USING GOOGLE FOR LEGAL RESEARCH

Elizabeth Geesey Holmes

Using Google for Legal Research

How to formulate an effective search: choosing keywords

How to use Google’s search features both basic and advanced

Finding cases and legal journal articles using Google Scholar

Thursday, December 13th, 2013Presented by Elizabeth Geesey Holmes

About Elizabeth Geesey Holmes

Librarian Information Professional I help attorneys, paralegals, and legal

secretaries find authoritative information efficiently and cost effectively

“The digital age’s most mundane act, the Google search, often represents layer upon layer of intrigue.”

David Segal. “The Dirty Little Secrets of Search”. New York Times. February 12, 2011

Part 1

How to formulate an effective search: choosing keywords

How Keyword Searching Works

Looks everywhere for your search terms Is “dumb” (unless we help it)

Choosing Search Terms

FIRST Reflect on your topic and focus on its

main points Think of terms that describe those main

points If you get stuck do some background

reading

Choosing Search Terms

THEN Think about Synonyms Think about Broader and Narrower

Terms But make keywords as specific as

possible Try the obvious first Use words likely to appear on the site

with the information you want

Keyword Example

Topic: The impact of substance abuse on crime in the United States

Concepts: Impact, Substance abuse, Crime, United States

Synonyms and Broader/Narrower Terms: Effect, Dependence on Illegal substance, Drug abuse, Alcohol abuse, Drug use, Drugs, U.S., US, America, Criminal, Crime rates, criminality, Misdemeanor, Felony, Offense

Choosing Search Terms

FINALLY Try “throwing” all your keywords into a

Google search and see what comes up. These search results may give you clues

to other keywords to include or eliminate from your next search

Then use Google specific search strategies and tips

Part 2

How to use Google’s search features both basic and advanced

Check Your Settings!

Basic Search Main Page

Click on Photo to access your Account Settings

How to Change Your Settings

Do a Search FIRST!Click on Gear Icon to bring up Search Settings

Make sure this box is checked!

Search Settings: Languages

Google Search automatically returns results in the language you choose for Google product text. You can also request results in other languages. If you don’t select any other language you will only get results if the page is in English

Search Settings: Location

My location is set to Providence, RI so my results are in that area

Check & change location quickly by clicking here BUT first click on Search tools to open up this menu

Use Boolean Searching

(and/or other search strategies)

Boolean Connectors: AND Google Default All of the keywords are present

Search: probate law Results: Both the term probate and the

term law

Boolean Connectors: OR

One keyword or the other, or both keywords are present Search: probate OR trust law Results: will all have the term law

combined with either the word trust or probate

NOTE: You must capitalize OR otherwise Google will treat it as a stop word and ignore it

Boolean Connectors: NOT (-) No results with this keyword are returned

Search: Ann Tyler –author -novel Returns results with the keywords Anne,

Ann and Tyler, but without the keyword author, and without the word novel

Use this strategy to find results for your former classmate Ann Tyler, but not for the novelist Anne Tyler

Word Stemming (and un-stemming)

Searching for constitutional will also find the words: constitutionality, constitutions and constitution

Limiting your search results to Verbatim

1. Click on Search Tools

2. Click on All Results

3. Click on Verbatim

Proximity Searching: Asterisk (*)/ Wildcard

Search: Elizabeth * Holmes Results: Include:

Elizabeth Geesey Holmes Elizabeth G Holmes, BUT also Elizabeth Spencer, Amy Holmes

Proximity Searching: Asterisk (*)/Wildcard

Phrase Searching: “ “

Use for searching exact phrases or words Use to stop Google from stemming Enter your phrase or word in quotation

marks Search: Ed Braks Results: Ed, Edward, Braks and Breaks Search: Ed “Braks” Results: Ed, Edward and Braks – NO

Breaks

Navigate your search results

What if I just want News Articles?

