legal-citation-parser 0.2.1

Extracts metadata from legal citations

legal_citation_parser v 0.2.1

Extracts metadata from legal citations.

Although legal citations are typically short strings, they contain a great deal of information compressed into a relatively small package. This Python module is designed to extract and standardize that data from from legal citation strings. This module can currently handles the following citation types:

• Neutral citations (Canadian);
• Supreme Court Reader (SCR) citations;
• CanLII citations.

Metadata

Basic citation string

The module currently extracts the following from (most) raw CanLII citation strings:

• UID. The decision's unique ID. Corresponds to the CanLII API's caseId variable.
• Atomic citation. The citation's human readable unique ID.
• Style of cause. The human readable case name.
• Citation type. The type of citation parsed.
• Year. The decision's year.
• Decision number. The decision's number.
• Jurisdiction. The province, territory, or federal jurisdiction the case was heard in.
• Court name. The human readable court level.
• Court level. The relative level of the court.
• CanLII URL. The decision's URL on canlii.org

CanLII API

The module is also able to use the CanLII API to retrieve additional metadata and other potentially useful case information, including:

• Short URL. The decision's short URL.
• Language. The decision's language or languages.
• Docket number. The decision's docket number or numbers.
• Decision date. The YYYY-MM-DD the court issued the decision.
• Keywords. A 'list' of keywords supplied by CanLII, separated by a '—'.
• Categories. A 'list' of categories supplied by CanLII, also separated by a '—'.
• Cases cited. A list of decisions (including databaseId, caseId, title, and citation) the case cites.
• Cases citing. A list of decisions (including databaseId, caseId, title, and citation) that cite the case.

Installation

pip

From the command line:

pip install legal_citation_parser

In Python 3.x:

>>> from legal_citation_parser import parse_citation

Example call:

parse_citation("R v Sutherland, 2022 MBCA 23", include_url=True, call_api_metadata=True)

Should produce:

{'uid': '2022mbca23',
 'style_of_cause': 'R v Sutherland',
 'atomic_citation': '2022 MBCA 23',
 'citation_type': 'neutral',
 'scr_citation': None,
 'year': '2022',
 'court': 'mbca',
 'decision_number': '23',
 'jurisdiction': 'manitoba',
 'court_name': 'Court of Appeal of Manitoba',
 'court_level': 'provincial appellate',
 'url': 'https://www.canlii.org/en/mb/mbca/doc/2022/2022mbca23/2022mbca23.html',
 'short_url': 'https://canlii.ca/t/jmnrg',
 'language': 'en',
 'docket_number': 'AR21-30-09591',
 'decision_date': '2022-02-24',
 'keywords': 'Criminal law — Murder — Second degree murder — Evidence — Admissibility',
 'categories': 'Criminal or statutory infractions — Evidence — Practice and procedure'}

Example call:

parse_citation("R v Sutherland, 2022 MBCA 23", call_api_cases_cited=True)

Should produce:

{'uid': '2022mbca23',
 'style_of_cause': 'R v Sutherland',
 'atomic_citation': '2022 MBCA 23',
 'citation_type': 'neutral',
 'scr_citation': None,
 'year': '2022',
 'court': 'mbca',
 'decision_number': '23',
 'jurisdiction': 'manitoba',
 'court_name': 'Court of Appeal of Manitoba',
 'court_level': 'provincial appellate',
 'cited_cases': {'citedCases': [{'databaseId': 'csc-scc',
    'caseId': {'en': '1956canlii541'},
    'title': 'Chibok v. The Queen',
    'citation': '1956 CanLII 541 (SCC)'},
   {'databaseId': 'nbca',
    'caseId': {'en': '2021nbca3'},
    'title': 'Currie v. R.',
    'citation': '2021 NBCA 3 (CanLII)'},
   {'databaseId': 'csc-scc',
    'caseId': {'en': '1982canlii33'},
    'title': 'Graat v. The Queen',
    'citation': '1982 CanLII 33 (SCC), [1982] 2 SCR 819'},
   {'databaseId': 'onca',
    'caseId': {'en': '2018onca494'},
    'title': 'R. v. Ajise',
    'citation': '2018 ONCA 494 (CanLII)'},
    ...
   } 

v 0.2.1 updates

• Added functionality to the CanLII API call tool
• Updated the court code dictionaries using the CanLII API

Contributing

Contributions to improve this module are welcome. You can contribute by:

• Reporting bugs
• Suggesting enhancements
• Sending pull requests with bug fixes or new features

License

This project is licensed under the GPL 3.0 License - see the LICENSE file for details.