8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the citation components comprise one or more of the following: a signal, a first party, a versus, a docket number, a skeletal citation, a reporter volume number, a reporter abbreviation, an initial page, a publishing service, an initial subdivision, an Internet citation, a pinpoint, a reporter table, a first parallel citation, a first parallel pinpoint, a second parallel citation, a second parallel pinpoint, an early American citation, or a court and date of decision.
1. A system for determining valid citation patterns in text within an electronic document, the system comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing instructions to direct the processor to perform operations comprising: accessing, from the memory, a citation pattern comprising a set of citation components that define a predetermined pattern, each citation component being associated with a set of citation component criteria, comparing text in the electronic document with the citation components of the predetermined pattern, and determining valid citation patterns by identifying text that corresponds to the set of citation components of the predetermined pattern.