LawAccess Online

Search Hints for the Advanced Search

| How to use the Advanced Search | Search Operators |

How to do an advanced search

The LawAccess search engine uses metadata to index the plain language legal resources. The metadata is broken into different fields such as title, author, publisher etc. You can limit your search using the advanced search by searching within particular fields.

Search within a field. For example if you wished to find all the resources written by the legal aid commission you would type legal aid commission in the Author box.

Combine fields together. For example type domestic violence in the Title field, attorney general’s department in the Organisation field and select Chinese as the Language will retrieve resources in Chinese which have domestic violence in the title, that are published by the NSW Attorney General’s Department.

Limit results using and, not, or radio buttons. For example if you wanted all the resources on residence of children not written by the Family Court because you had already read those resources you can type ‘residence and children’ in the Title field, click on the not directly underneath the box and type Family Court in the Author field.

Change the selected field by using the drop down box. For example change the Title field to Author.

Search Operators

The following operators can be used to get better results.

PHRASE	To find a phrase, type in the terms separated by a space. The space between the terms indicates that it is a phrase. Eg. legal aid
AND	Finds documents which contain *both* of the words or phrases. Eg. summons AND debt
OR	Finds documents which contain *any one* of the entered words or phrases. Eg. aid OR assistance
NOT	Finds documents which contain the first word or phrase, *but not* the second. Eg. child NOT adult
W/n	Finds documents where both words or phrases appear within the stated number of words. Eg. freedom W/5 information
//	Finds documents where both words or phrases appear in the same paragraph. Eg. police // arrest
*	Truncation or wildcard symbol can be used to replace characters or extend the term. Eg. child will find child, children, child's etc.*
EXCEPT	Finds documents in which the first word or phrase appears, but only if the second word or phrase is *not in the same* *paragraph* as the first. Eg. christmas EXCEPT island
\\	Finds documents where both words or phrases occur within a paragraph of each other. Eg. estate \\ de facto
. . .	Finds documents where the first word or phrase is followed anywhere by the second. Eg. defacto ... relationship

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Be careful! The information on this site is not legal advice. If you have a legal problem you should talk to a lawyer before you decide what to do. The information on this site is only for people affected by the laws of NSW, Australia. For more information, click here.

LawAccess NSW is a New South Wales Government initiative.
NSW Attorney General's Department, NSW Legal Aid Commission, Law Society of NSW and NSW Bar Association.