Abstract:
The present inventors recognized room for improving convention informational retrieval systems, particularly those intended for retrieval of legal information. Accordingly, they devised systems, methods, and software that facilitate the retrieval of related non-opinion legal documents in response to queries for legal opinions. Non-opinion documents may include briefs, pleadings, depositions, court orders, and so forth, each of which may be selected online by the user for retrieval or delivery. Other novel features include user interfaces that provide convenient access to a number of specialty litigation databases.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     This application claims priority to U.S. provisional application 60/533,860 filed on Dec. 31, 2003. The provisional application is incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND PERMISSION  
       [0002]     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© 2003, Thomson Global Resources AG.  
       TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0003]     Various embodiments of the present invention concerns information-retrieval systems, such as those that provide legal documents or other related content.  
       BACKGROUND  
       [0004]     The American legal system, as well as some other legal systems around the world, relies heavily on written judicial opinions, the written pronouncements of judges, to articulate or interpret the laws governing resolution of disputes. Each judicial opinion is not only important to resolving a particular legal dispute, but also to resolving similar disputes, or cases, in the future. Because of this, judges and lawyers within our legal system are continually researching an ever-expanding body of past opinions, or case law, for the ones most relevant to resolution of new disputes.  
         [0005]     To facilitate these searches, companies, such as West Publishing Company of St. Paul, Minn. (doing business as Thomson West), collect and publish the judicial opinions of courts across the United States in both paper and electronic forms. Many of these opinions are published with bibliographic cites or hyperlinks to other opinions, that rely on or criticize various points of law in the opinions. The cites and hyperlinks enable researchers to find printed volumes containing the related opinions or readily access the related opinions electronically over a computer network, through the Westlaw™ online research system. (Westlaw is a trademark licensed to Thomson West.) The Westlaw system empowers users to search over 100 million documents.  
         [0006]     At least one problem the present inventors recognized with this effective and highly successful system is that there are numerous other types of documents that may be of use to legal researchers that are not currently available through the same legal research system and interface. Additionally, the present inventors observed that current research systems fail to recognize that litigators and trial attorneys have different needs than transactional attorneys, including, for example, data regarding expert witnesses, court dockets, court rules, jury instructions, and court filings. To obtain this information, litigators conventionally use separate service providers or online services.  
         [0007]     Accordingly, the present inventors have recognized a need for improvement of the information-retrieval systems for legal documents.  
       SUMMARY  
       [0008]     To address this and other needs, the present inventors devised systems, methods, and software that facilitate the retrieval of related non-opinion legal documents in response to queries for legal opinions. One exemplary system receives caselaw queries from users and returns search results that not only include one or more relevant caselaw documents, such as a judicial opinion, but also include links for retrieving litigation documents, such as briefs and verdict summaries, related to the case-law documents. Another aspect of the exemplary system provides online interfaces with query input regions for an attorney, judge, or expert witness directories in combination with links to numerous other litigation-specific databases, creating a convenient one-stop-shop for the informational needs of litigators and trial attorneys. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0009]      FIG. 1  is a diagram of an exemplary information-retrieval system  100  corresponding to one or more embodiments of the invention;  
         [0010]      FIG. 2  is a flowchart corresponding to one or more exemplary methods of operating system  100  and one or more embodiments of the invention;  
         [0011]      FIG. 3  is a facsimile of an exemplary user interface  300  corresponding to one or more embodiments of the invention.  
         [0012]      FIG. 4  is a facsimile of an exemplary user interface  400  corresponding to one or more embodiments of the invention.  
         [0013]      FIG. 5  is a facsimile of an exemplary user interface  500  corresponding to one or more embodiments of the invention.  
         [0014]      FIG. 6  is a facsimile of an exemplary user interface  600  corresponding to one or more embodiments of the invention.  
         [0015]      FIG. 7  is a facsimile of an exemplary user interface  700  corresponding to one or more embodiments of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS  
       [0016]     This description, which references and incorporates the above-identified Figures, describes one or more specific embodiments of an invention. These embodiments, offered not to limit but only to exemplify and teach the invention, 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  
       [0017]      FIG. 1  shows an exemplary online information-retrieval system  100 . System  100  includes one or more databases  110 , one or more servers  120 , and one or more access devices  130 .  
         [0018]     Databases  110  include a set of one or more databases. In the exemplary embodiment, the set includes a caselaw database  11   1 , a court filings database  112 , a transcripts (XCRIPTS) database  113 , a verdict and settlement database  114 , and other databases  115 . Caselaw database  111  generally includes electronic text and image copies of judicial opinions for decided cases for one or more local, state, federal, or international jurisdiction.  
