BarNet’s JADE API Explained (convert your blogs and legal scrapbooks to JADE in seconds)

We have been travelling around Australia showing lawyers and law librarians the delights of the BarNet JADE legal research platform. As ever, we are honoured that you have let us see the many ways in which you would like to do legal research. Apart from making JADE the best way to perform legal research, we also want to make life easier for budding legal bloggers.

The Present

That's us, inside the mind of a budding student blogger.

Most bloggers love to blog with references to AustLII. That’s because AustLII was the only option for many Courts and Tribunals. Now you have a choice for your legal research. At least for some Courts and Tribunals. If we have missed some, let us know and we will do our best to obtain coverage.

JADE has almost 150,000 items in its database, we have more than 750,000 references to cases. Almost every case cited in a decision in Australia in the past few years is included. We are working to ensure complete full text coverage in important areas. We code for topics. And we support specialist panels in particular subject areas.

But, if your blog is covering recent cases, you will already find us comprehensive and timely. Continue reading →

BarNet JADE at a glance (v.3.9.5.95 — Build 391) (15 September 2011)

New and improved features

We have been busy little legal monotremes. Our September Build 391 has a spectacular number of improvements which should make your legal research much more rewarding.

In summary here are the three best bits:

  • Finding a place in an appellate judgment.

Use JADE and tell us what you think. These screenshots show BarNet’s JADE  legal research platform (http://jade.barnet.com.au) as at 15 September 2011.

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BarNet JADE briefly in Video

Introducing RealText Archival Scans in JADE

Your online legal research just took a whole new leap. Here’s a sneak peek of our One to 100 project on JADE. If you want to see the actual case of Chanter v Blackwood, it’s here.

CaseTrace meets the CLRs

JADE described in a few seconds

What is JADE?

BarNet’s JADE (Judgments and Decisions Enhanced) is a free professional legal research platform. JADE is designed to make it easier to find, use, share, and present accurate legal information.

JADE has been designed and built by lawyers for lawyers. It is much more than a simple repository of legal information. It is a carefully considered attempt to fix many of the things which we think have been wrong with online legal research for some time.

Why you should try JADE

There are plenty of compelling reasons why you should use JADE for legal research:

Nothing new to learn

We’ve made it really easy to get started with JADE. We dislike complex systems that require hours or weeks of study before you can use them productively. JADE’s brilliant research interface helps you get started immediately Just type and go! We think that it’s the best legal research experience and system available.

Smart (and intuitive) Search

We built a search engine with legal learning. We understand your request in a legal context. The results are presented to get what you are looking for; even if you didn’t quite know what. And quickly.

CaseTrace (our super citator)

At last, a citator that allows you to see, with pinpoint accuracy, the development of legal reasoning within case law over time. See at a glance how a particular paragraph from an earlier judgment has been considered in later decisions with the relevant text.

The CaseTrace interface saves you time by allowing you to consider the context of the citation and to click through to the subsequent relevant cases.

Annotations to help you remember

You can mark up cases and particular words with your own annotations, which you are always able to retrieve. JADE’s editorial team have created public topic and other annotations to assist you.

Look good (and get output)

JADE excels in presenting your research in many ways. Now, you can print out JADE content to take to Court (in a legible and usable PDF format), export into a word document for inclusion in your opinions or submissions, or send by email in many formats.

Our emphasis is upon accuracy and fidelity: to produce a decision with formatting as close to the original as possible.

By default, whenever you print, export, email, or view the case, you will receive the latest CaseTrace results and the latest annotations. It’s like the magic pudding of legal research.

Timely Email Alerts (summarised)

We have automatic email alerts. You can choose to receive a digested summary of all of the decisions received (for nominated courts or tribunals), or tailored to your areas of practice.

Coverage

We cover the decisions and other output of 73 Australian Courts and Tribunals. More coverage coming soon.

