DocketBird's search engine is designed to handle common legal research shorthand and Boolean logic. Use the following operators to refine your results.
1. Basic Operators (And, Or, Not)
AND (Default): If you enter multiple words, the search automatically looks for documents containing all of them. You can also explicitly use the word
and.OR: Use
orbetween terms to find documents containing either word (e.g.,fraud or misrepresentation).NOT (Exclusion): To exclude a term, place a hyphen (
-) directly before the word.Note: The word "not" is not supported; the system will ask you to use the minus sign instead.
2. Wildcards
Asterisk (*) and Exclamation Point (!): Both characters can be used at the end of a word to find various endings.
Example:
forfeit*orforfeit!will both find "forfeit," "forfeiture," and "forfeited".
Restriction: You cannot place a wildcard at the beginning or in the middle of a word (e.g.,
*listingis not allowed).
3. Proximity Searching
Proximity searches find terms that appear within a certain distance of each other.
Type | Syntax | Internal Logic |
Word Distance |
| Finds terms within n words of each other. |
Sentence |
| Finds terms within ~100 words of each other. |
Paragraph |
| Finds terms within ~1000 words of each other. |
4. Phrases & Special Characters
Exact Phrases: Use quotation marks to search for an exact string (e.g.,
"summary judgment").Email Addresses: You can search for specific email addresses (e.g.,
user@domain.com); the system automatically handles the formatting for you.Legal Symbols: You can search directly for section (
§) and paragraph (¶) symbols.
5. Search Rules & Validation
To ensure your search runs correctly, please keep these rules in mind:
Matching Pairs: Every open parenthesis
(must have a closing). Similarly, quotation marks must come in pairs.Valid Symbols: The search supports letters, numbers, and the following symbols:
( ) . ! * , / " ' @ § ¶ -.