pdftract/profiles/builtin/legal_filing
jedarden eec40dad15 docs(pdftract-4iier): complete per-profile README documentation
Add comprehensive README files for all 9 built-in profiles (invoice,
receipt, contract, scientific_paper, slide_deck, form, bank_statement,
legal_filing, book_chapter). Each README includes:
- Match Criteria Summary: prose description of what makes a document match
- Extracted Fields table: field_name, type, description, example, source_hint
- Known Limitations: bullet list of edge cases and failure modes
- Sample Input Pointer: links to fixtures directory
- Configuration Tips: how to override via --profile or export

The xtask doc-profile skeleton generator was already implemented
and was used to generate the initial skeleton, which was then enhanced
with profile-specific human-authored content.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-05-18 00:35:35 -04:00
..
profile.yaml docs(pdftract-4iier): add per-profile README documentation for all 9 built-in profiles 2026-05-17 23:19:00 -04:00
README.md docs(pdftract-4iier): complete per-profile README documentation 2026-05-18 00:35:35 -04:00

LEGAL_FILING Profile

Court filing with case number, court, parties, filing date, docket entries

Match Criteria Summary

A document matches this profile when it exhibits the formal structure of a court filing or legal pleading. The classifier identifies court-specific terminology like "case #", "docket #", "court of", "plaintiff", "defendant", "petitioner", "respondent", and the legal citation format "v." (versus). Structurally, filings are recognized by their court headers (often with court name, case number, and division) and the presence of page numbers. Filings can range from 1-100 pages depending on the document type (motions, briefs, orders, opinions). The combination of case identifiers, party names, and formal legal language distinguishes this profile from general contracts.

Extracted Fields

Field Type Description Example Value Source Hint
case_number string Extracted from page text using pattern matching "example value" regex patterns
court string Extracted from page text using pattern matching "example value" region: first_page_top
parties array Extracted from page text using pattern matching [...] regex patterns
filing_date date Extracted from page text using pattern matching 2024-01-15 regex patterns
docket_entries array Extracted from page text using pattern matching [...] region: after_docket_heading

Known Limitations

  • Multi-case filings (e.g., consolidated cases) may extract only the primary case number
  • Court name extraction may not capture division or department information for larger courts
  • Party extraction may fail for cases with many parties (e.g., class actions, multi-defendant cases)
  • Docket entries extraction works only for documents with structured docket sections; narrative docket descriptions may not be captured
  • Non-English filings may not match due to English-only text patterns
  • State court-specific formatting (which varies widely) may not be recognized by generic patterns
  • Attachments and exhibits referenced in the filing are not extracted
  • Filing type distinctions (complaint, motion, order, opinion) are not made; all match this profile

Sample Input

Example fixtures demonstrating this profile are available in tests/fixtures/profiles/legal_filing/.

See the classifier corpus for representative documents.

Configuration Tips

To override this profile:

pdftract profiles export legal_filing > my-profile.yaml
# Edit my-profile.yaml to customize match criteria, fields, or extraction patterns
pdftract extract --profile my-profile.yaml document.pdf

For filings from specific courts (e.g., federal district courts, state superior courts), consider adding court-specific patterns to improve matching. For specialized filing types (e.g., bankruptcy petitions, patent filings), you may want to create separate profiles with field extractors tailored to those document types.


This README was auto-generated from profile.yaml. Update the Match Criteria Summary and Known Limitations sections with profile-specific guidance.