Template talk:Caselaw source

Under discussion

This is a new template being proposed for use in WikiProject Law. It is not yet in use but is expected to be in use after some discussion and revision. Do not delete. TJRC (talk) 08:26, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Much to my surprise, it's been picked up and is now in use in about 200 articles. TJRC (talk) 20:33, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Hardcoded URLs

It's a very bad idea to hardcode URLs into a page or template like this. :-/ The code really should be updated and the current uses should be fixed. --MZMcBride (talk) 03:07, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Can you be more specific about what you're suggesting? I don't see how you can make the template point to a web resource without specifying the URL of the web resource. Bear in mind that the template covers cases from all levels of jurisdiction (i.e., not just U.S. Supreme Court cases, for example, so you can't assume a __ U.S. __ style cite where the volume and page numbers neatly map to a URL on certain repositories). In addition not all repositories use the volume/page information from the citation in their URLs; so there's no universal way of mapping the volume/page to the URL. TJRC (talk) 17:50, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Well, most sites put the citation directly in the URL, for example http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F3/323/805/575893/ . I didn't realize you were trying to multi-purpose this template beyond U.S. Supreme Court cases, but it may still be a good idea to put the majority of the URLs inside the template and define only the unique part. For example, instead of |justia=http://supreme.justia.com/us/384/436/case.html it would be |usvol=384|uspage=436 so it could be used inside a Justia URL and a FindLaw URL (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=384&page=436). Also, if only one source is used, it shouldn't lead with a middot:

Text of Miranda v. Arizona is available from: Justia

That dot just looks silly all by itself. Just my two cents. --MZMcBride (talk) 21:16, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

I definitely agree on the extra dot. I'm new to template syntax and haven't figured out how to do that yet. I'm just got back from a few weeks vacation and haven't touched wikipedia for a while, but plan to follow up on that. On the vol/page thing, that won't work on several repositories, especially on non-SCOTUS cases. If you look at the examples in the doc for Satava v. Lowry, you'll see an example of this. The cite is Satava v. Lowry, 323 F.3d 805 (9th Cir. 2003), but the altlaw and findlaw URLs are http://altlaw.org/v1/cases/164890 and http://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/circs/9th/0216347p.pdf, respectively; neither URL incorporates the volume and page. TJRC (talk) 22:10, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Bringing this issue back to surface, see here - Oyez specific but same applies to many params here. Likely multiple params will be deprecated and |case= split up so we can autogenerate URLs, but I'm not fully sure on the best course of action yet. ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 01:25, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Okay. My rough plan is to split this into a SCOTUS-specific template. If |case= is present, it will show the legacy version. Otherwise, it will request |casename=, |citation= (U.S. Reports), and |docket= (for post 1955 cases). With this, we can auto-build URLs to Oyez, Justia, Cornell and Library of Congress. Additionally, there will be params to specify unique identifiers for Google Scholar and CourtListener. A bot run will move usages of this current template for SCOTUS cases (filtering either by category, or presence of {{Infobox SCOTUS case}} into the new template. In the future, once this template is cleaned up, that template can be a wrapper around this one. I do not think it's appropriate to add this new functionality into here (at least at this time) - it would, frankly, be a mess, given the views above that this template shouldn't be SCOTUS-specific. The WikiProject will be notified. If no objections over the coming days, and considering conversation at SCOTUS case, I plan to start making these changes in the coming days/week. Thanks, ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 11:47, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Fun fact: We can also auto-build CourtListener URLs. This is now documented at https://www.courtlistener.com/c/ (see "About This Tool"). The URL https://courtlistener.com/c/U.S./410/113/ can be auto-built from the citation components (volume, reporter, and page number), and CourtListener will redirect a request for that URL to the case page at https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/108713/roe-v-wade/. Anseljh (talk) 01:05, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

Wikisource

Please add a parameter for linking to documents on Wikisource. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:40, 25 August 2019 (UTC)

Oyez - not every case has oral args. audio

This template may mislead readers into thinking there's oral argument audio on every Ozez.org page.

I was looking at the 1928 case Olmstead v. United States, and was surprised to see an external link to oral argument audio. Of course, there's no audio[1] from so long ago, but when I went to fix it I found this template had ostensibly filled in those words.

I'm not that familiar with template maintenance, so perhaps someone reading this comment either knows how to fix it or can point me in a helpful direction? Oblivy (talk) 05:05, 7 August 2023 (UTC)