How to Search by a Judge's Name on Lexis CourtLink

 

You can search for cases heard by a judge by using the Judge field or the search box. Also, employ the search tips listed below when searching for cases a judge has heard. 

Judge Field
Search Tips for the Judge Field
Keywords Field
Search Tips for the Keywords Field
 

 Judge Field

Take the following steps to search by a judge's name in the Judge field:

1. Select your court from the within drop-down. 
2. Enter the judge's last name in the Judge field. 
3. Click Search.

Note: If the Judge field is not available on your selected courts, you see the following message: You won’t receive results from these courts.  When you click on these courts, you see the list of courts which do not support searching by Judge field.

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 Search Tips for the Judge Field

Please refer to the following tips when you search by a judge's name:

Apostrophes (')
Apostrophes are ignored.

Capitalization
Capitalization is ignored.

Carets
The caret operates as an OR connector.

Court
Select only the court where the judge presides in order to avoid extraneous hits when the judge has a common name.

First Names
Do not use the judge's first name whenever possible because the court may not have entered a first name.

Hyphens (-)
Hyphens are ignored unless in between 2 spaces.

Last Names
Use only the last name of the judge when possible. 

Middle Initials and Middle Names
Avoid using middle initials or middle names whenever possible because the court may not have entered a middle initial. 

Periods
Periods are read as a space.

Suffixes
Do not use a suffix when searching for a judge.

Title
Do not include the judge's title (Magistrate, Chief Justice, etc.).

Quotation Marks
Use quotation marks to keep a judge's name together with no intervening terms. 

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 Keywords Field

Take the following steps to search for a judge's name in the search box:

1. Select your court from the within drop-down. 
2. Enter judges(XXX) in the Keywords field. 
   Note:  The XXX stands for the judge's last name. 
3. Click Search.

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 Search Tips for the Keywords Field

Generally
The Keywords field uses Lexis^® search logic. You can construct Natural Language or Terms & Connectors searches. You can also utilize wildcards and segments. Put your search terms in quotation marks to look for an exact phrase when running Natural Language searches.
 

Using Symbols and Special Characters
There are a few special characters that cannot be searched and change the way the service interprets your search:

• " (quotation marks) - You cannot search for quotation marks, but you can use quotation marks in your search to find exact phrases or turn off some search functionality.
• & (ampersand) - You cannot search for an ampersand, but you can use & as an equivalent to the AND connector.
• . (period) - The period is generally viewed as a space. Use quotation marks in your search to turn off that functionality.
• ( ) (parentheses) - You cannot search for parentheses, but you can use them in your search.

The Lexis CourtLink service processes the search with the other terms you entered.

Terms separated by any symbols or punctuation are generally read as a phrase and the results include those terms together with any type of punctuation.

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