Segment (Field) Searching

Related Topics:

Common Segment Descriptions

 

Segment Defined

A document on the LexisNexis® services is an individual case, statute section, rule, news or journal article. Documents are divided into segments. A segment is a natural part or section of a document. All documents in an individual source have the same segment structure.

The following are some common case law document segments:

  • Name
  • Date
  • Court
  • Opinion

The following are some common news document segments:

  • Headline
  • Byline
  • Body

Segment Searching

You can restrict your search to a specific segment of a document, such as the court that heard the case or the author of a news article. You can use segment searching to find the following information:

  • Cases involving a particular party
  • Opinions written by a particular judge
  • Cases decided on, before, or after a particular date
  • Articles with particular terms in the headline
  • Articles written by a particular author
  • Articles published on, before, or after a particular date

Take the following steps to use document segments to restrict your search:

  1. Select a segment from the Select a Segment drop-down list.
    NOTE: Use the Source Information Icon Source Description next to the Source name to view a list of document segments for a particular source.
  2. Enter terms in the field beside the selected segment.
    NOTE: If your segment is not available from the drop-down list, enter the segment with the terms in parentheses. For example, debtor ( jane /3 doe ). The LexisNexis service does not recognize brackets ( {, [, ], or } ) as equivalents to parentheses ( ( or ) ).
  3. Click Add to add your segment search to the Enter Search Terms box.
    NOTE: Use the AND connector to add search words or other segment searches to your final search request.

Arithmetic Segment Searching

Some segments that involve numbers, such as dates or financial data, are arithmetically searchable. These segments use the arithmetic operators shown below:

Symbol
Equivalent
Meaning

=

is

equal to or is

>

aft

greater than or after

<

bef

less than or before

 

Examples of date restrictions:

date = 1993

or

date is 1993

date = 10/2003

or

date is 10/2003

date > december 31, 1997

or

date aft december 31, 1997

date < 6/1/1998

or

date bef 6/1/1998