Frequently Asked Questions

In this example, we will search for cases relating to police powers to stop and search. After logging into vLex Justis with your student portal password, enter the terms stop and search into the search box at the top of the home page. Then filter your results to cases by selecting Case Law on the left.  You will retrieve approximately 7100 UK cases, which is too many records to examine, so you need to refine your search.

Now enclose the words within inverted commas, "stop and search" and click the magnifying glass symbol to search. vLex Justis will now look for those search terms as a specific phrase, rather than separate words. The search is now much more specific, retrieving 357 results.

You will not have time to look through 357 cases, so you will need to refine your search further. Select the Advanced search (magnifying glass) in the blue vertical left side menu, and select Case Law under Content to open the advanced cases search. Type stop and search in the exact phrase search box, and human rights into the category search box then click Search. You have now retrieved 86 results, in order of relevance.

Searching by category retrieves cases where the specific subject has been assigned to the case. This differs from a free text search which retrieves cases where the search term appears anywhere in the text, and may therefore be less relevant to your research.

For further information about searching vLex Justis see the vLex Justis User Guide.

Next: Searching for cases by topic on Lexis+