Systems and methods for managing documents for law firms

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10832212-B2
Application number	US-201715633481-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2017
Priority date	Dec 30, 2002
Publication date	Nov 10, 2020
Grant date	Nov 10, 2020

Abstract

The present inventors devised unique systems, methods, interfaces, and software for managing and leveraging knowledge in law firms and potentially other enterprises. For example, one system provides a single user interface for researching case law for online legal research service and identifying and accessing law-firm documents.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a processor; and
a memory that contains instructions that are readable by the processor and cause the processor to:
receive a query that indicates at least one legal topic;
provide a response to the query indicating each work-product document and each case law document that matches the at least one legal topic, wherein each indicated work-product document includes a depth-of-treatment value indicating a degree to which each indicated work-product document evaluates a specific case law document;
indicate, in the response provided to the query, a reliability of each work-product document using:
a validity indicator for each work-product document, the validity indicator for each work-product document indicating a validity status of at least one case cited within each work-product document; and
a rating indicator for each work-product document, the rating indicator for each work-product document indicating a user rating of each work-product document based on previous users of each work-product document, the user rating indicating a utility of the document as determined by the previous users of each wok-product document; and

prior to providing the response:
retrieve each work-product document that matches the at least one legal topic from a first database; and
retrieve each case law document that matches the at least one legal topic from a second database.

2. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the query indicates the at least one legal topic from a hierarchy of legal topics.

3. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
receive a second query for a particular case law document; and
provide a second response to the second query indicating each work-product document which includes at least one legal citation associated with the particular case law document according to a depth-of-treatment value, the depth-of-treatment value indicates a degree to which each work-product document evaluates the particular case law document.

4. The system recited in claim 3 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
index each work-product document according to a hierarchy of legal topics based on the at least one legal citation and the set of text; and
index each case law document according to the hierarchy of legal topics.

5. The system recited in claim 3 , wherein the degree to which each work-product document is evaluated is based on at least a count that each legal citation references the particular case law document.

6. The system recited in claim 3 , wherein, each work-product document and each case law document is associated with a respective date, wherein, the second response is organized according to the depth-of-treatment value and a chronological order based on the respective date.

7. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the query is an enterprise search query.

8. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
determine the validity status of the at least one case cited within each work-product document, resulting in the validity indicator used in the indication of reliability of each work-product document.

9. The system recited in of claim 7 , wherein the first and second databases are separated by a firewall.

10. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the processor further converts at least one work-product document of the each work-product document into a markup language.

11. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the query is received from an agent of a law firm, via a user-device, wherein each work-product document comprises internal law-firm content including at least one of briefs, client letters and legal memoranda.

12. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein, each work-product document and each case law document is associated with a respective date, wherein, each work-product document and non-work product document that matches the at least one legal topic indicated by the response, is organized according to a chronological order based on the respective date.

13. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the processor is further operable to:
provide the hierarchy of legal topics for display on a user-device; and
indicate a number of work-product documents associated with each legal topic of the hierarchy of legal topics.

14. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein each work-product document is associated with an indicator that identifies an author of the work-product document and an office location of the author.

15. A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media having software encoded thereon, the software, when executed by a processor, operable to:
index at least one work-product document according to a hierarchy of legal topics based on at least one legal citation and at least a set of text corresponding to the at least one work-product document, each legal citation further associated with a case law document having legal precedence;
receive a query that indicates at least one legal topic from the hierarchy of legal topics; and
provide a response to the query indicating each work-product document that matches the at least one legal topic and each case law document associated with each legal citation corresponding to each work-product document, wherein each indicated work-product document includes a depth-of-treatment value indicating a degree to which each indicated work-product document evaluates a specific case law document;
indicate, in the response provided to the query, a reliability of each work-product document using:
a validity indicator, the validity indicator indicating a legal precedence validity status of each case law document associated with each legal citation corresponding to each work-product document; and
a rating indicator, the rating indicator indicating a user rating of each work-product document based on previous users of each work-product document, the user rating indicating a utility of the document as determined by the previous users of each wok-product document; and

prior to providing the response:
retrieve each work-product document that matches the at least one legal topic from a first database; and
retrieve each case law document that matches the at least one legal topic from a second database.

16. The non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 15 , wherein, the software, when executed by the processor, is further operable to:
index each case law document according to the hierarchy of legal topics, and
wherein, when the response to the query further indicates each case law document that matches the at least one legal topic.

17. The non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 16 , wherein, the software, when executed by the processor, is further operable to:
determine the validity indicator for each case law document.

18. A method for facilitating a knowledge management system comprising:
receiving at least one work-product document, each work-product document including at least one legal citation and at least a set of text, the at least one legal citation associated with a non-work-product document having legal precedence;
indexing each work-product document according to a hierarchy of legal topics based on the at least one legal citation and the set of text;
indexing each non-work-product document associated with the at least one legal citation included in each work-product document according to the hierarchy of legal topics;
generating a validity indicator that indicates a validity status of the legal pre

Assignees

• Thomson Reuters Entpr Centre Gmbh

Inventors

• Rhoads Forrest
• Liggett Trace

Classifications

• G06Q50/18

  Legal services · CPC title

• G06Q10/10 Primary

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title

• G06Q50/184

  Intellectual property management · CPC title