Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

Basics of Westlaw Searching
Restricting Your Search by Field
You can use field restrictions to search for terms in specific parts of a document. The format for
typing a field-restricted search is the same for all fields: the field abbreviation is immediately
followed by key terms enclosed in parentheses. The field-restricted portion of a query is
connected to the rest of the query with the AND connector (&).
To add a field restriction to your query, select a field from the Fields drop-down list at a
database Search page, shown circled in Figure 8.8. The abbreviation for this field will be added
to the Search text box. Type the terms you want included in the field restriction in the
parentheses following the abbreviation.
Figure 8.8: Fields drop-down list using the Terms and Connectors search method
You can use field restrictions in multiple-database searches. However, you will not retrieve
documents from databases that do not contain the field you are searching, even if your search
terms appear in documents in that database. To determine whether a field is available for a
database, check Scope for that database or the Fields drop-down list. In multiple-database
searches, the Fields drop-down list shows fields available for each database.
For more information on using fields in case law documents, refer to Chapter 10. For more
information on using fields in legislative documents, refer to Chapter 11.
Restricting Your Search by Date
You can restrict your search by document date or the date a document was added to Westlaw.
Remember that a date restriction must be connected to your other search terms using the AND
connector (&).
By Document Date
To restrict your search to documents decided or issued on, before, or after a certain date, or
between a range of dates, add a date restriction (da) to your Terms and Connectors query or
Natural Language description.
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