Searching in Esper

The search bar in the top right corner of Esper is an easy place to search laws and regulations in a specific jurisdiction(s), including both state and federal. To search from anywhere in Esper: 

  • Click into the Search Bar on any page in Esper
  • Type keywords or the name of a policy
  • Press Enter
  • Results will appear as clickable hyperlinks 

Advanced Searches

Once a search term or empty search is submitted, the results table appears with relevant policies. From this table, you can further filter results or conduct a more advanced search. To filter results: 

  • Click the Filter button to the top left of the search results 
  • Select any of the following to limit your results
    • Department 
    • Effective Status
    • Sub-statuses
    • Tags

You can also narrow your search from the start by doing either of the following:

  • Click the    icon and select Advanced Search criteria
  • Or, use Boolean search terms in the search bar
    • Use the - (minus sign) in front of a term to search for a policy that does not contain the term or phrase. Example: water -rights will search for policies that do contain water and explicitly do not contain the word rights
    • Use the + (plus sign) to search for more than one keyword. Example: +water +rights +river will search for only policies that contain all three words.
    • Use “ “ (quotes) to search for a specific phrase. Example: “water rights” will return search results for policies that contain the specific phrase water rights.