In addition to your keywords, you can use Boolean operators with your search terms to focus your search.
Boolean operators are simple words or symbols (including AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks, parentheses, and asterisks) used to combine or exclude keywords in a search, resulting in more focused and relevant results. This will save you time by excluding irrelevant results based on the keywords you use.
This chart lists the Boolean operators currently supported by Trellis and when to use them on Smart Search.
🔎 Remember: these Boolean operators are case-sensitive.
Boolean Operator & Purpose | Example Search | |
AND Use AND when you want both keywords to appear in your search results.
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OR Use OR when you want either keyword to appear in search result items, but don’t need both keywords to appear in your results.
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NOT Use NOT when you want keywords listed after NOT to be excluded from your search result items.
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“ ” Use quotation marks to search for an exact word or specific phrase.
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( ) Use parentheses to build a search with a combination of Boolean operators.
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* (asterisk) This is a root expander.
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NOTE: searching negligen* will bring up search results that have the terms negligence or negligent |
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“ ”~n This is a proximity connector.
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judge:last-name Use judge:last-name when you only want search result items that have a specific judge listed as the judge of record.
“judge full name” Alternatively, you can always try searching the judge’s full name in quotation marks.
NOTE: Be sure to select the correct jurisdiction.
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NOTE: Do not include any space between judge:last-name
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party:“party-name” (party includes individual litigants and attorneys) Use party:”party-name” when you only want search result items that have a specific party or attorney listed as a party or attorney of record.
"party-name" To search other parties or counsel who may be deeply involved in the case but not listed as having “appeared” in the case by the underlying court, do not use (party:) search. Instead, simply search variations of the attorney, firm, company or party's name.
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county:“county-name” Use county:”county-name” when you only want search result records within a specific county.
county:county-name Alternatively, try running the same search without quotes. **Note: Do not include any spaces, even where the county name has a space.
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courthouse:“courthouse-name” Use courthouse:”courthouse-name” when you only want search result items for a specific courthouse within a larger county.
courthouse:courthouse-name Alternatively, try running the same search without quotes. **Note: Do not include any spaces, even where the county name has a space
NOTE: Make sure the courthouse corresponds to the correct state. Also, courthouse only works in counties which have multiple courthouses. If there is a single trial court in that county, use the county:county-name search instead.
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