5. Finding law online

TOPICS

Finding Law: Online sources

The organisation of online legal materials; 5.1.1.

The structure of legal databases; 5.1.3.

Finding Law: Online databases

Alternative legal databases; 5.2.

Choosing an online database; 5.2.1.

The AustLII databases; 5.2.2.

Jade databases; 5.2.3.

Government databases; 5.2.4.

Links to databases; 5.8.1.

Library catalogues; 5.9.1.

Finding Law: Search techniques

Using information in the citation of an Act; 5.3.1.

Using the information in the citation of a case; 5.4.1.

Finding documents using ‘search terms’; 5.5.5.

Simple search terms; 5.5.1.

Key words as search terms; 5.5.2.

The problem of retrieving unwanted documents; 5.5.3.

Failing to find wanted documents; 5.5.4.

Finding Law: Advanced search techniques

Difficulties caused by 'adjacency'; 5.6.1.

Boolean 'connectors' in search terms; 5.6.2.

The effect of Boolean searching; 5.6.3.

The limits of Boolean searching; 5.6.5.

Common problems with basic search terms; 5.6.6.

Truncation; 5.6.7.

Wildcards; 5.6.8.

Proximity operators; 5..9.

Proximity operators; 5.6.10.

Brackets; 5.6.11.

Examples of search terms using brackets; 5.6.12.

Finding Law: Advanced search interfaces

Choosing an advanced search; 5.7.1.

The AustLII citator; 5.7.4.