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

Abstract

The present inventor devised, among other things, a citation formatting system, method, and software. 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.

1 . A system comprising: 
 a legal-research database including caselaw documents; and    a server operatively coupled to the legal research database for receiving and answering content queries originating from browser-equipped client access devices, wherein the server is further configured to receive one or more legal citations from documents on one or more of the client access devices and to provide formatted citation data corresponding to each of the legal citations for insertion into the work product documents.    
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the formatted citation data includes one or more parallel citations and the formatted citation data is formatted according to one or more jurisdictional selections made by and associated with users of the browser-equipped client access devices.  
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein one or more of the formatted citations are provided in combination with one or more indicators for indicating whether or how legal reasoning in a caselaw document referenced by the one or more of the formatted citations has been treated in other legal cases.  
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the jurisdictional selections identify one or more state or local court jurisdictions.  
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the formatted citation data includes formatted citation data for one or more legal cases historically related to one or more of the received legal citations.  
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the server is further configured to receive requests to produce tables-of-authorities based on the work-product documents.  
     
     
         7 . A system comprising: 
 a legal-research database including caselaw documents; and    means, operatively coupled to the legal-research database, for receiving legal citations extracted from documents on browser-equipped client access devices and providing formatted citation data corresponding to each of the legal citations for insertion into the documents.    
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the formatted citation data includes one or more parallel citations and the formatted citation data is formatted according to one or more jurisdictional or standard selections made by and associated with users of the browser-equipped client access devices.  
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein one or more of the formatted citations are provided in combination with one or more indicators for indicating whether or how legal reasoning in a caselaw document referenced by the one or more of the formatted citations has been treated in other legal cases.  
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the formatted citation data includes formatted citation data for one or more legal cases historically related to one or more of the received legal citations.  
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the server is further configured to receive requests to produce tables-of-authorities based on the work-product documents.  
     
     
         12 . A method of operating an online legal research service, the method comprising: 
 providing a server for the online legal research service;    receiving at the server one or more legal citations from a document on a client access device; and    in response to receiving the one or more legal citations, communicating one or more formatted legal citations corresponding to the received legal citations to the client access device for insertion into document.