Case Library

Case LibraryRead. Find. Make your case.

Find an opinion, then settle in to read.

The case, in its own words.

Search by words, citation, docket, or case name. Open an opinion to read, highlight a passage, and keep a note.

Search guide

Local Terms & Connectors syntax follows familiar Westlaw-style operators. Results search case text, not proprietary headnotes.

Expression	Meaning
tort contract / OR	A space or OR means either term.
tort & duty / AND	Both anywhere in the document.
"res ipsa loquitur"	Adjacent words in that order.
medical /3 malpractice	Within three token positions, either order.
medical +3 malpractice	First precedes second within three positions.
jury /s trial / +s	Same sentence; +s also requires order.
jury /p trial / +p	Same paragraph; +p also requires order.
tort % contract	Exclude documents matching the expression after %.
neglig! / withdr*w	! expands a root; * is one normalized character.

Precedence: phrases, OR, +n, /n, +s, /s, +p, /p, AND, exclusion. Smaller distances bind first. Parentheses make intent explicit. No automatic stemming or plurals: # is accepted but all ordinary words already match exactly after SQLite normalization.

Sentence boundaries use punctuation with a legal-abbreviation exception list. Paragraphs use blank lines or form feeds. OCR may not preserve either. This is reproducible local syntax, not a claim of identical Westlaw results. AND and exclusion groups cannot be operands inside proximity expressions.

Regex uses the Python regex engine with per-document timeouts. An unanchored substring cannot safely become a whole-word index filter. Regex and SQLite have different Unicode word boundaries, so no automatic word filter is imposed. Use "Within these indexed terms" to narrow the actual search. Timed-out cases remain unexamined and continuation retries them.

Index order is fast and stable within a catalog generation. Relevance and newest date may require more work before the first page. A partial page is never a complete count. Duplicate copies of the same decision are grouped. All text versions remain searchable; separate decisions and uncertain matches stay separate. Grouped continuations expire after 30 minutes or server restart.