LEHIGH COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS
OPINION POSTING SYSTEM SEARCH HELP

The documents retrieved by Opinion Posting System are in Portable Document Format (PDF) format. To view or print PDF files, you will need to use a PDF reader.

Simple search tips
It's easy to search the opinion database. Just type in a few words or phrases. Try to use discriminating terms that are likely to be found only in the documents you seek. The more words you give, the better results you'll get. To enter a query into the Opinion Posting System, just type in a few descriptive words and hit the 'enter' key or click on the "Search" button. The system only returns opinions that contain ALL the words in your query, so refining or narrowing your search is as simple as adding more words to the search terms you have already entered.Here are some examples:

Search by typing words and phrases:
By default, the system returns opinions that include ALL of your search terms. There is no need to include "and" between terms. Keep in mind that the order in which the terms are typed will affect the search results. To restrict a search further, just include more terms. For example, a search for:

Judge Smith alimony

will return documents containing the words "Judge," "Smith," and "alimony." If you would rather search for any document that contains any of the serch terms, you must separate each term with the word "OR." For example, a search for:

Judge OR Smith OR alimony

will reutrn documents containing ANY of the words entered.

Identify phrases with quotation marks
A phrase is entered using double quotation marks, and only matches those words that appear adjactent to each other. For example, a search for:

"Judge Smith" alimony

will return only those documents that contain the phrase "Judge Smith" and the word "alimony." Had the word "OR" been entered between "Judge Smith" and "alimony,&quot" the system would return any document that contains either the phrase "Judge Smith" or the term "alimony."

Use of the Word "NOT" or the Symbol "-":
You may use the boolean "NOT" to indicate that the system should exclude any document containing the term or phrase that follows. For example, a search for:

"Judge Smith" NOT alimony child
or
"Judge Smith" -alimony child
which is the same as entering:
"Judge Smith" AND (NOT alimony) AND child

and will return any document that contains the phrase "Judge Smith" and the term "child" but not the term "alimony."

If you instead want to return any document that contains the phrase "Judge Smith" but contains neither "alimony" nor "child," use the following search:

"Judge Smith" and not (alimony and child)

If you want to return any document that contains the phrase "Judge Smith" but either does not contain "alimony" OR does not contain "child," use the following search:

"Judge Smith" AND NOT (alimony OR child)

Note that if you want to search for the phrase "He did not steal it," you will need to have the phrase in quotes, otherwise the system will search for a document that contains the words "He," "did," and "it" that DOES NOT contain the word "steal."

Use parenthesis - Order Can Matter:
Evaluation of searches take place from LEFT TO RIGHT only. The order the order of evaluation can be modified using parenthesis. This is irrelevant for the default "AND" searches, but is important if you are performing "OR" searches. You must remember that using an "OR" essentially puts parenthesis around the group of terms to the left of the "OR" and the group of terms to the left. For example:

"Judge Smith" OR child
is the same as:
("Judge Smith") OR (child)

A search for:

"Judge Smith" support (alimony OR child)

will return any document that contains the phrase "Judge Smith" and the term "support," and contains either the term "alimony" or "child." However, a search for:

"Judge Smith" support alimony OR child
which is the same as:
("Judge Smith" support alimony) OR (child)

will return any document that contains the phrase "Judge Smith," the term "support," AND the term "alimony" or any document that contains the term "child," regardless of whether is contains the other terms in the search. A search for:

"Judge Smith" support OR child alimony
which is the same as:
("Judge Smith" support) OR (child alimony)

will return any document that contains both the phrase "Judge Smith" and the term "support" OR any document that contains both the terms "alimony" or "child."

Similar logic holds true for the use of the "NOT" modifier. Rember that the "NOT" or "-" only modifies the word, phrase, or group in parenthesis directly to its right. So, a search for:

alimony NOT child "Judge Smith" support
which is the same as:
alimony (NOT child) "Judge Smith" support

and
alimony -child "Judge Smith" support

will return any document that contains the terms "alimony" and "support,&quot and the phrase "Judge Smith," but NOT the term "child." A search for:

alimony NOT (child "Judge Smith" support)

will return any document that contains the term "alimony" but does not contain ALL of the terms within the parenthesis. A search for:

alimony NOT (child OR "Judge Smith" OR support)

will return any document that contains the term "alimony" but does not contain ANY of the terms within the parenthesis.

The Wildcard Character:
The wildcard character (*) may be used to represent letters at the end of a word (and ONLY at the end of words). For example:

pla*

will return documents that contain any term beginning with the letters "pla."