         [0019]     Court-filings database  112  includes electronic text and image copies of court filings related to one or more subsets of the judicial opinions caselaw database  111 . Exemplary court-filing documents include briefs, motions, complaints, pleadings, discovery matter. Verdict and settlement database  114  includes electronic text and image copies of documents related to the determined verdict, assessed damages, or negotiated settlement of legal disputes associated with cases within caselaw database  111 . Other databases  115  includes one or more other databases containing documents regarding news stories, business and finance, science and technology, medicine and bioinformatics, and intellectual property information. In some embodiments, the logical relationships across documents are determined manually or using automatic discovery processes that leverage information such as litigant identities, dates, jurisdictions, attorney identifies, court dockets, and so forth to determine the existence or likelihood of a relationship between any pair of documents.  
         [0020]     Databases  110 , which take the exemplary form of one or more electronic, magnetic, or optical data-storage devices, include or are otherwise associated with respective indices (not shown). Each of the indices includes terms and/or phrases in association with corresponding document addresses, identifiers, and other information for facilitating the functionality described below. Databases  112 ,  114 , and  116  are coupled or couplable via a wireless or wireline communications network, such as a local-, wide-, private-, or virtual-private network, to server  120 .  
         [0021]     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  121 , a memory  122 , a subscriber database  123 , one or more search engines  124  and interface module  125 .  
         [0022]     Processor  121 , which is generally representative of one or more local or distributed processors or virtual machines, is coupled to memory  122 . Memory  122 , which takes the exemplary form of one or more electronic, magnetic, or optical data-storage devices, stores subscription database  123 , search engines  124 , and litigation module  127 .  
         [0023]     Subscription database  123  includes subscriber-related data for controlling, administering, and managing pay-as-you-go- or subscription-based access of databases  110 . Subscriber database  123  includes subscriber-related data for controlling, administering, and managing pay-as-you-go or subscription-based access of databases  110 .  
         [0024]     In the exemplary embodiment, subscriber database  123  includes one or more data structures, of which data structure  1231  is representative. Data structure  1231  includes a customer or user identifier portion  1231  A, which is logically associated with data elements or fields, such as fields  1231 B, and  1231 C. Field  123   1 B includes information identifying one or more user accounts, such as a law firm or corporate account. Field  1231 C includes one or more values governing whether litigation documents are charged on a transactional or per-access basis or whether access to these documents is included within a flat-rate or other type of subscription. In some embodiments, this field may also identify, indicate, or represent a specific pricing schedule to be used in assessing access fees for litigation (pre-decision) documents.  
         [0025]     Search engines  124  provides Boolean or natural-language search capabilities for databases  110 .  
         [0026]     User interface module  125 , which, among, other things defines one or portion of a graphical user interface that helps users define searches for databases  110 . Software  125  includes one or more browser-compatible applets, webpage templates, user-interface elements, objects or control features or other programmatic objects or structures. More specifically, software  125  includes a caselaw search interface  1251  and a litigation search interface  1252 .  
         [0027]     Server  120  is communicatively coupled or couplable via a wireless or wireline communications network, such as a local-, wide-, private-, or virtual-private network, to one or more accesses devices, such as access device  130 .  
         [0028]     Access device  130  is not only communicatively coupled or couplable to server  130 , but also 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.  
         [0029]     Specifically, access device  130  includes one or more processors (or processing circuits)  131 , a memory  132 , a display  133 , a keyboard  134 , and a graphical pointer or selector  135 . 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 (or mouse)  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 .) Specifically, graphical user interface  138  defines or provides one or more display control regions, such as a query region  1381 , a results region  1382 , a court-filings (or litigation documents) region  1383 , and a litigation resources region  1384 . Each region (or page in some embodiments) is respectively defined in memory to display data from databases  110  and/or server  120  in combination with one or more interactive control features (elements or widgets). In the exemplary embodiment, each of these control features takes the form of a hyperlink or other browser-compatible command input. Although shown as being concurrently displayed in  FIG. 1 , various embodiments present one or more portion of interface  138  at different times and within different windows or screens.  
         [0030]     More specifically, query region  1381  includes interactive control features, such as an query input portion  1381 A for receiving user input at least partially defining a query and a query submission button  1381 B for submitting a query to server  120  for data from, for example, caselaw database  111 .  
         [0031]     Results region  1382 , which displays search results for a submitted query, includes a results listing portion  1382 A and a document display portion  1382 B. Listing portion  1382 A includes control features  2 A 1 ,  2 A 2 ,  2 A 3  for accessing or retrieving one or more corresponding search result documents, such as judicial opinions, from one or more of databases  110  via server  120 . Each control feature includes a respective document identifier or label, such as DOC X, DOC Y, DOC Z identifying respective titles and/or citations for the corresponding documents.  
