Systems, Methods, Software, and Interfaces for Formatting Legal Citations
First Claim
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1. A citation formatting system associated with facilitating legal research, the system comprising:
- a database including a plurality of law-related documents associated with legal research;
a citation data structure including one or more formatted citations associated with at least one of the law-related documents, the citation data structure being indexed and including a document identifier logically associated with at least a first citation formatted according to a citation standard, the citation standard being based on one or more of a bluebook standard, ALWD standard, and citation format preference associated with a user; and
a server coupled to the database and to the data structure, the server configured to;
retrieve a citation using a citation-finder module, from a word-processing document of a client access device, the retrieved citation associated with a specific law-related document;
determine whether the specific law-related document represented by the retrieved citation exists in the database using a citation-identifier module which parses at least a portion of the formatted citation, the citation-identifier module integrating with the word-processing document;
transmit at least a portion of the formatted citation to a citation-formatter module for retrieving citation data from law-related documents corresponding to at least one of the retrieved citations;
determine, using the citation-formatter module, whether the specific law-related document represented by the formatted citation matches an existing law-related document in the database;
transmit an error message to the client access device if the formatted citation does not match an existing law-related document in the database;
identify at least one formatted citation using the citation-identifier module which processes the citation data structure text including the document identifier corresponding to the law-related document in the database represented by the retrieved citation; and
transmit the identified at least one formatted citation to the client access device for optional substitution of the retrieved citation in the word-processing document with one of the transmitted at least one formatted citation, the client access device including at least a word-processing interface region for editing the retrieved citation.
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Abstract
The present disclosure is directed towards a citation formatting system and a method for operating an online research service for providing legal citations. The exemplary system provides the citation formatting function in a client-server architecture, receiving citations from a user'"'"'s client access device over a computer network and communicating citation format suggestions back to the client access device for possible insertion into a document on the access device.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A citation formatting system associated with facilitating legal research, the system comprising:
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a database including a plurality of law-related documents associated with legal research; a citation data structure including one or more formatted citations associated with at least one of the law-related documents, the citation data structure being indexed and including a document identifier logically associated with at least a first citation formatted according to a citation standard, the citation standard being based on one or more of a bluebook standard, ALWD standard, and citation format preference associated with a user; and a server coupled to the database and to the data structure, the server configured to; retrieve a citation using a citation-finder module, from a word-processing document of a client access device, the retrieved citation associated with a specific law-related document; determine whether the specific law-related document represented by the retrieved citation exists in the database using a citation-identifier module which parses at least a portion of the formatted citation, the citation-identifier module integrating with the word-processing document; transmit at least a portion of the formatted citation to a citation-formatter module for retrieving citation data from law-related documents corresponding to at least one of the retrieved citations; determine, using the citation-formatter module, whether the specific law-related document represented by the formatted citation matches an existing law-related document in the database; transmit an error message to the client access device if the formatted citation does not match an existing law-related document in the database; identify at least one formatted citation using the citation-identifier module which processes the citation data structure text including the document identifier corresponding to the law-related document in the database represented by the retrieved citation; and transmit the identified at least one formatted citation to the client access device for optional substitution of the retrieved citation in the word-processing document with one of the transmitted at least one formatted citation, the client access device including at least a word-processing interface region for editing the retrieved citation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 28)
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7. A citation formatting system associated with facilitating legal research, the system comprising:
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a database including a plurality of law-related documents associated with legal research; a citation data structure including one or more formatted citations associated with at least one of the law-related documents, the citation data structure being indexed and including a document identifier logically associated with at least a first citation formatted according to a citation standard, the citation standard being based on one or more of a bluebook standard, ALWD standard, and citation format preference associated with a user; and a processor, operatively coupled to the database and to the citation data structure, the processor being configured to; retrieve a citation using a citation-finder module, from a word-processing document of a client access device, the retrieved citation associated with a specific law-related document; determine whether the specific law-related document represented by the retrieved citation exists in the database using a citation-identifier module which parses at least a portion of the formatted citation, the citation-identifier module integrating with the word-processing document; transmit at least a portion of the formatted citation to a citation-formatter module for retrieving citation data from law-related documents corresponding to at least one of the retrieved citations; determine, using the citation-formatter module, whether the specific law-related document represented by the formatted citation matches an existing law-related document in the database; transmit an error message to the client access device if the formatted citation does not match an existing law-related document in the database; identify at least one formatted citation using the citation-identifier module which processes the citation data structure text including the document identifier corresponding to the law-related document in the database represented by the retrieved citation; and transmit the identified at least one formatted citation to the client access device for optional substitution of the retrieved citation in the word-processing document with one of the transmitted at least one formatted citation, the client access device including at least a word-processing interface region for editing the retrieved citation. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 29)
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12. A method of formatting citations associated with facilitating legal research, the method comprising:
retrieving by a server a citation from a word processing document of a client access device, the retrieved citation associated with a specific law-related document; retrieving a citation using a citation-finder module, from a word-processing document of a client access device, the retrieved citation associated with a specific law-related document; determining whether the specific law-related document represented by the retrieved citation exists in the database using a citation-identifier module which parses at least a portion of the formatted citation, the citation-identifier module integrating with the word-processing document; transmitting at least a portion of the formatted citation to a citation-formatter module for retrieving citation data from law-related documents corresponding to at least one of the retrieved citations; determining, using the citation-formatter module, whether the specific law-related document represented by the formatted citation matches an existing law-related document in the database; transmitting an error message to the client access device if the formatted citation does not match an existing law-related document in the database; identifying at least one formatted citation using the citation-identifier module which processes a citation data structure text including a document identifier corresponding to the law-related document in the database represented by the retrieved citation; and transmitting the identified at least one formatted citation to the client access device for optional substitution of the retrieved citation in the word-processing document with one of the transmitted at least one formatted citation, the client access device including at least a word-processing interface region for editing the retrieved citation. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 30)
Specification