Systems, Methods, Software For Integration of Case Law, Legal Briefs, and Litigation Documents into Law Firm Workflow

Abstract

The present inventors recognized a need for improving conventional informational retrieval systems, particularly those intended for retrieval of legal information. Accordingly, they devised systems, methods, and software that facilitate online access to documents, such as non-opinion legal documents, in context of a legal workflow. An exemplary method of operation includes determining that a user of a client access device is performing a litigation-related task using a word-processing application on the client-access device. And in response to an affirmative determination, providing trial court materials relevant to the litigation-related task to the client access device without the user leaving the word-processing application. In some embodiments, the word-processing application is launched from a case-management application that provides case, activity, and role information to the online legal research system.

1 . An online legal research system, the system comprising:
 one or more databases storing court documents of second legal cases; and   a server coupled to the databases, the server configured to:
 receive from a client access device a portion of identification information that identifies a first legal case and a first activity associated with the first legal case maintained by a case management system of a law firm; 
 search the databases based on the received portion of the identification information; and 
 return to the client access device one or more court documents of at least one second legal case that are relevant to the first activity of the first legal case. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the identification information identifies at least one of a legal client of the law firm associated with the client access device, the first legal case associated with the legal client, one or more parties of the first legal case, one or more attorneys associated with the first legal case, and one or more legal workflow activities associated with the first legal case including the first activity; and   wherein in response to identification of at least one of the legal workflow activities the client access device is configured to display one or more options to access the court documents of the one or more databases.   
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the legal workflow activities include at least one of researching opposing counsel, researching a judge, researching opposing experts, finding a brief, anticipating a motion, responding to a brief, reviewing a brief, knowing when a client is sued, stating an argument, determining an attorney's work load, discovering a litigation strategy, valuing a case, finding an expert, evaluating an opposing counsel, writing a settlement letter, proposing a jury instruction, setting up an appeal, pulling a docket, filing a complaint, filing a motion, and scheduling a settlement conference. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the case management system includes medical records, civil verdict awards and settlement agreements, criminal plea agreements and verdicts, arbitration awards, valuation aids, statistical reports if one of the legal workflow activities includes a case valuation activity. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the editable document includes a template or a document type associated with the first activity. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the case management system includes at least one of a brief document, trial-court document, a local rules document, court docket, jury verdict, set of jury instructions, public records, and people information. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first activity includes one of a case valuation activity, case negotiation activity, case preparation activity, trial activity, and post-trial activity. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein a returned court document is a user-interface element configured to provide the client access device access to the returned legal document from the server in response to selection of the user-interface element. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the client access device is configured to access the portion of the identification information via a word-processing application from an editable documented associated with the first legal case maintained by the case management system. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the client access device is configured to present the returned one or more court documents as user-interface elements in a region of the word-processing application while the editable document of the first legal case is accessed via the word-processing application. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the client access device is configured to access a returned court document from the server in response to selection of an associated user-interface element. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the databases include:
 a subscriber database containing authentication credentials for a plurality of subscribers to an online legal research service;   a caselaw database containing a plurality of judicial decision documents; and   a database containing a plurality of court-filing documents, with each court-filing documents representative of an original litigation document filed in a legal dispute associated with at least one judicial decision, each court-filing document including a brief, pleading or trial exhibit.   
     
     
         13 . A method of performing legal research, the method comprising:
 receiving at a server from a client access device a portion of identification information that identifies a first legal case and an activity associated with the first legal case maintained by a case management system associated with a law firm;   searching one or more databases that store court documents associated with second legal cases based on the received portion of the identification information; and   returning to the client access device one or more court documents of at least one second legal case that are relevant to the activity of the first legal case.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises:
 initiating a word-processing application on the client access device; and   loading a template from the case management system into the word processing application, the template associated with a document and including the identification information.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the method further comprises determining the portion of identification information from the template. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises:
 initiating a word-processing application on the client access device; and   loading a template from the case management system into the word processing application, the template associated with a document and metadata, the metadata including the identification information.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises determining the portion of identification information from the metadata associated with the template. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein determining the portion of identification information comprises detecting presence of a code associated with the activity in the metadata. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 14 , the method further comprising transmitting user-interface elements associated with the one or more court documents to the client access device for presentation in a region of the word-processing application while the document is accessed via the word-processing application. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the method further comprises:
 receiving a selection of a user-interface element associated with a court document from the client access device; and   transmitting the returned court document from the server to the client access device based on receipt of the selection.