
issue.
– The & connector can be valuable however if:
• you think one term in your query may not appear near your
other terms in the documents you want to retrieve; or
• if you are searching for terms in several sections of the
document (more about this type of search later).
28

29. MORE CONNECTORS
• Quotation Marks (“”) = Phrase
– Quotation marks around a phrase or term of art, such as
“limited liability”, are used only when the concept is
invariably stated the same way each time it is used.
– Consider whether the phrase could appear another way,
such as “liability was limited”.
– A safer search would be to require limited and liability to
be within the same sentence or within a specified number
or words of each other, such as: limited /s liability
29

30. MORE CONNECTORS
• /n = Within a Number of Terms
– /n requires that the terms on one side of the /n connector
be within a certain number of terms of those on the other
side. No particular order is required and grammatical
structure is ignored.
– n represents any number between 1 and 250, for
example, /3 or /150.
– /n is most often used when the words on either side
should be fairly close together but are not invariably in the
same order.
• For example: liability /3 limited would retrieve both limited
liability and liability was limited.
30

31. MORE CONNECTORS
• Plus Symbol (+) = Order of the Terms
– +s, +p, +n connectors require that the terms on the left of
the connector precede the terms on the right within the
specified relationship.
– Therefore, the query: under-ground +4 tank, requires
that underground precedes tank by no more than four
words.
– This connector is often used when a word must appear
twice within the specified relationship.
• For example: jones +5 jones could be used to find
references to the case Jones v. Jones.
31

32. CONNECTORS AND EXPANDERS
REFERENCE LIST
On a Tab
A full list of all
connectors and
expanders with
brief explanations
of their use can be
accessed from the
Search box on
Westlaw.com.
In a Database
32

33. REORDERING CONNECTORS
• Use of Parentheses ()
– Words within parentheses are processed first and then
treated as a unit.
– For instance, (defect! /s design!) “product liability”
retrieves either any expansion of defect within the same
sentence as any extension of design or “product liability”
as a separate phrase.
– Parentheses are also useful when you are searching for
citations to multiple statutes:
• (42 +3 1981) (15 +3 311) will retrieve mention of 42 USCA
1981 or 15 USCA 311.
33

34. YOUR TURN
• All the passengers getting off a flight from Miami
are taken to a small room at the airport by the
Miami police. They are questioned and their
clothing and luggage are searched.
• What is the legal issue?
– Can police detain passengers and search and seize their
clothing and luggage without probable cause?
• What are your key terms?
34

35. YOUR TURN
• Below are two possible searches. There are many
other possible searches.
– search! seiz! /s clothing luggage back-pack /p airport airplane plane & “probable cause”
– “search and seizure” /p airport air-plane plane /p clothing
luggage back-pack /p “probable cause”
• Neither search is right or wrong. Usually it takes a
few tries before you retrieve the number of
documents you need in order to feel confident that
you have found enough relevant documents to
continue your research, but not so many as to be
overwhelming.
35

36. YOUR TURN AGAIN
• Senator Jones has been insisting that the right to
contribute any amount to a political candidate is
constitutionally protected and any limitation would
be a violation of the First Amendment right of free
speech. Is he right?
• What is the legal issue?
– Pick out the key terms, add reasonable alternatives, and
decide on the connectors that will join each term and its
alternative with the other terms and their alternatives.
• You probably won’t have a problem at all!
36

37. CONTENT
• Introduction
• Terms
• Connectors
• Fields
• Conclusion
37

38. FIELD SEARCHES ON WESTLAW
• Most documents on Westlaw are divided into
segments called fields.
• Field searching adds even more precision to a
Terms and Connectors search.
• The names and number of fields that a document
contains depends on the type of database.
– A case law database has different fields than a statute law
database.
– For example, there is no judge field in a statutory
database.
38

39. FIELD SEARCHES ON WESTLAW
• Most fields are entered in the search as a two-letter
abbreviation. For example, the abbreviation for the
digest field in case law is di.
• The abbreviation of the field is immediately (no
space) followed by parentheses: di().
• A Terms and Connectors search within a field is
constructed in the same way as a search that is not
restricted to a specific field except that the terms
are entered within the parentheses.
– di( “probable cause” /p stop! /p car automobile vehicle)
39

40. FIELD SEARCHES ON WESTLAW
• Knowing which fields a database contains and
what information is in each field can greatly
increase the efficiency of your search.
• The terms must be in the specified field(s) or the
document will not be retrieved.
• The following slide will show some of the fields in a
case law database and their abbreviations that
would be used in a search.
40

41. CASE LAW FIELDS ON WESTLAW
You can access a Fields
list from the Search page
on Westlaw.com. These
are just some of the fields
in a case law database.
You can select an option from the list
or just enter the search directly into
the search text box.
41

