metadata

license: mit
task_categories:
  - text-classification
  - text-generation
language:
  - de
tags:
  - legal
pretty_name: Clean Open Legal Data
size_categories:
  - 100K<n<1M
configs:
  - config_name: cases
    data_files:
      - split: main
        path: data/cases.jsonl.gz

Clean Open Legal Data

Overview | Dataset Structure | Key Fields | Example Entry | Using the Dataset with Python | License

Overview

This dataset is a comprehensive collection of open legal case records in JSONL format. It comprises 251,038 cases extracted and processed from the Open Legal Data dump (as of 2022-10-18). The dataset is designed for legal research, data science, and natural language processing applications. While the majority of entries (especially tenor, tatbestand, gründe, and entscheidungsgründe) have been carefully separated and extracted, approximately 1,176 (0.47% of total) cases have been flagged as "messy" due to extraction or formatting issues. These messy entries are included for full transparency, and their "slug" IDs are available in problematic_case_slugs.txt so users can decide whether to filter them out or work with them. In references, law references and case references are also separated, as shown in the example entry.

Dataset Structure

├── README.md
├── data
│   └── cases.jsonl.gz
└── problematic_case_slugs.txt

Language: German
Format: JSONL
Total Cases: 251,038

Key Fields

id: Unique identifier for the record.
file_number: Identifier for the case (e.g., "1 A 2639/20").
slug: URL-friendly unique identifier (e.g., "ovgnrw-2022-03-25-1-a-263920").
ecli: European Case Law Identifier.
date: Date of the decision in YYYY-MM-DD format.
court: JSON object with court details (e.g., name, city, state, jurisdiction).
type: Type of legal decision (e.g., "Beschluss").
tenor: List of summary statements of the decision.
tatbestand: List of factual background details.
gründe: List of reasoning or legal arguments provided.
entscheidungsgründe: Detailed decision reasons.
references: Contains references to laws and related cases.

Example Entry

Below is an example entry from the JSONL file:

{
    "id": 344319,
    "file_number": "1 A 2639/20",
    "slug": "ovgnrw-2022-03-25-1-a-263920",
    "ecli": "ECLI:DE:OVGNRW:2022:0325.1A2639.20.00",
    "date": "2022-03-25",
    "court": {
        "id": 823,
        "name": "Oberverwaltungsgericht Nordrhein-Westfalen",
        "slug": "ovgnrw",
        "city": "Unspecified",
        "state": "Nordrhein-Westfalen",
        "jurisdiction": "Verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeit",
        "level_of_appeal": null
    },
    "type": "Beschluss",
    "tenor": [
        "Der Antrag wird abgelehnt.",
        "...",
        "Der Streitwert wird auch für das Zulassungsverfahren auf 7.500,00 Euro festgesetzt."
    ],
    "tatbestand": [],
    "gründe": [
        "Der Antrag des Klägers auf Zulassung der Berufung hat keinen Erfolg.",
        "...",
        "Das angefochtene Urteil ist nunmehr rechtskräftig, § 124a Abs. 5 Satz 4 VwGO."
    ],
    "entscheidungsgründe": [],
    "references": {
        "law": [
            "§ 124a Abs. 4 Satz 4 VwGO",
            "§ 124a Abs. 5 Satz 4 VwGO",
            "..."
        ],
        "case": [
            "1 A 5162/05",
            "1 KR 87/11",
            "..."
        ]
    }
}

Using the Dataset with Python

Below is an example of how to load and explore the dataset using Python with the 🤗 Datasets library:

import json

from datasets import load_dataset

# Load cases
cases = load_dataset("harshildarji/openlegaldata", "cases", split="main")

# Total cases
print(len(cases))

# View first case
print(json.dumps(cases[0], indent=4, default=str, ensure_ascii=False))

License

This dataset is released under the MIT license, same license as the Open Legal Data platform.