In one sentence
A click on a provision or a decision in your case file now opens the legal library in the lawyer portal, with the citation network, leading decisions and the line of case law, without AI and without using your quota.
What changes
Until now, many citations led out of the portal, for example to Gesetze im Internet. Now provisions and decisions from the case file, chat, research and source lists open our own library. There you find statutes, decisions, legal terms and amendments, each page with the buttons “Take to the assistant” and “Copy citation”. If a provision appears in your case file, the card “Cited in this case file” shows where.
The citation network
For every provision and decision, a network shows who cites whom: as a cloud or in columns, sorted either by the newest or by the most-cited decisions. With “Load neighbors” you move on step by step. An example from employment law: the decision BAG 2 AZR 541/09 is cited more than 500 times in our collection. The network shows the decisions it relies on and those that refer to it. Provision pages list the leading decisions with their distribution over the years, decision pages the line of case law. The network can be exported as an image.
The citation network of your case file
In the case file, under “Citations in this case file”, you switch between “List” and “Network”. The network shows how the decisions that appear in your documents and answers are connected. You see at a glance whether the cited decisions form a common line or stand alone. The live demo “The legal graph, hands on” on the legal library page shows what this looks like.
What it does not do
- A line only means “cited”. The network does not show whether a decision was overruled or confirmed; that remains your review.
- The library covers German and European law. Decisions from other legal systems appear as “not checked”.
- The network shows at most 150 nodes at once so that it stays readable.
More: Legal library, in the manual Legal library and Citation check. Background: Two networks: the law and your case file.
