Legal Research
Finding Cases
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HeinOnline This link opens in a new window HeinOnline Academic includes more than 100 million pages of multidisciplinary content in more than 100 subject areas, including history, political science, criminal justice, religious studies, international relations, women’s studies, pre-law, and many more. With more historical content than any other database, HeinOnline provides access to 300+ years of information on political development and the complete history of the creation of government and legal systems around the world. Among the many databases included, HeinOnline’s journal collection features nearly 2,800 periodicals relating to a variety of subject areas, with all coverage dating from inception to the most currently published issues in most cases.
HeinOnline is a collection of 40 databases, which you can search through using the search bar at the top of the page.
It's effective to search first and then limit by either
- Collection/Library: select Fastcase Premium and U.S. Supreme Court Library
- Section Type: select Cases
| For more information and tips, please review Hein Online's Advanced Search Syntax Guide. Note that all Boolean operators must use capital letters. |
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| AND | to search for multiple terms i.e.evidence AND admissibility will produce documents that contain both terms. |
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| OR | to search for either one of a pair of similar terms i.e. brief OR evidence will produce documents that contain either of these terms |
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| NOT | to exclude a term from a search i.e. evidence NOT briefs will exclude every search result containing the word "briefs" |
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| " " | use quotes to search for a phrase i.e. "love canal" will search for documents containing the exact phrase "love canal" |
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| ( ) | to search grouped clauses to form sub queries i.e. (watershed OR "water rights") AND planning will produce documents that contain either watershed or water rights and planning |
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| ~ | to search for words within a particular proximity of each other i.e. "watershed planning"~10 will search for watershed within 10 words of planning |
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| ? | to search for words where there may be variations of the word that you want included in your search i.e. te?t will produce documents that contain text or test |
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| * | to search for a word with multiple character differences i.e. brief* will return searches with the words brief, briefs, and briefed |
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| w/# or /# | to search for two words within a set proximity of one another, i.e. jury w/5 discrimination or jury /5 discrimination |
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| w/s or /s | to search for two words within a sentence, i.e. jury w/s discrimination or jury /s discrimination |
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| w/p or /p | to search for two words within a paragraph, i.e. jury w/p discrimination or jury /p discrimination |
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| w/seg or /seg | to search for two words within a segment, i.e. jury w/seg discrimination or jury /seg discrimination |
1. Start in FastCase Premium.
Choose Venn Diagram Search to guide a more advanced/complicated search
The button is to the right of the search box.
2. Use the Boolean Operator AND with your keywords. Click on the magnifying class at the end of the search bar to conduct the search 
3. The Venn Diagram shows you the overlap of articles and provides the results
4. Hover over pieces of the diagram to see the results differently.
For example, this screenshot below shows an emphasis on counselor AND abuse
5. This screenshot to the right emphasizes all three search terms (Counselor AND Abuse AND Duty to warn).
To search through Journals for Law Reviews, click on the Journals & Periodicals Database, then choose the Journal Law Library.
You can browse journals, but best to put your search terms in the search bar at the top.
Browse your results. When you find one you like, look to the right for the cited references and pdf.
