On 2003-09-18, 15:55 GMT, Bruce wrote: > One thing I have often thought LyX would be ideal for would be for > preparing court documents, or other legal documents for that matter, that > have a set structure and elements. I particularly think of this when I am
Having been a lawyer in my past life (before coming into PhD program, that is), I had some interest in writing LaTeX support for legal documents too. And yes, I think that LaTeX is exactly perfect for the highly structured legal documents, where invention in typography is considered a sin. Moreover, LyX seems to be coming with tools allowing cooperation over one document (version 1.4.0 should add Revision Marking and although no lawyer ever seen CVS, it could be an excellent tool even for them). The only document I have written in LaTeX so far is one contract for my national TUG. I can give a sanitized version to my website (or send to the personal mail). However, it is really simple thing (no special class, just over article.cls) -- I think, that these documents really deserve new classes (probably based on the top of article.cls). > working on a factum that has passed through several other lawyer's > computers, and has the detruit of all their particular Word formatting > quirks munged together. I know what you mean :-). LyX/LaTeX would be excellent in this -- there is nothing more safe than plain ASCII file. > The problem is that court documents don't seem to fit well with any of > the standard text classes in LyX, nor could I find anything > particularly on topic on CTAN. I do not think, there is any such class, they have to be developed from scratch (or on the top of existing classes). That is you probably need to get your hands on some good LaTeX book -- LaTeX Companion or my preferred Kopka, Daily. > Some of the requirements would be additional elements (court file no., > parties, counsel, etc.), Try to write a document you want with ERT and definitions in preamble whenever needed. Then this new definitions can be summarized into new class file and embellished with options and other paraphernalia. > and other requirements like sequential paragraph numbering through an > entire document (including through different "sections" or "parts"), new counter is created with \newcounter and commands for dealing with it are very well described in info file for LaTeX2e (if you are on Linux) or in LaTeX2e Help file (on Windows). > which I couldn't figure out how to do with nesting. You have to do it with ERT -- LyX won't help you here. > The actual placement of the various elements is also generally > determined by the court rules in the relevant jurisdiction, though > I assume this could be set up easily enough by someone knowledgeable. Here boxes can do the job very well. > It seems that court documents are really a specialized enough type of > document that they would need their own document class. Moreover, > different jurisdictions may have wildly varying layout requirements > (though the basic elements will probably be the same). Is anyone aware > of any project to prepare legal documents using LyX? I do not think there is any -- neither for LyX nor for LaTeX. Matej -- Matej Cepl, GPG Finger: 89EF 4BC6 288A BF43 1BAB 25C3 E09F EF25 D964 84AC 138 Highland Ave. #10, Somerville, Ma 02143, (617) 623-1488
