Patent ID: 8032533

Claim:
An information-retrieval system, the system comprising: a plurality of databases, including statutory content and non-statutory content; and one or more servers to facilitate client access to the plurality of databases over a network, at least one of the servers configured to provide a client access device with a graphical user interface to query statutory content via a table of contents and an effective date of the statutory content; and wherein the graphical user interface includes a display region configured to display the table of contents of a selected legal statute database as a plurality of search-selectable legal statute categories, a query input field configured to receive at least one search criterion and a date input field configured to receive the effective date, each search-selectable legal statute category associated with one or more legal statutes, and wherein the one or more of the servers is configured in response to receipt of the effective date to dynamically define and display a historical table of contents of the selected legal statute database in the display region based on the received effective date, the historical table of contents including a plurality of search-selectable legal statute categories each associated with one or more legal statutes, at least one of the search-selectable legal statute categories being user-selectable to query the one or more legal statutes associated with the at least one of the search-selectable legal statute categories in the selected legal statute database.