Systems, methods, and software for presenting legal case histories
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1. A computer-implemented method for graphically displaying legal case histories, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving a request from a client access device for a legal case history;
using a processor to search a database based on the request and to retrieve the requested legal case history from the database;
displaying the legal case history on an output device in a graphical flow-chart format, wherein the graphical flow-chart format includes a graphical representation of a parent case and a graphical representation of at least one related case, the graphical representation of the parent case being visually connected to the graphical representation of the related case by a visual indicator, the graphical representations of the parent case and at least one related case being positioned to illustrate the relationship between the cases.
2. A computer system for graphically displaying legal case histories, the system comprising:
a server computer having a processor and interfacing with a database;
a client access device interfacing with the server computer; and
an output device interfacing with server computer;
wherein the server computer is configured to receive a request for a legal case history from the client access device;
wherein the processor is configured to search the database based on the request and to retrieve the requested legal case history from the database; and
wherein the output device is configured to display the legal case history in a graphical flow-chart format, wherein the graphical flow-chart format includes a graphical representation of a parent case and a graphical representation of at least one related case, the graphical representation of the parent case being visually connected to the graphical representation of the related case by a visual indicator, the graphical representations of the parent case and at least one related case being positioned to illustrate the relationship between the cases.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one related case comprises at least one of a child case and a lateral litigation case.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the visual indicator is an arrow.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising positioning the graphical representations within one of a plurality of designated court-level zones, with each court-level zone representing a tier of a court system.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of displaying the legal case history further comprises displaying a case validity indicator adjacent to each graphical representation in the graphical flow chart.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of displaying the legal case history further comprises embedding a hyperlink within the graphical representation for each parent case and related case, wherein the embedded hyperlink is selectable to initiate retrieval of a corresponding legal case document.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of displaying the legal case history further includes automatically positioning the graphical representation of the parent case and the graphical representations of the related cases in the graphical flow-chart format according to a set of rules.
9. The system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one related case comprises at least one of a child case and a lateral litigation case.
10. The system of claim 2 , wherein the visual indicator is an arrow.
11. The system of claim 2 , wherein the output device is further configured to display the graphical representations within one of a plurality of designated court-level zones, with each designated court-level zone representing a tier of a court system.
12. The system of claim 2 , wherein the output device is configured to automatically position the graphical representation of the parent case and the graphical representation of the related cases in the graphical flow-chart format according to a set of rules.
13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the set of rules includes the following rule: when the parent case has one or more related cases that are children to the parent case, and where the parent and child cases were decided in different courts, the graphical representation of the parent case is positioned below the graphical representations of the child cases.
14. The method of claim 8 , wherein the set of rules includes the following rule: when the parent case has one or more related cases that are children to the parent case, and where the parent and child cases were decided in the same court, the graphical representation of the parent case is positioned to the left of the graphical representations of the child cases.
15. The method of claim 8 , wherein the set of rules includes the following rule: when the parent case has more than one child case, the graphical representations of each child case will be positioned by date of decision, with the earliest child on the left and the latest child on the right.
16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the set of rules includes the following rule: when the parent case has one or more related cases that are children to the parent case, and where the parent and child cases were decided in different courts, the graphical representation of the parent case is positioned below the graphical representations of the child cases.
17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the set of rules includes the following rule: when the parent case has one or more related cases that are children to the parent case, and where the parent and child cases were decided in the same court, the graphical representation of the parent case is positioned to the left of the graphical representations of the child cases.