42. CASE LAW TITLE FIELD
• You need to retrieve a case. All you know is that
one party’s name is Bush and the other party’s
name is Gore.
– The search: ti(Bush & Gore) requires that both the terms
Bush and Gore appear in the portion of the document that
contains the names of the parties, the title field.
– The & connector can be used here because the field is so
small the two terms will necessarily be close together.
– The search would be equally effective if /s or /p had been
used as the connector.
• The following slides will show the location of some
of the possible fields within a case opinion.
42

43. CASE LAW FIELDS ON WESTLAW
43

44. CASE LAW FIELDS ON WESTLAW
44

45. CASE LAW SYNOPSIS AND HEADNOTE
FIELDS
• The headnote and synopsis fields are prepared by
West attorney-editors by
– using consistent and current legal terminology
– using descriptive terms instead of proper names
– adding alternative terms for ambiguous, regional or
outdated words
• Examples in headnotes:
– Tenant is used instead of Mr. Blake or plaintiff
– Aspirin is used instead of Bufferin or Tylenol
– Intoxicated is used instead of tipsy
• A search including the headnote and synopsis
fields retrieves many online reporter cases that you
would otherwise miss.
45

46. CASE LAW SYNOPSIS AND DIGEST FIELDS
• A combination of fields can be searched. Just put
a comma between the fields.
• The sy,di combination field is helpful because it
searches both the synopsis and digest fields (which
incorporates headnotes) in one search and insures
that you retrieve cases where the issue is central.
– sy,di(wrongful! /5 terminat! discharg!)
– sy,di(“product liability” /p danger! defect! /p air-bag)
46

47. WORDS AND PHRASES FIELD
• The Words and Phrases (wp) field is used when
you need to find a judicial definition of a word or
phrase in the body of the case.
– For example: wp(“constructive discharge”)
47

48. DATE RESTRICTION FIELD
The date restriction (da) field is
available in databases in which the
documents are dated, such as case
law, administrative decisions, and
journals/law review databases.
You can require
documents after a
date,
before a date,
between two dates or
on a
specific date.
48

49. MULTIPLE FIELD SEARCHING IN
CASE LAW
• What if you only know that one party’s name is
Smith, that Smith’s attorney’s name is Brown and
that the case was decided after 1990?
– ti(smith) & at(brown) & da(aft 1990) is the focused
search that would retrieve the case (assuming you are in
the correct database).
– Notice the & connectors between the fields.
• This is an example of one of the times the & connector must
be used.
• Without the & connectors, your search would retrieve
documents with Smith in the title field or Brown in the
attorney field or all documents decided after 1990.
49

50. STATUTORY LAW FIELDS
• There are not as many fields in a statutory law
database.
Most of these fields are not
available in case law databases
50

51. THE CITATION, PRELIM AND CAPTION
FIELDS
• The citation (ci) field contains the statute’s citation.
– For example: the search ci(42 +3 198*) in the United
States Code database will retrieve the following statutory
sections: 42 USC 198 and 42 USC 1980 through 1989.
• pr,ca is a useful combination of fields in a statutory
database. The pr, or prelim, field is the statute’s
heading; the ca, or caption, field contains the
specific title of that statute.
– An example search would be: pr,ca(“title 11” &
exemption)
• The following slide will show you a diagram of
where on a statute these fields are located.
51

52. STATUTORY FIELDS ON WESTLAW
52

53. SUBSTANTIVE DOCUMENT FIELD
• The substantive document (sd) field contains all
the fields that are not enhanced by West Group
attorney-editors (the “official” segments of the
statute).
• The sd field includes the prelim, citation, caption,
text, and credit fields.
• Annotations are not included in the sd field.
53

54. COMBINING UNRESTRICTED SEARCHES
AND FIELD SEARCHES
• Many searches are a combination of unrestricted
or free-text searches (words can be found
anywhere in the document) and field searches.
– For example: “dying declaration” /p time hour minute
second day /p admiss! inadmissible admit! &
ju(jackson)
– This search retrieves cases addressing a dying
declaration and how long it can be asserted before death
to be admissible, according to Judge Jackson’s previous
decisions.
54

55. YOUR TURN
• You need cases since 1980 that discuss the
Environmental Protection Agency regulations
concerning underground storage tanks for which
Judge Clifford wrote the appellate decision.
– Use the Maine Cases (ME-CS) database and construct an
effective search using both free text searching and field
searching.
– Hint: A case might use the phrase underground gasoline
tank or underground oil tank or underground storage tank.
55

56. CONCLUSION
• Terms and Connectors searching is easy to
master.
• Just remember the ITAC formula.
• If you feel you need help in constructing a Terms
and Connectors search call the West Reference
Attorneys:
– 1-800-850-9378
• Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week
• You will need to be able to articulate your issue.
• Good luck!
56