Systems, methods, software, and interfaces for formatting legal citations

• US 9,760,961 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2015
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Reuters Global Resources Unlimited Company (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Steensgard, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOLLAND, SHERYL L
• Application Number:
  US14/857,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20160005137A1
• Time in Patent Office: 726 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student

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.

Claims

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 and an indexed citation data structure comprising a document identifier and one or more secondary legal citations associated with at least one of the law related documents in the database, the document identifier further associated with the one or more secondary legal citations, the secondary legal citations formatted according to a citation standard, the citation standard being based on one or more of a bluebook standard, ALWD standard, and a user citation format preference; and

a server coupled to the database and including a processor and a memory, said memory storing instructions that in response to a request to check a citation causes the processor to;

retrieve a document citation using a citation-finder module, from a word-processing document of a client access device, the retrieved document citation associated with a specific law-related document;

parse, by a citation formatter module, the retrieved document citation into one or more constituent citation components;

determine using the constituent citation components, by the citation formatter module, whether the specific law-related document matches an existing law-related document in the database;

transmit based on the determination, an error message to the client access device when the specific law related document does not match the existing law-related document in the database;

identify using the indexed citation data structure at least one secondary legal citation from the matched existing law-related document in the database when the specific law related document matches the existing law-related document in the database; and

transmit the identified secondary legal citation to a client access device for optional substitution in the word-processing document, the client access device including at least a word-processing interface region for editing the retrieved document citation.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified secondary citation includes one or more parallel citations for the available law-related document.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the parallel citations are formatted according to jurisdictional selections that identify one or more state or local court jurisdictions.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified secondary legal citation includes a first citation referencing the available law-related document, a second citation referencing an available law-related document that is historically related to the available law-related document, and one or more indicators indicating whether or how legal reasoning in the available law-related document has been treated by the historically related document.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified secondary legal citation includes a first citation referencing the available law-related document and a second citation referencing a predecessor available law-related document related to the available law-related document.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to substitute the retrieved document citation in the word-processing document with a selected secondary legal citation based on selection for substitution received from a user of the client access device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the server is further configured to:

generate a table-of-authorities based on one or more secondary legal citation in the word-processing document; and

insert the table-of-authorities into the word-processing document.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the client access device substitutes the retrieved document citation in the word-processing document with a selected secondary legal citation based on selection for substitution by a user of the client access device.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the server is further configured to:

generate a table-of-authorities based on one or more secondary legal citation in the word-processing document; and

insert the table-of-authorities into the word-processing document.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to:

match a law-related document available in the database to the retrieved document citation; and

retrieve from the indexed citation data structure at least one secondary legal citation for the available law-related document.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured responsive to a determination that the specific law-related document represented by the retrieved citation does not exist in the database, retrieving additional information from the word-processing document to make a determination whether the specific law-related document represented by the retrieved citation that does not exist in the database due to a database error, or due to an error in the retrieved document citation;

and

transmitting to the client device the result of the determination whether the specific law-related document represented by the retrieved document citation that does not exist in the database due to a database error, or due to an error in the retrieved citation.

12. A method of formatting citations associated with facilitating legal research, the method comprising:

retrieving a document citation using a citation-finder module of a server, from a word-processing document of a client access device, the retrieved document citation associated with a specific law-related document;

parsing by a citation-identifier module of the server, at least a portion of the formatted retrieved document citation into one or more constituent citation components;

determining using the constituent citation components, by a citation formatter module of the server, whether the specific law-related document matches an existing law-related document in a database, the database including a plurality of law-related documents associated with legal research and an indexed citation data structure comprising a document identifier and one or more secondary legal citations associated with at least one of the law related documents in the database, the document identifier further associated with the one or more secondary legal citations, the secondary legal citations formatted according to a citation standard, the citation standard being based on one or more of a bluebook standard, ALWD standard, and a user citation format preference;

transmitting based on the determination, an error message to the client access device when the specific law-related document does not match the existing law-related document in the database;

identifying using the indexed citation data structure, at least one secondary legal citation from the matched existing law-related document in the database, when the specific law-related document matches the existing law-related document in the database; and

transmitting the identified secondary legal citation to a client access device for optional substitution in the word-processing document, the client access device including at least a word-processing interface region for editing the retrieved document citation.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises substituting the document citation in the word-processing document with the identified secondary legal citation based on selection for substitution received from a user of the client access device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

generating a table-of-authorities based on one or more secondary legal citations in the word-processing document; and

inserting the table-of-authorities into the word-processing document.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein identifying at least one secondary legal citation-comprises:

matching a law-related document available in the database to the retrieved document citation; and

retrieving from the data structure at least one secondary legal citation for the available law-related document.

16. The method of formatting citations according to claim 12, further comprising

responsive to a determination that the specific law-related document represented by the retrieved document citation does not exist in the database, retrieving additional information from the word-processing document to make a determination whether the specific law-related document represented by the retrieved document citation that does not exist in the database due to a database error, or due to an error in the retrieved citation;

and

for transmitting to the client device the result of the determination whether the specific law-related document represented by the retrieved document citation that does not exist in the database due to a database error, or due to an error in the retrieved citation.