         [0032]     Display portion  1382 B displays at least a portion of the full text of a first displayed or user-selected one of the documents identified within listing portion  1382 A, DOC Y in the illustration. (Some embodiments present regions  1382 A and  1382 B as selectable tabbed regions.) Portion  1382 B also includes feature  1382 C and  1382 D. User selection of feature  1382 C initiates display of an image copy of the document displayed in region  1382 B in a separate window. User selection of feature  1382 D, which is associated with the label “LIT” in the figure, causes display of court-filings region  1383  in a separate window. (In some embodiments, selection of this feature initiates a search or other process for determining all or a portion of the contents of region  1383 .)  
         [0033]     Court-filings region  1383  includes a listing portion  1383 A and a document display portion  1383 B. Listing portion  1383 A includes control features  3 A 1 ,  3 A 2 ,  3 A 3  for accessing or retrieving one or more corresponding court filing documents—-for example, briefs, motions, or complaints—from one or more of databases  110  via server  120 . Each control feature includes a respective document identifier or label, such as DOC  1  or DOC  2  identifying respective titles and/or citations for the corresponding documents. Region  1382 B displays at least a portion of the full text of a first displayed or user-selected one of the documents identified within listing portion  1383 B, DOC  2  in the illustration. (Some embodiments present regions  1383 A and  1383 B as selectable tabbed regions.) In some embodiments that present region  1382 B as a separate page or window, the region includes a link feature  1383 C labeled “LIT” or “court filings list” to close the window and redisplay region  1383 A. Region  1382 B also includes an image link feature  1382 D, selectable by a user to initiate display of an image copy  1383 E of the document displayed in region  1383 B in a separate window. In the exemplary embodiment, image copies are in portable document format (PDF.)  
         [0034]     Litigation resources region  1384 , which serves as a “one-stop shop” online interface, includes an aggregate set of control features for accessing litigation-related content or information-retrieval services, that helps legal professionals evaluate, investigate, negotiate, prepare, and present trial-case information. Specifically, region  1384  includes a professional profiler feature  1384 A, a case-valuation feature  1384 B, and a court-rules search feature  1384 C. Profiler feature  1384 A allows users to initiate a search of available professional directories and/or other sources for biographical and experiential data based on attorney, judge, or expert witness name and/or jurisdiction directly from region  1384 . Similarly, case-valuation feature  1384 B allows users to initiate a search for data related to valuation of litigations based on jurisdiction and injury type directly from region  1384 . Other embodiments provide these and/or other features.  
       Exemplary Methods of Operation  
       [0035]      FIG. 2  shows a flow chart  200  of one or more exemplary methods of operating an information-management system, such as system  100 . Flow chart  200  includes blocks  210 - 290 , which are arranged and described in a serial execution sequence in the exemplary embodiment. However, other embodiments execute two or more blocks in parallel using multiple processors or processor-like devices or a single processor organized as two or more virtual machines or sub processors. Other embodiments also alter the process sequence or provide different functional partitions to achieve analogous results. For example, some embodiments may alter the client-server allocation of functions, such that functions shown and described on the server side are implemented in whole or in part on the client side, and vice versa. Moreover, still other embodiments implement the blocks as two or more interconnected hardware modules with related control and data signals communicated between and through the modules. Thus, the exemplary process flow applies to software, hardware, and firmware implementations.  
         [0036]     Block  210  entails presenting a search interface to a user. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails a user directing a browser in an client access device, such as access device  130 , to internet-protocol (IP) address for an online information-retrieval system, such as the Westlaw system and then logging onto the system. Successful login results in a web-based search interface, such as interface  138  in  FIG. 1  (or one or more portions thereof) being output from server  120 , stored in memory  132 , and displayed by client access device  130 .  
         [0037]     Execution then advances to block  220 .  
         [0038]     Block  220  entails receipt of a query. In the exemplary embodiment, the query includes a query string and/or a set of target databases, which includes one or more of the select databases. In some embodiments, the query string includes a set of terms and/or connectors; in others, it includes a natural-language string; and in still others, it includes a document citation. Also, in some embodiments, the set of target databases is defined automatically or by default based on the form of the system or search interface. Also in some embodiments, the received query may be accompanied by other information, such as information defining whether to search secondary resources. In any case, execution continues at block  230 .  
         [0039]     Block  230  entails presenting search results to the user via a graphical user interface. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails the server or components under server control or command, executing the query against the targeted set of databases and identifying documents that satisfy the query criteria, and then presenting the results as part of an interface, such as interface  138  in  FIG. 1 . Execution proceeds to block  240 .  
         [0040]     Block  240  entails a server, such as server  120 , receiving a request for court-filings related to one or more judicial opinions found in the search results. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails the user selecting a briefs or court-filings link associated with at least one of the judicial opinions shown in the search results. Execution then continues at block  250 .  
         [0041]     Block  250  entails billing an account associated with the user based on the request. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails determining whether to notify the user of additional charges for accessing court filings. The determination is made based account or subscription plan information associated with the user in subscriber database  123 . If the determination is affirmative, a message, such as:  
         [0042]     The database you have requested is not included in your subscription plan.  
