Introduction to Online Legal Research

Albert E. Jenner Jr. Memorial Law Library
University of Illinois College of Law

Introduction to Online Legal Research (Westlaw and Lexis)
Professors Healey, Callister, Johnson, Williams & Ribstein & Ms. Denslaw

Session: Fall - Spring

Terms & Connector Searches: Nesting & Order of Operations

Nesting and Order of Operations: Connectors and operators in Lexis and Westlaw are processed, not from left to right, but according to a series of rules (click here to see the rules for the order of operations). Consequently, users are well-advised to take steps to control the order in which connectors and operators are processed.
Order of operations can be controlled using parentheses. (peter pre/3 hook) not/3 (pan or captain) Operations within parentheses are resolved first, then those results are used in resolving the rest of the search.
Nested parentheses are also allowed. ((peter pre/3 hook) not/3 (pan or captain)) and “journal of law” The innermost set of parentheses are processed first.
As a general rule, any time you use two or more connectors or operators, you should use parenthesis to control the order of the search.
Taken from materials initially prepared by Peter Hook and Paul Callister for the Class of 2003.