Your query intrigued me. I went into the AUST library, the AUSMAX file
and searched "John Laws or John Sinclair Laws." (Through using the
"kwic" format, I found that he is sometimes referred to as "John Sinclair
Laws.") I got eight hits, six of which seem pertinent. However, only
one or two of these actually had his name in the name of the case or
proceeding. By searching only in the name segment, i.e. name(laws), you
appear to be missing some useful cases. On the other hand, if his last
name (Laws) is all that is mentioned in the case and the case name, then
you have no choice but to quickly check the cite list (use ".ci") to see
which are the relevant cases. Good luck.
Fritz Snyder, Univ. of Montana Law Library.
On Wed, 10 Jan 1996
ron_huttner.lawstaff@muwaye.unimelb.edu.au wrote:
> I should be obliged if a LEXIS-NEXIS expert could shed some light on the
> following search conundrum I have just encountered. Her in Australia there is
> a well-known broadcaster by the name of John Laws, who has been involved in a
> certain amount of litigation, leading to reported decisions. I was
> endeavouring to locate every case to which he had been a party, and
> accordingly selected the COMCAS library and AUSCAS file. I then entered the
> following search:-
>
> name(laws)
>
> to which LEXIS-NEXIS responded with 97 "hits". Of these, the bulk were cases
> with the word "law" in the title, such as "Law Society". I then sought to do
> a "modify", by adding "and not law" - but LEXIS-NEXIS still refused to
> confine its "hits" to the name "laws". Finally, I tried the following:-
>
> (name(laws)) and not (name(law))
>
> but that fared no better.
>
> Is there any way whereby I can achieve my aim to find the surname "Laws" (and
> not "law" as well) in the title of a case ? I considered the possibility of
> the following:-
>
> name(plural(laws))
>
> but rejected it, because admitting the possibility of the existence of more
> than one John Laws depressed me too much !!
>
> TIA
>
> Ron Huttner
> Lecturer In Computerised Legal Research
> Faculty Of Law
> University Of Melbourne
>
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