Search Hints for Case Law on Google Scholar
Google Scholar is currently the most comprehensive free case law database on the web. For coverage and other information, see our prior post. Here are a few search hints:
Be sure to use Advanced Search, which enables selecting a jurisdiction and more complex searching.
Don’t forget to specify the jurisdiction you want, or it will default to all articles and cases.
How to search by citation: Type the citation into the “exact phrase” search box .
How to search by party name:
- Next to “where my words occur” select “in the title of the article” from the drop down menu.
- For more a narrow search, type “State v. Henderson” into the exact phrase search box. For a broader search, type one or both of the party names in the “with all the words” search box.
You could also use the “intitle:” operator, for example: intitle: state + intitle:henderson
Search by Judge’s name: Enter the judge’s last name in the box next to “Author – Return articles written by”. This usually returns any opinion where the judge was on the panel. You can try searching for firstname + lastname, but some court opinions do not contain the first names of the judges. For example, many Ohio Supreme Court decisions do not include the judge’s first name.
Don’t forget that you can use +, – and OR operators.
For more hints, see Internet for Lawyers
