title: Call a custom model method from controller laravel4
body: <p>I have a model like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>class Event extends Eloquent
  
      {
          protected $softDelete = true;
          public function scopeSearchEvents($search_criteria)
          {
              return Event::whereIn('title',$search_criteria)
                              -&gt;orWhereIn('description',$search_criteria)
                              -&gt;whereApproved('1')
                              -&gt;orderBy('event_date','desc')
                              -&gt;get();
          }
      }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And im calling it from the controller like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$data = Event::search($search_criteria);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But it gives this error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Symfony \ Component \ Debug \ Exception \ FatalErrorException
  Call to undefined method Illuminate\Events\Dispatcher::search()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What is the best way of calling a custom model method from your controller?</p>