CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/334,804 filed on Jan. 17, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,032,533, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/644,465 filed on Jan. 14, 2005, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND PERMISSION
A portion of this patent document contains material subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever. The following notice applies to this document: Copyright © 2005, Thomson Reuters Global Resources.
BACKGROUND
1. Field
The present invention concerns systems, methods, and software for online researching of legal statutes and related information.
2. Brief Discussion of Related Art
The American legal system relies heavily on written laws and judicial opinions. Because of this, judges and lawyers within our legal system are continually researching an ever-changing body of statutes and past opinions (case law) to make decisions and advise their clients.
To facilitate these searches, companies, such as West Publishing Company of St. Paul, Minn. (doing business as Thomson West), collect and publish statutes and judicial opinions from across the United States in both print and electronic form. The electronic form of the statutes and case law are electronically searchable via the Internet through the www.Westlaw.com legal research website.
Although services, such as Westlaw.com, have provided enormous benefits to the legal industry, the present inventors have recognized considerable room for improvement, particularly in the area of statutes research. This aspect of legal research is notoriously difficult and time-consuming. Even with electronic search capabilities, many researchers prefer using print materials.
Accordingly, the present inventors have recognized a need for tools that facilitate researching statutory information.
SUMMARY
To address this and/or other needs, the present inventors devised systems, methods, and software that promise to improve the ability of researchers to find, verify, read, and/or interpret statutory information. One exemplary system provides a number of graphical user interfaces that facilitate researching statutory information. For finding statutory information, one exemplary interface provides options for users to access statutory information by citation, by table of contents, by index, and/or by popular name. For verification, a results interface presents specific statutory information in combination with visual indicators, such as red or yellow flags, that indicate the validity or status of the information.
For reading ease, requested statutory information is presented in one pane of an interface and an adjacent pane provides a list of links to related information, such as tables of contents, other versions of a statute, case law, scholarly materials, legislative history, cross-referenced statutes, and administrative-law materials. The list of links also functions as a checklist for statutory research. And for interpreting the statutory information, the list of links includes lists to cases that cite the statute, for example, a list of citing cases decided within the last 60 days of a given access.
In accordance with an embodiment, a system to retrieve information is provided. The system includes a plurality of legal statute databases and a server. The legal statute databases maintaining a plurality of legal statutes. The server transmits to a client access device a table of contents of a selected legal statute database as a plurality of search-selectable legal statute categories each associated with one or more legal statutes. The server receives from the client access device a query including a selection of at least one search-selectable legal statute category and a search criterion. The server retrieve at least one legal statute from the selected legal statute database based on the at least one selected legal statute category and the search criterion of the query. The server transmits to the client access device the retrieved at least one legal statute.
In accordance with another embodiment, a method of retrieving information is provided. The method includes transmitting from a server to a client access device a table of contents of a selected legal statute database as a plurality of search-selectable legal statute categories each associated with one or more legal statutes. The method further includes receiving at the server from the client access device a query including a selection of at least one search-selectable legal statute category and a search criterion. Thereafter, the method includes retrieving at least one legal statute from the selected legal statute database based on the at least one selected legal statute category and the search criterion of the query. Also, the method includes transmitting to the client access device the retrieved at least one legal statute.
In accordance with a further embodiment, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. The storage medium includes operational instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to transmit to a client access device a table of contents of a selected legal statute database as a plurality of search-selectable legal statute categories each associated with one or more legal statutes. The operational instructions also cause the processor to transmit to receive from the client access device a query including a selection of at least one search-selectable legal statute category and a search criterion. Thereafter, the operational instructions cause the processor to transmit to retrieve at least one legal statute from the selected legal statute database based on the at least one selected legal statute category and the search criterion of the query. Also, the operational cause the processor to transmit to transmit to the client access device the retrieved at least one legal statute.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
This description, which references and incorporates the above-identified Figures, describes one or more specific embodiments of one or more inventions. These embodiments, offered not to limit but only to exemplify and teach the one or more inventions, are shown and described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to implement or practice the invention. Thus, where appropriate to avoid obscuring the invention, the description may omit certain information known to those of skill in the art.
Exemplary Information-Retrieval System
Databases 110 include a set of non-statutory legal documents 112, a set of statutory legal documents 114, and other legal documents 116. Documents 112, in the exemplary embodiment, include case law documents from federal, state, and/or local jurisdictions. Statutory legal documents 114 include federal, state, and/or local statutes and administrative rules as well as legislative history. Other legal documents 116 include legal articles, encyclopedias, and so forth. Databases 110 may also include other content as implied below or in the referenced provisional application.
Databases 110 (112, 114, 116), which take the exemplary form of one or more electronic, magnetic, or optical data-storage devices, include or are otherwise associated with respective indices (112N, 114N, 116N). Each of the indices includes terms and phrases in association with corresponding document addresses, identifiers, and other conventional information. Databases 110 are coupled or couplable via a wireless or wireline communications network, such as a local-, wide-, private-, or virtual-private network, to server 120.
Server 120, which is generally representative of one or more servers for serving data in the form of webpages or other markup language forms with associated applets, ActiveX controls, remote-invocation objects, or other related software and data structures to service clients of various “thicknesses.” More particularly, server 120 includes a processor module 121, a memory module 122, a subscriber database 123, a search module 124, a metadata database 125 and a legal research module (or software) 126.
