Search operators let you control and narrow down your search results.
Phrase Search - " "
- Using quotation marks " " returns results containing the exact words within the quote.
- Example: "small business employer" will show all decisions that have small business employer in the decision.
Search Operator - AND
- The search operator AND only shows result with both terms.
- Example: "s.185" AND 14 days - will only return results that have both s.185 and 14 days in the document.
Search Operator - OR
- The search operator OR returns results with either terms.
- Example: "constructive dismissal" OR forced to resign - will return all documents that have either the exact words "constructive dismissal" or variations on forced to resign in their text.
- The OR operator will provide more results than the AND operator.
Search Operator - NOT
- The search operator NOT returns search results containing the former terms but not the latter.
- Example: "minimum employment period" NOT 12 months - would help search for MEP cases that do not involve small business MEP cases.
Proximity Search - ~
- The search operator ~ is used for proximity searches, returning results that contain the words within a certain proximity of each other.
- Example: continuous period~20 - will show results where the words continuous and period are within 20 words of one another.
- You can use this operator to find legal concept, for example, continuous period~20 should produce decision on s384 that examine continuous service.
Wildcard Search - *
- The search operator * is a wildcard used to represent one or more 'any character' in a term.
- Example: industr* - will show results that contain industrial, industry, industries, industrious.
- You can use this operator to find legal concept, for example, continuous period~20 should produce decision on s 384 that examine continuous service.
By combining operators, you can hone in on the exact cases you want.
For example: s.739 AND "Berri" Golden Cockerel~40 AND schedule AND ambig* NOT("variation" OR "217") - should return dispute decisions that consider Berri and Golden Cockerel, the use of schedules and ambiguity, without including decisions under s.217.