Roadshow Films Pty Limited v iiNet Limited [2011] FCAFC 23

This case: the decision of the Full Court of Australia in: Roadshow Films Pty Limited v iiNet Limited [2011] FCAFC 23, is available on BarNet’s JADE legal research platform.

A further analysis of the decision, including the copyright issues and issues of authorisation will be published soon on JADE.

Roadshow Films Pty Limited v iiNet Limited [2011] FCAFC 23 (24 February 2011) (EMMETT, JAGOT AND NICHOLAS JJ)
Catchwords    INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY – authorisation of copyright infringement – copyright infringement notices served on internet service provider (ISP) alleging that users of ISP’s network were infringing copyright in cinematographic films by making them available online and electronically transmitting them to the public– whether ISP authorised copyright infringement – whether ISP had power to prevent infringement – whether ISP took reasonable steps to prevent or avoid infringement – consideration of other factors relevant to authorisation – knowledge of infringement – encouragement of infringement – inactivity and indifference to infringement – whether ISP sanctioned, approved or countenanced infringement – whether s 112E of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) prevented ISP from being found to have authorised infringement INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY – acts of primary infringement – whether users of ISP’s network infringed copyright in cinematographic films by making them available online or electronically transmitting them to the public – whether the whole or a substantial part of any such cinematographic film was electronically transmitted – whether individual users committed multiple acts of infringement in relation to any such cinematographic film by making it available online and electronically transmitting it. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY – whether Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) compelled a finding that ISP could not reasonably be expected to issue warning notices to customers or suspend or terminate their accounts on the basis of the copyright infringement notices because the disclosure or use of information contained in them or business records of the ISP to which it would need to have regard for that purpose was prohibited by law. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY – ‘safe harbour’ provisions – whether ISP complied with relevant provisions of Division 2AA of Part V of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)
Jade tracks    Number of paragraphs: 807

Number of outgoing citations: 126

JADE Case Study

Legal Research Case Study

Please take a moment to look at our case study to see some of the power of JADE for your daily legal research.

European Bank Ltd v Robb Evans of Robb Evans & Associates, 10 March 2010 [2010] HCA 6.

To find this case yourself, simply type “robb evans” in the JADE search bar at: http://jade.barnet.com.au.

The case dealt with issues in relation to the assessment of damages and the effect of the usual undertaking as to damages. It has now been reported, and subsequent cases in JADE have referred to those reports. CaseTrace now gives you these alternate citations. (This matching is still a work in progress.) You see the CaseTrace summary on the top right hand side of each decision within JADE. Here’s an exmple from Robb Evans:

CaseTrace is so powerful because it links to the case at the cited paragraph level. Choose Paragraphs [11-13] and this is what you will see (we have shrunk it in this email to save space):

Zooming in on Paragraph [11] on the right hand side you see the context of the citation of the particular paragraph :

Continue reading →

JADE — Open Access to Law for All (Getting Australian legal research right)

Jade is an open access legal research platform.

We are very proud of that. Please help us to make JADE even better.

We hope that you will help us to make JADE even better.

Some recent enhancements

  • The JADE citator now indexes a decision, even if the full text is not in JADE.
    • We show you the citations in context. We show you alternative citations, where we can infer those. This is very much a work in progress.
  • We provide pin-point section-based links to legislation. We are working on point-in-time linkages. Parsing of legislation is incredibly complex. It is a work in progress but we hope that you will find it already useful.
  • We have further refined our case and legislation parsers to make JADE more accurate and usable.
  • We have made lots of bug fixes and little enhancements to make JADE work better with computers and portable devices.
  • You can also see the text of later citations all in the one place for a previous case. Just like the reverse of CaseTrace.
  • We have enhanced printing and output of decisions.

How is JADE different from other legal research systems?

We are often asked that question. Our answer is to try JADE and you should see how it will forever change the way you do online legal research. This used to be called electronic legal research.

Continue reading →