Processor module 121 includes one or more local or distributed processors, controllers, or virtual machines. In the exemplary embodiment, processor module 121 assumes any convenient or desirable form.
Memory module 122, which takes the exemplary form of one or more electronic, magnetic, or optical data-storage devices, stores subscriber database 123, search engines 124, metadata database 125 and legal research module 126.
Subscriber database 123 includes subscriber-related data for controlling, administering, and managing pay-as-you-go or subscription-based access of databases 110. In the exemplary embodiment, database 123 includes user identifiers, access credentials, and billing or pricing information.
Search module 124 includes one or more search engines and related user-interface components, for receiving and processing queries against one or more of databases 110, with use of indices 114N. In the exemplary embodiment, one or more search engines associated with search module 124 provide Boolean, tf-idf (term frequency-inverse document frequency), and/or natural-language search capabilities.
Metadata database 125 includes a number of data structures, such as data structure 1251, to facilitate fulfillment of queries, particularly those related to statutes or versions thereof In the exemplary embodiment, data structure 1251 includes a document identifier 1251A, which is logically associated with a jurisdiction indicator 1251B, a year indicator 1251C, a session indicator 1251D, a document type 1251E, an approval date 1251F, an effective date 1251, and a class indicator 1251H.
Statutory research software 126 stored in memory 122 (e.g., storage medium) comprises instructions that are machine readable and/or executable by processor 121 for wholly or partly defining web-based user interfaces (such as a user interface 138 and those shown in subsequent figures) over a wireless or wireline communications network on one or more accesses devices, such as access device 130.
Access device 130 is generally representative of one or more access devices. In the exemplary embodiment, access device 130 takes the form of a personal computer, workstation, personal digital assistant, mobile telephone, or any other device capable of providing an effective user interface with a server or database. Specifically, access device 130 includes a processor module 131, a memory 132, a display 133, a keyboard 134, and a graphical pointer or selector 135 (also known as a mouse).
Processor module 131 includes one or more processors, processing circuits, or controllers. In the exemplary embodiment, processor module 131 takes any convenient or desirable form. Coupled to processor module 131 is memory 132.
Memory 132 stores code (machine-readable or executable instructions) for an operating system 136, a browser 137, and a graphical user interface (GUI) 138. In the exemplary embodiment, operating system 136 takes the form of a version of the Microsoft Windows operating system, and browser 137 takes the form of a version of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Operating system 136 and browser 137 not only receive inputs from keyboard 134 and selector 135, but also support rendering of GUI 138 on display 133. Upon rendering, GUI 138 presents data in association with one or more interactive control features (or user-interface elements). The exemplary embodiment defines one or more portions of interface 138 using applets or other programmatic objects or structures from server 120.
More specifically, graphical user interface 138 defines or provides one or more display regions, such as a query or search region 1381 and a search-results region 1382. Query region 1381 is defined in memory and upon rendering includes one or more interactive control features (elements or widgets), such as a query input region 1381A, a query submission button 1381B, and a duplication button 1381C. Query input region 1381A also allows a user to input text or provide other input for defining or selecting a query. Query submission button 1381B allows user to initiate submission or communication of the query to server 120. Search-results region 1382 is also defined in memory and upon rendering includes one or more interactive control features 1382A-1382D.
Control features 1382A-1382C correspond to one or more statutory documents enable a user to selectively access or retrieve one or more corresponding documents relevant to the governing query from databases 110 via server 120. Each of the control features 1382A-1382C includes a respective document identifier or label, such as DOCX, DOCY, or DOCZ, identifying respective titles or other aspects of the associated documents. Control feature 1382D, which in the exemplary embodiment is representative of one or more control features, enables a user to selectively invoke display of other materials related to the one or more of the statutory documents associated with control features 1382A-1382C.
In the exemplary embodiment, each of these control features of interface 138 takes the form of a hyperlink or other browser-compatible command input. Although
Exemplary Method(s) of Operation
At block 210, the exemplary method begins with presentation of a user interface tailored for statutory research. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails a user directing a browser in a client access device, such as device 130 in
Block 220 entails receiving a query from the user. In the exemplary embodiment, the user defines the query by interacting with the interface, specifically entering terms of the query into a query input region and finally actuating a query submission feature to transmit the query to a server, such as server 120 for processing. In some embodiments, the user query takes the form of a popular name of a statute, that is, a statute alias, which can be used to assist in identification of the corresponding statute or portion thereof. In others, it takes the form of a citation for a statute, or a request for a table of contents.
Block 230 entails presenting a graphical user interface listing the identified set of documents. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails displaying a listing of the identified set of one or more statutes on interface 138, specifically within or as part of search-results region 1382, along with related statutory content, such as one or more indicators regarding the status of the statutes.
Conclusion
In furtherance of the art, the inventors have presented, among other things, various exemplary systems, methods, and software which facilitate online research of statutory materials.
The embodiments described above are intended only to illustrate and teach one or more ways of practicing or implementing the present invention, not to restrict its breadth or scope. The actual scope of the invention, which embraces all ways of practicing or implementing the teachings of the invention, is defined only by the following claims and their equivalents.
