LawAccess Online

Search Hints

LawAccess Online offers you 3 ways to search for legal information. Each of these search options has advantages; this page will guide you through the 3 ways to search LawAccess Online to get the best results for you.

Browse Search
On the main page of LawAccess Online you will notice that there are a number of categories and subjects that can be selected. These categories and subjects are used to organise all legal information on LawAccess Online in a meaningful way.

A browse search will usually provide the largest number of results as it searches the LawAccess Online database for all results that match the chosen subject.

When would I use a browse search?
A browse search is useful when you looking into a general area of law. For instance if you were looking for information on credit you could select the credit subject on the main page and look through the results to find something that covers your legal problem.

The main page of LawAccess Online and the subject search terms

Keyword Search
If you know what legal information you are specifically searching for, then a keyword search will usually be the best search option.

If you were searching for information about a loan searching on the term ‘loan’ you will reduce the number of results that appear to ones that specifically deal with the issue of loans and not just credit generally.

How do I use the keyword search?
To search by keyword type your specific search term in the search field located on the top left hand side of the main page of LawAccess Online - click on the Go button to see your results.

The Search box will appear at the top of the results page so that you can complete another keyword search for something else if you need to.

HINT: Looking for resources in a particular language?
If you are looking for all the resources on LawAccess Online in a particular language. Click into the Search field so that "Enter Keywords" disappears, choose the required language from the drop down list and then select the GO button. Alternatively, you can use the advanced search.

Results
Does LawAccess Online rank its results?
LawAccess Online ranks results based on whether webpages that have the searched keyword in the title of the page will be displayed higher in the list than the webpages that have the keyword appearing within the page.

What do my results mean?
LawAccess Online organises its results to give you as much information about the webpage before you click on it to help you decide if this webpage is relevant to your legal problem.

The results are organised to show the following information:

	Type of Resource:	The webpages on LawAccess Online can be different types of information like a factsheet, guide, homepage, or a form.
	Title:	The name of the webpage. Click on the title to go directly to the page
	Description:	Contains a short description of what page covers
	Subject:	What subjects this page covers
	Author:	The organisation that wrote the webpage
	Date Modified:	The date the page was updated (if available)
	Webpage:	The address of the webpage. You can click on the webpage to go to the page

What if I get no results?
LawAccess Online has over 2500 plain language legal resources that covers most legal subjects and common legal issues. If you have no results returned when you do a keyword search try the following hints:

Try different terms. For example use residence instead of custody. It is always a good idea to try the most obvious keywords first
Use an ‘and’ between your terms. Sometimes when you search for a phrase like ‘debt summons’ the search will find pages that have the two words side by side. By using the term ‘debt and summons’ it will search for pages that have the two words appearing anywhere in the page
Use a wild card. A wild card is character in a search term used to represent one or more other characters. For example by using child* you will get results that include child, children or child’s
If you get no results try searching the broader subject term by doing a browse search
Call LawAccess NSW on 1300 888 529 (Monday – Friday between 9am and 5pm) and one of our Customer Service Officers can direct you to resources online that may help with your problem

I am getting too many results, how can I narrow my search?
LawAccess Online offer to ways of reducing the number of results that have been returned: search within these results, and find more like this.

Search within these results
The option to search within these results is available near the top of the results page

Click on the search within these results and then use the displayed keyword search to add a relevant search term to narrow these results.

For example after completing a keyword search on loans I could narrow the results further by searching within these results for ‘loan documents’ to show only results about loan documents

Find More Like This
Find more like this is displayed on each search result. If you find a webpage that seems to be relevant for your inquiry use the Find more like this link to start a search for more resources that have the same subject terms.

Can I use operators to get better results?
When searching LawAccess Online you can use search operators to get better search results. The following operators can be used:

	AND	Find webpages that contain both words or phrases E.g summons and debt
	OR	Finds webpages which contain either one of the words or phrases Eg. Residence or Contact
	NOT	Finds webpages that contain the first word but not the second Eg child NOT adult
	W/n	Finds webpages where both words appear within the desired number of words Eg. Freedom w/5 information
	//	Finds webpages where both words appear in the same paragraph Eg. Police // arrest
	EXCEPT	Finds webpages in which the first word appears, but only if the second word is not in the same paragraph as the first. Eg. Christmas EXCEPT Island
	\\	Finds webpages where both words appear within a paragraph of each other Eg. Estate \\ Defacto
	…	Finds webpages where the first word 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.