A new search engine has been installed for the keyword search for Court Opinions. The previous search engine had become erratic, producing spurious results such as duplications, missing cases and generally unreliable results. The new engine is based on Google’s search technology and internal testing has shown it to produce much better results. Thanks to the feedback provided by those previously using the search which helped to highlight this problem.

Although search mechanisms can return quite different results depending on the search criteria entered, you should now get more suitable results than previously. The results are listed in order of most significance. So multiple occurrences of the search word in the document or it appearing in the title will tend to cause it to appear towards the top of the list. If you note any particular problems or would like to provide feedback please email opinions@scotcourts.gov.uk with your comments.

Tips for better search

Since 2006 judgments in the supreme courts of Scotland have had Neutral Citations included in the text of the documents. Increasingly this reference is being used as a means of locating cases. To assist in this process we have created a tailored search which will attempt to locate cases with this reference. It will typically produce a small list of two or three cases with the required case at the top of the list. If the case is not found it may be because the Neutral Citation is not quoted in the correct format in the text. If this happens please use other search terms such as parties names to locate the case.

Test the new search