For example:

Click on a Category and leave the Search Bar to the right blank to bring up summaries in that broad category, most recent first. [Ex: Category: Criminal Law; Search By Keywords: blank]

Click on a Category and type the court in the Search Bar [Ex: Category: Criminal Law; Search by Keywords: “fourth department” using quotes] to bring up summaries in that category and court, most recent first.

Click on a Category and type keywords (in quotes) into the Search by Keywords to focus on the keyword issue and bring up the relevant summaries, most recent first. [Ex: Category: Criminal Law; Search by Keywords: “ineffective assistance”]

Click on a Category and type keywords (in quotes) and a specific court (in quotes) into Search by Keywords to focus the issue-search on a particular court and bring up the relevant summaries, most recent first. [Ex: Category: Criminal Law; Search by Keywords: “ineffective assistance” “fourth department”]

If no Category seems to fit, leave the Category bar blank and type keywords (and specific courts if desired), in quotes, into Search by Keywords to bring up the relevant summaries most recent first. [Ex: Category: blank: Search by Keywords: “associations” “fourth department”]

If no Category seems to fit and a particular statutory provision is a strongly relevant issue, leave the Category bar blank and type the statutory provision into Search by Keywords. For example, “General Obligations Law 11-100” will bring up summaries dealing with the Dram Shop Act. “General Business Law 349” will bring up summaries dealing with Deceptive Business Practices.

Finally, for completeness in issue-focused searches, do more than one key word search. For example, for Dram Shop cases, with the Category bar blank, do a keywords search for “dram shop,” then do a new keywords search for “General Obligations Law,” and maybe another for “visibly intoxicated.” Because the number of summaries retrieved is manageable, and because the issues are succinctly stated in the summary headings, research is much faster and more efficient than key word searches in a caselaw database, or even a key word search within a hornbook or a treatise. The issues have already been identified and succinctly stated in the headings. The relevance of a summarized case can therefore be determined in seconds.