Doing a "Search" online can be an easy, fast way to find information you are looking for.  But it can be tricky sometimes, too. Depending on how you search, you might get some pretty surprising results. Sometimes you might not get any results at all.  Here are some ideas about how to do the best search you can to get the information you need on LawHelpMN.org.

Start Short and Simple

Before you start, try to think of 1 or 2 basic words that describe the legal information you need.  It also helps if you:

1.      Use all lower-case letters ("credit report" is better than "Credit Report"), and

2.      Do not use punctuation ("credit report" is better than "credit report.").

If you use a very general word like "divorce", you can end up with many resources to look at.  It might seem like there are too many to choose from, but at least it's a good starting point.  From there, you can narrow down your results by doing another search with more specific terms. For a more specific search, read on about how to use "and," "or," and "not."

Getting More Specific - Using "and," "or," and "not"

If you use more than 1 word in your search, then only the resources that have those exact words in the exact same order as you typed them will come up.  That's good for phrases like "credit report", but it can cause problems with a longer phrase like "divorce child support".  To get around that problem, you must use the words "and," "or," or "not" between your search words.  

For example, if you are going through a divorce and want to know about paying or getting child support, you should type in "divorce and child support" instead of just typing "divorce child support".  The "and" lets the search look for resources that have those words, without needing them to be in any particular order. It's like breaking your phrase into smaller pieces to make it easier for the search to handle.   

A search for "divorce and child support" only finds resources that have both the terms "divorce" and "child support."  But you can also use the words "or" and "not" to make your search even more specific.  For example, you can do a search for "divorce and child support or spousal support".  That will look for resources that talk about "divorce" and either "child support," or "spousal support," or both.  A search for "child support not spousal support" will bring up resources that talk about "child support" but will leave out the ones that also talk about "spousal support."

The words "and," "or," and "not" are special terms that the search recognizes, called "Boolean operators." To learn about other, more advanced Boolean operators, see "Advanced Boolean Operators" below.

Search Results

After you click on the search button, you should see a list of resources. There are different types of resources.  The resources may be under headings like:

·         Legal Information

·         Get Legal Help

·         Self-Help forms

·         Courts Info

·         Community Organizations

To see only 1 type of the resources, click on the title below the search box that is what you are looking for.  You can also choose "All Results".

Sometimes the Search function does not return any results. If this happens to you, don't give up!  You can try again, and if that doesn't work, you can still find what you are looking for by going through the normal channels of the site.  For help using LawHelpMN.org, click here.

Advanced Boolean Operators

Operator	Function
<near>	Putting <near> between your search words will make the search look for resources where your words are near each other. Ex:  grandparents <near> visitation will search for resources that have those 2 words near each other
<sentence> <paragraph>	Putting <sentence> or <paragraph> between your search words will make the search look for resources that have your search words in the same sentence or paragraph. Ex: custody <paragraph> protective order
" " (double quotes)	Using quotes make sure that only your exact search word is looked for. (You can also put phrases in the quotes to search for a phrase) Ex: "bank" will only find the word bank and not banking, banked or banker.
?	A question mark is a "wildcard operator."  You can use it to take the place of any 1 character.  You can use this if you are not sure how a word is spelled or if it can be spelled 2 ways.   Ex:  organi?ation
*	A * is a wildcard operator that fills in for 1 or more characters. You cannot use a * to fill in the first letter of a word. Ex:  bank*  (finds bank and words with bank in them like bankrupt, banker, banking)