Information and tips for Court PC online database users

WHY WE USE WILDCARDS

Every party name in our database was once entered in Judicial Branch records by court data entry clerks.  These are the scores of clerical workers who may each record hundreds of names, appearance records, motions, exhibits and docket transactions every day. 

I don't think it's disparaging to those workers to suggest that they make the occasional error or typo.  However, it's naive to believe that those errors might never have an impact on your search results.  Why miss potential matching records that are easily found using wildcards?  Here's how to protect yourself from everyday slips of the fingers, lapses of attention, and the mind-numbing drudgery of clerical work.

Court PC's database uses the asterisk * as a wildcard, and our search logic allows you to use more than one wildcard in your search terms.  In effect, this means you could even run a search for any names containing the sequence *R*S*T*L*N*E, but doing so would return over 40,000 records to your search results .... probably more matching records than you anticipated. That's the sequence of letters in names such as "American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Co.," "First American Title Insurance Co." and "Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center."  Wildcards used this way match any letter or string of letters in between the letters you supply, and that can be troublesome.

Hopefully, this discussion and the examples below will show you how to get the most out of your search using wildcards without becoming deluged with irrelevant records.  I'll also be referring to the database terms "string" (any sequence of characters, including letters, numbers, symbols and spaces, whether they make sense or not), "search string" (basically, your input), and "return" (just as basically, the output you get from the computer in response to your search string).

TRAILING WILDCARD NO LONGER NEEDED

First off, although we used to require a trailing wildcard (wildcard at the end of a search string) to match any extensions to a search string on the surname or in a corporate name, the search logic has been modified and that's no longer the case.  You don't need to enter an asterisk after SMITH to find records for SMITH JR, SMITH PPA, SMITH EXEC OF ESTATE, SMITHSON, SMITH & WESSON, or hyphenated surnames like SMITH-GARDNER.  Our system supplies it for you. 

LEADING WILDCARD

On the Court PC database, you can use a leading wildcard (wildcard at the beginning of a search string) to find a string of characters anywhere in a record.  Many databases, like the CT Judicial Branch web data, won't allow this.  So if you enter a search string like *SMITH, you can find records for SMITH, SIXSMITH, HAMMERSMITH, SHOPSMITH MACHINE TOOLS INC. and even PATRICIA DELACORTE EXTRX OF ESTATE OF MARTIN SMITH.

THE INTERNAL OR EMBEDDED WILDCARD

You can also use an internal or embedded wildcard to return minor variations within a string of characters.  Some databases, like PACER, also allow you to search this way, provided at least three consecutive letters of the name have been entered before the embedded wildcard.  On the Court PC database, there is no such requirement -- the embedded wildcard can be placed in the second position, as in D*BELLA, to return records for DIBELLA, DE BELLA, DELLABELLA, etc.   

An embedded asterisk in the search string SM*TH will return records for SMITH, SMYTH, and SMYTHE, but if you use it on a business name search it can also return records with names such as SMALL BUSINESS COUNCIL OF SOUTHERN CT, and if you use *SM*TH, names such as SPORTSMEN'S ATHLETIC CLUB INC. will be returned to your results.

USING EMBEDDED WILDCARDS IN SURNAMES

The embedded wildcard is extremely helpful for checking variations and misspellings on the following types of names: 

• any names with the troublesome vowel combinations of E and I, double consonants where one might be dropped, or other inconsistent spellings in the native language

  • FREIDMAN/FRIEDMAN (FR*DMAN)

  • PELECCHIA / PELLECHIA / PELLECCHIA (PEL*CH*A)

  • GOTTFRIED / GUTFREID (GOT*FR)

  • KAUFMAN / KAUFFMANN (KAUF*MAN)

  • BROSSEAU / BROUSEAU / BROUSSEAU / BRUSSEAU (BR*S*AU)

  • CHEUNG / CHUNG (CH*UNG)

• common Anglo-Saxon names with variant spellings

  • PHILIPS/PHILLIPS (PHIL*PS)

  • FREDERICKS / FREDRICKS (FRED*KS)

• some Italian and Spanish surnames, particularly those using DE, DI, DEL, DELLA etc.

  • RICCARDI / RICCIARDI (RIC*RDI)

  • GUILIANI / GIULIANI (G*LIANI)

  • DELLAROCCO /DELLA ROCCO (DEL*ROC)

  • DESTEFANO / DI STEFANO (D*STEF)

  • DEJESUS / DE JESUS (DE*SUS)

  • DE LA RIVERA / DELARIVEIRA (DE*RIV*RA)

• Irish and Scottish surnames using O' and MC or MAC

  • O'SHEA / O' SHEA/ O SHEA / OSHEA (O*SHEA)

  • MCDERMID/ MAC DIARMID (M*D*RMID)

• Dutch surnames using VAN and VAN DER etc.

  • VANDERWALKER / VAN DER WALKER (VAN*WALK)

  • VANVOORHEES / VAN VOORHEES (VAN*VOOR)

• consonant-rich Eastern European names

  • KOWALCZUK / KOWALCHUK (KOW*UK)

  • JUCHNIEWICZ (JUC*Z)

  • DJOMBALIC (D*BAL*C)

• Arabic names with inconsistent English equivalents for vowels absent in the Arabic language, or Arabic names beginning with AL- or EL-

  • MOHAMMED and MUHAMAD (M*HAM*D)

  • AL HUSSEINI / AL-HUSSEINI / ALHOSSEIN (AL*SEIN)

John Lach,

Court PC of Connecticut Inc.