lacuna-technologies/clerkent

quickly and easily search for and download case law; automatically rename downloaded judgments

Clerkent

Case law at your fingertips

See clerkent.huey.xyz for more details

Install

Screenshots

Development

Run in development mode for your preferred browser:

pnpm i

pnpm run dev:chrome
pnpm run dev:firefox
pnpm run dev:opera

Load it as an unpacked extension

Tests

There are some tests, mostly snapshot tests.

pnpm run test

Roadmap

Find out what features and other changes are coming soon on the development roadmap.

Dependencies

clerkent's Issues

Intercept and rename PDF downloads from eLitigation

In-browser PDF viewer

It is not straightforward to run a content script in the in-browser PDF viewer.

In Firefox, this has intentionally been made impossible, and working around this involves intercepting PDF requests, and serving up a custom-made PDF viewer with PDF.JS injected together with a custom content script.

In Chrome, although content scripts are not blocked from running per se, there is an intervening iframe and the content script needs to be injected into the iframe (i.e. all_frames must be set to true, or document.write is needed).

EU legislation support

directives, regulations, etc.

Automatically select jurisdiction based on case citation

If a case citation is entered that clearly pertains to a certain jurisdiction, e.g. SLR, All ER, EWCA, AC, etc then automatically switch to that jurisdiction.

• Consider a short delay to account for typing
• Consider no delay if citation is pasted in

Should cancel network requests once query changes

If you modify your query, switch between case & legislation modes, or switch jurisdictions, Clerkent does not cancel the ongoing network request and simply sends a new one and ignores the results from the previous ones. It should actually cancel the outdated requests.

Convert judgments to PDF

For judgments available only in RTF / HTML format, offer an option to download it in PDF format.

downloadPDF should send the case back to BackgroundPage, scrape the case page, check for any existing PDF links, then attempt to convert the page to PDF

Downloads cases with `/` in title to a folder

Example: Raj Kumar s/o Brisa Besnath v Public Prosecutor
Solution: sanitise generated filename

PDF links for EU legislation

BAILII should be preferred over CommonLII

Invalid citation bug

Microsoft edge release

Just link to https://www.howtogeek.com/411830/how-to-install-google-chrome-extensions-in-microsoft-edge/ on site

Problematic cases

Examples:

• Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee [1957] 1 WLR 582

Consider hosting a sqlite db on GitHub and using https://github.com/phiresky/sql.js-httpvfs

Maybe at some later point. No need to over-engineer for now.

Should not show welcome page on every browser update

On some browsers, the install event is fired when there is a major update to the browser, even though the browser extension has not actually been reinstalled.

Should store a record of whether the welcome page has been shown and avoid re-showing it on browser updates.

No results found for Ernest Ferdinand Perez De La Sala v Compania De Navegacion Palomar

It should return [2018] SGCA 16. Also missing for [2018] SGCA 59

Scottish cases

• Jennifer McCulloch and others v Forth Valley Health Board [2020] CSOH 40
• Wishart v Castlecroft Securities [2009] CSIH 65

Add additional sites to highlight list

• Wikipedia (and related wiki domains?)
• Google Drive (check google doc/slides compatibility)
• "OUP articles"

Google docs is problematic because it runs complex JS after page load, overwriting the highlighter. Provide option to re-run highlighter? Not a good idea to keep rechecking for citations because of the performance tax this would entail.

Add jurisdiction: Malaysia

CommonLII and https://ejudgment.kehakiman.gov.my/portal/ap_list_all.php

Automatically paste in clipboard contents if it looks like a searchable query

simple heuristics:

• regexable case citation
• contains Re, v., case
• contains rules, regulations, act, etc.

Fix links on highlight popup

Add keyboard shortcut to trigger Clerkent

Maybe CtrlK?

CJEU - Judgments / Opinions

When there is only 1 document available, Clerkent currently assumes it is a judgment, but it could also be an opinion, so Clerkent should not do this.

Customise jurisdictions & databases

Option to disable some jurisdictions and databases if irrelevant so searching is faster.

Cannot find Equality Act 2010

e.g. Equality Act 2010, most people use EqA. Also I seached Equality Act 2010 and the link didn’t come up. Then searched land registration act and link didn’t come up again

Automatic PDF renaming not working for https://www.elitigation.sg/gdviewer/s/2014_SGCA_34

https://www.elitigation.sg/gdviewer/s/2014_SGCA_34

Additional SG Judgments

• IPOS: https://www.ipos.gov.sg/protect-ip/hearings-mediation/legal-decisions
• PDPC: https://www.pdpc.gov.sg/Commissions-Decisions
• STB: https://www.stratatb.gov.sg/resources-judgments.html

UK IPO cases

Various bugs

• Mandalia v Home Secretary [2015] UKSC 59
• UNISON
• "patents act" in cases instead of legislation
• "patents act" in legislation
• Chan Kam Shing (landmark crim JE case) (CFA judgment should appear on top)
• Li Sau Ying v Bank of China (when you click "show more")

Judgment and opinion PDF links for EU cases

Make Law.Case['links'] an array of link objects. Deprecate link and pdf attributes.

Add jurisdiction: India

CCCS Cases

https://www.cccs.gov.sg/cases-and-commitments/public-register

Chrome tab opening function breaks on firefox

Better sorting of search results

• If searching by citation, exact matches should be preferred (note possibility of zero-padding, e.g. SGHC 01 and SGHC 1)
  • SLW is the main culprit, so perhaps filtering there could sufficiently address this issue
• If searching by case name, should sort by some sort of textual similarity, not just the rough authoritative scale currently used

HK Legal Reference System

Another database for HK judgments
https://legalref.judiciary.hk/lrs/common/ju/judgment.jsp

Need to implement the alternative citation system: FACC 5/2016

Problematic citations

• C-422/16
• T‑253/20
• [2005] QB 73 - CommonLII issue

PDF support for legislation

• UK
• EU
• SG

Some citations have 4 digit page numbers

E.g. [2011] EWHC 2287 (Ch)

This is currently mishandled.

Fallback to CURIA if EUR-Lex not available

More button on popup

There can be up to 20 results right now which can be a bit overwhelming. Show up to 3, and hide the rest behind a more button.

Highlighter should use updated links and PDF support

Handle offline gracefully

• Do not cache queries that failed because offline
• Button to force retry a query?

Link to westlaw/lexis/justis search

Add jurisdiction: ICJ advisory opinions

https://www.icj-cij.org/en/decisions

ECtHR support

and ECHR support in legislation
new jurisdiction required

Options page

• Disable highlighting (in case there is incompatibility with other extension / certain sites, or for performance reasons)
• Disable certain jurisdictions (for quicker switching)
• Disable certain databases (for faster searching)

Intercept and rename PDF downloads from LawNet

Add option to disable clipboard suggestion

Should highlight compatible citations on page and allow for 1-click downloading of PDF

Loading component

moving parts can make things appear to load faster

Case name search

Requires returning multiple search results

Separate links for summary, judgment, etc.?