This document discusses, among other things, systems and methods for searching for relevant documents in a document corpus. Using, among other things, text provided by a user's query, the system undertakes a dynamic search process that includes at least one ordered sequence of searches. The results of a first search are evaluated to determine how to formulate a second or subsequent search, whether to perform a second or subsequent search, or whether or how to present to the user results from the search or searches performed up to that point. In one example, the first search uses tight criteria in conjunction with the language of the user's query. If the number of documents in the search results do not meet or exceed a threshold value, the search criteria is progressively loosened over subsequent searches. The search list may depend on, among other things, a characteristic of the user query or upon a result returned by a previous search on the user query.