CourtSearch

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Inspiration

The inspiration for CourtSearch comes from the need to make legal information more accessible to the public. Many people struggle to find relevant case law when preparing for their own court cases, which can put them at a disadvantage in the legal system

What it does

CourtSearch is a Python program that:

• Reads court case data from a CSV file
• Allows users to search for cases by name
• Displays relevant case information
• Provides links or references for further reading about the case

How we built it

We built CourtSearch using Python, leveraging the following components:

• CSV module for reading the data file
• String matching algorithms for searching case names
• Command-line interface for user interaction
• Data structures to efficiently store and retrieve case information

Challenges we ran into

One of the primary challenges was optimizing the small dataset of court cases. As we needed a GUI that is simple and appealing to the user. Another challenge we faced was having a different file path for each computer.

What we learned

We overcame the challenge of being unable to track the CSV file when downloaded by different users by having the user manually upload the CSV file on launch. We built the GUI with the python TK module to be fast and easy to manipulate.

What's next for CourtSearch

CourtSearch Has much to do in the future such as an adapting dataset that updates as more cases come out and also include smaller court cases other than the supreme court. The GUI will require a complete make over to be more appealing to the user. Another measure we must take is removing the upload CSV button and have the program automatically gain access to the dataset. And finally having an improved search system where many different methods of searching are utilized to make the program function.

Built With

• csv
• python
• tkinter