Does Loislaw use a “natural language” search engine?
Loislaw does not support natural language searching. When applied to search and retrieval technology, the term “natural language” generally refers to any system capable of accepting queries in common English; no special operators or syntax would be necessary to write queries in a natural language environment. Loislaw’s development and engineering staff found the current technology too experimental and formative for deployment in a business context. Q: What if users do not know the exact form of a case citation? A: Try using the numeric elements of the citation—that is, the volume and page references—in combination with the NEAR connector in the Case Cite search field. For example, a user may be unsure if a citation was 523 US 303 or 303 US 523. When writing the query, replace “US” with the near2 connector. Entering the query “523 near2 303” returns all instances in which the number 523 is within two words of the number 303 in the Case Cite field. (Please note that for this type of sear
