Citation Preference

[freelawbot]

Especially if we are going to import resource.org documents, the search results and opinion page(s) should display the West Citation if it is in our database, and if not, then the Lexis citation, and then if not, just the case number.

Right now we just provide case number for everything, which is really the third-best option where other information is available.

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• Bitbucket: https://bitbucket.org/mlissner/search-and-awareness-platform-courtlistener/issue/61
• Originally Reported By: Brian Carver
• Originally Created At: 2010-04-25T15:57:13.658

[freelawbot]

Updated all old SCOTUS cases to move the West Citation to the correct field, and to make the display changes. All changes from this bug should be live now.

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Original Comment By: Mike Lissner

[freelawbot]

Some major progress on this bug today:

• The display-side tasks are done (though I didn't monkey with italics very much)
• The DB schema changes are ready to go.
• I have a script to move westCitations to the correct column from the docket column, and to gather the docket numbers.

I also added the start and end dates for courts into the DB for all the above courts. Seems like useful information, especially once the API gets up and running. Only missing date is the Emergency Court of Appeals abolishment date (some time in 1961).

Marking as resolved. Italics can get pushed to a new bug if desired, and remaining tasks will be done soon.

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Original Comment By: Mike Lissner

[freelawbot]

More citation listings:

• http://www.personal.psu.edu/dhk3/research/Bluebook/T-07.htm
• http://www.legalcitation.net/quikcourts.htm

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Original Comment By: Mike Lissner

[freelawbot]

I agree with solution steps 1-3. I disagree with display step 1--I've long wanted just the case names italicized and everything else regular font. This also means I disagree with part of display step 4--let's not italicize the date parenthetical either, if we can help it.

Standard Abbreviations:

• Second Circuit: (2d Cir. 2011) --this is the only weird one of the numbered ones.
• Circuit Courts (abolished 1912): e.g., (C.C.S.D.N.Y. 1881) or (C.C.D. Cal. 1911).
• D.C. Circuit: (D.C. Cir. 2011).
• Federal Circuit: (Fed. Cir. 2011).
• The Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals (abolished 1993): (Temp. Emer. Ct. App. 1992).
• The Emergency Court of Appeals (abolished 1961): (Emer. Ct. App. 1960).
• The Commerce Court (abolished 1913): (Comm. Ct. 1912).
• United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (abolished 1982): (C.C.P.A. 1981).
• Court of Customs Appeals: (Ct. Cust. App. 1928).
• Court of Claims: (Ct. Cl. 1981).
• United States Court of Federal Claims (Fed. Cl. 2011).
• United States Claims Court (Cl. Ct. 1991).
• United States Court of International Trade (Ct. Int'l Trade 2011).
• United Staes Customs Court (Cust. Ct. 1979).
• Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (J.P.M.L. 2011).
• Special Court, Regional Rail Reorganization Act (Reg'l Rail Reorg. Ct. 2011).
• Tax Court (T.C. 2011).
• Board of Tax Appeals (B.T.A. 1941).
• United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Vet. App. 2011).
• United States Court of Veterans Appeals (Vet. App. 1990).
• United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (C.A.A.F. 2011).
• United States Court of Military Appeals (C.M.A. 1974).
• Military Service Courts of Criminal Appeals (A. Ct. Crim. App. 2011); (A.F. Ct. Crim. App. 2011); (C.G. Ct. Crim. App. 2011); (N-M Ct. Crim. App. 2011).
• Courts of Military Review (A.C.M.R. 1974); etc. for each service branch
• Boards of Review (A.B.R. 1951); etc. for each service branch

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Original Comment By: Brian Carver

[freelawbot]

I'm finally getting around to dealing with this, since it needs to be resolved before I import F2 or F3. This problem is both in the database and in the front end.

The current status of the DB is as follows:

There are three fields in the database: caseNumber, lexisCitation and westCitation.

Currently West and Lexis fields are empty, and all citations are in the generic caseNumber citation.

The solution I propose for the database is to:

Move citations scraped from resource.org from the caseNumber field to the westCitation field.

Rename the generic case number field as the docket number field (I believe this is more accurate)

Use a script to go through all of the SCOTUS documents from resource.org, determine their docket number, and place it in the DB.

I'm almost done with getting meta data from F2 ready to go into the system. Once it's ready, we will get the docket numbers and West citations for ~1950 to 1993.

On the display side, the following changes should be made:

We should italicize the case or docket number in the document title.

If we know the West Citation, we should use that instead of the docket number in the title

If we know both the West Citation and the Docket number, we should list the docket number below, under the status field (I assume nobody really cares about docket numbers when West Citations are present).

After the docket or West citation, we should write something like (5th Cir. 2000) or for SCOTUS cases, we write (2000), leaving out the court name. This part is still italicized.

For that last point, I need to know the correct abbreviations of the courts. I presume 1st Cir to 11th Cir are predictable, but I don't know the following courts off-hand:

• Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
• Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• Court of Customs and Patent Appeals
• Emergency Court of Appeals
• Court of Federal Claims

For now, I'm assuming Lexis Nexis doesn't exist, as that makes things more complicated still, we don't have any Lexis citations, and I don't anticipate having such citations any time soon.

Any points I've missed?

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Original Comment By: Mike Lissner

[freelawbot]

More on this bug can be found in an email conversation dated 2010/04/29, with subject "Various questions."

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Original Comment By: Mike Lissner