         [0043]     To access [court-filing documents] at an additional charge, click OK.  
         [0044]     To cancel this request and avoid an additional charge, click Cancel. Selection of the OK, or a determination that notification is not necessary, advances execution to block  260 . (Direct searches of court-filings databases can also trigger operation of block  250 .)  
         [0045]     Block  260  presents a listing of available court-filing (trial or litigation) documents associated with the previously selected judicial opinion (or other search criteria.) In the exemplary embodiment, this entails displaying a listing of the results in a user interface, such as interface  138  in  FIG. 1  or interface  300  in  FIG. 3 . Interface  300  includes a listing  310  of a judicial opinion that corresponds to a selected judicial opinion, and a listing  320  of available court filing documents associated directly or indirectly with the judicial opinion. Each listed document is associated with a corresponding interactive control feature, such as hyperlink, that is selectable by a user to invoke retrieval and/or display of the associated document (or a portion thereof) in the same or separate window. To determine the set of available court-filings documents, some embodiments search a metadata database based on a document identifier or other information associated with the selected judicial opinion. The metadata database relates cases based on implied as well as direct relationships. For example, requesting related litigation documents for any of cases A, B, C that share a common litigation history would result in presentation of a court-filing documents for all the common cases. Also, some embodiments append the listing of available court-filings to the selected judicial opinion.  
         [0046]     Block  270  entails receiving a request for one or more of the listed available court-filing documents. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails a user clicking on one or more of the listed court-filings and thereby causing access device  130  to initiate or submit a request for the one or more items to server  120 .  
         [0047]     Block  280  entails billing an account associated with the user according to an associated subscription. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails determining whether to notify the user of additional charges for accessing court filings. The determination is made based on account or subscription plan information associated with the user in subscriber database  123 . If the determination is affirmative, the user is notified and provided an option to cancel the request or accept charge for accessing the requested document, as described in block  250 . Acceptance of the charge or a determination that notification is not necessary, advances execution to block  290 .  
         [0048]     Block  290  entails presenting one or more of the requested court-filing documents. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails presenting at least one document in a user interface, such as interface  138  in  FIG. 1  or interface  400  in  FIG. 4 . Interface  400  includes a listing  410  of the selected judicial opinion, and a text display region  420  showing at least a portion of the requested court-filing document. Region  420  also includes respective control features  422  and  424 , for example hyperlinks, that are selectable to invoke display of the selected judicial opinion associated with the court-filing document or the listing of available court documents (as shown in interface  300 ). Alternatively, the user may use the “back” button on her browser to achieve similar results. An additional control feature  426 , a print button, enables users to initiate output of the court-filing document to a printer or email application.  
       Exemplary Interface for Presenting Related Litigation Documents  
       [0049]      FIG. 5  shows an alternative exemplary interface  500  for displaying litigation documents related to a displayed judicial opinion. Interface  500  includes a judicial opinion display region  510  and a related litigation documents listing  520 . Region  510 , which displays or presents text (or in some embodiments portions of an image copy) of a judicial opinion, includes a link  512  to a listing of related litigation documents and a link  514  to alternative versions of the same judicial opinions. Listing  520  includes a number of links, such as links  522  and  524 , to the same or other litigation documents that are related to the judicial opinion in region  510 . In the figure, links  522  and  524  point to verdict or settlement related documents.  
       Exemplary Litigation Resource Interfaces  
       [0050]      FIGS. 6 and 7  show respective litigation resource interfaces  600  and  700 , which some embodiments use as an alternative to the litigation-resource region  1384  in  FIG. 1 . Interface  600  includes control features for accessing content and tools related to evaluation, investigation, negotiation, trial preparation, and trial presentation.  
         [0051]     More specifically, interface  600  includes a profiler-query portion  602 ; a litigation-valuation-query region  604 ; a listing  606  of links to databases related to jury verdicts; a listing  608  of case-investigation databases; a listing  610  of links to jury-instruction database; a listing  612  of links to databases for briefs, depositions, or transcripts; a listing  614  of court-docket databases (or services); a listing  616  of links to court-rules databases; a listing  618  of links to databases of practice guides (or legal treatises); a listing  620  of databases containing forms and checklists; a listing  622  of databases related to procedures and evidence; and a listing  624  of professional directories and newspaper databases. Notably, selection of links within listings  606 - 622  invoke display of query input regions for their respective databases.  
         [0052]     Similarly, interface  700 , in  FIG. 7 , includes a shortcut portion  710  and a database (or resource) listing portion  720 . Shortcut portion  710  includes several query input regions, and listing portion  720  includes several clusters of database listings.  
       CONCLUSION  
       [0053]     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.