Note related searches

When to Use Basic Search, and Some Other Tips & Tricks

Use Basic Search As…

Your starting point Refine your keywords, narrow

results, or use Boolean search operators to get more relevant hits

Use Basic Search As…

A tool to look up simple facts Population Ecuador President Poland Capitol of Massachusetts

Search: capital of massachusetts

Use Basic Search As…

A calculator: 7 * 2 + 4

Use Basic Search As…

A dictionarySearch: define: res ipsa loquitur

Search: suggesstion

When and how to use Google’s advanced search

How to get to Advanced Search

1. Do a Basic Search

2. Click on GEAR Icon

3. Choose Advanced Search

Boolean search using the Advanced search page

Boolean search using the Basic search box Tyler “Ann” –author -

novel

Click on these down arrows to bring up options and select one

Limiting Results to Specific File Formats

Enter your search words in the Boolean search boxes at the top of the page

Scroll down to narrow your results by File Type

Choose the file type from the drop down box Example: Limit search results

to .ppt to find presentations posted to the web by opposing experts.

Limiting Results to a Specific Web Site

Search one site (like wikipedia.org) or limit your results to a domain like .edu, .org or .gov

The command to do this in basic search is site:

Enter your search terms

Limit to a domain or domain type

All Results are from domains ending in .edu

Advanced Search translated into a Boolean and Google commands search string

A few more Hidden Features

Limiting results to where your search terms appear in the website In the title of the page In the text of the page In the URL of the page In links to the page

Limiting results by date updated

Advanced Search Page

Limit by where terms appear is only on Advanced Search Page

Two ways to limit by date updated

Advanced Search Page

Search tools menu at top of search results page

Click on Search Tools to bring up the menu below. Click on Any time to bring up various time limits

Why Use Advanced Search Indispensable in refining your

searches to bring the relevant results to the first pages

Fill in the box format means you don’t have to remember specific search commands

Part 3

Finding cases and legal journal articles using Google Scholar

What is Google Scholar?

Specialized search that retrieves results from a separate database

Includes: Articles, Theses, Books, Abstracts, Patents, and Court Opinions

From academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other scholarly web sites

How to get to Google Scholar Go to: (http://scholar.google.com/)

OR In Basic Google type in the search:

scholar Your first result will be for Google

Scholar

Defaults to searching Articles and Patents

Important Settings

Change from default Search articles to Search legal documents

Make sure Open results in a new window is checked

Don’t forget to Save

What legal research material can I find here? And where do they come from? Federal and State case law Legal journal articles Google’s own database Google also links to alternate

sources for some cases, such as Cornell’s LII, Justia and Public.Resource.org

Google Scholar Case Coverage

U.S. State appellate and supreme Court case opinions

1950-present

U.S. Federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy court case opinions

1923-present

U.S. Supreme Court case opinions

1791-present

Roe v Wade

Click on down arrow to open Advanced search window

100 F Supp 1

Advanced Search WindowSearch by Citation

Search by Party Name

Search by Judges Name

Vogel

Limit to a particular State’s courts or by Time

Search results for Roe v Wade limited to Case Law

Click here to create and e-mail alert for this search

Results list limited to Articles

Limiting by Court before you enter search terms

Navigating a search results hit

Results for our search for Roe v Wade limited to the title

Pros of Google Scholar for Legal Research

Hyperlinked case citations Fast and accurate search results Relevancy as good or better than

commercial legal research services “How Cited” tab provides links to cases and

scholarly documents that have cited your case

Set up Alerts Send direct links to cases It’s FREE

Cons of Google Scholar for Legal Research

Search results based on Google’s system for ranking search results rather than actual importance of case

Cannot easily tell if case is still good law. No index tool Statutes and Rules are not hyperlinked Lacks some older cases

Resources

Official Google Blog (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/)

Google Search Help Center (http://support.google.com/websearch/?hl=en)

Google Scholar Help (http://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html

Nancy Backman’s Google Guide (http://www.googleguide.com/)

Google for Lawyer’s by Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch

Google Search Secrets by Christa Burns and Michael P. Sauers

Contact Information

Elizabeth Geesey Holmes Librarian Partridge Snow & Hahn LLP egh@psh.com http://

www.elizabethgeeseyholmes.com/

“Have fun and keep googling.”~Larry Page and Sergey Brin in a note on the new google.com (1998)