Now that you have found many cases, through secondary sources, topics or key numbers, and then from looking forward, backward, and sideways through your "one good cases", a final way to find cases is through searching.

Often we want to turn to searching first, but through these other techniques we often find on point and jurisdictionally significant cases quickly.

At this point about 80-85% of your research is done and you've found most cases available on this issue in your jurisdiction. Now you can turn to searching to find the last few cases or cases that are factually more similar to your own facts.

Using the Cases>advanced search in Westlaw or Lexis, you can control the jurisdiction and words searched. Using Boolean search strings will also help control your searches.

Think back to your research question. What part are you still trying to prove? What keywords will help you find them? What facts do you want to focus on? Take those keywords and for a search.

Try a search in Westlaw or Lexis for your final cases. Did you find different cases than the ones you've found so far?

Explore those cases in the same way you explored your past cases. Don't forget to put them in your research log.

Another way to search is something called "field searching". This allows you to pick a specific part of the opinion and search only there for your key words. This can be helpful when looking for a specific attorney or judge's name, but also helps when you want to focus on facts.

Westlaw's Advanced Case Search

Westlaw>Cases>Jurisdiction WI state cases>Advanced search (at the top)

Type in "abuse of process" in the first "all of these terms" space. Scroll down to Synopsis/DIgest (SY,Di), here is where you can put facts because it searches just the top fact heavy part of the opinion including the overview and the headnotes. Type in attorney /s threat

This search should find any cases about abuse of process where an attorney made a threat.

These videos will help you with boolean (and, or, not) searching. They will also help with finding the best key words.