1. A method for acquiring and processing legal data, the method comprising: accessing a source of legal information; retrieving legal data from the source of legal information; automatically normalizing inaccuracies in the legal data; after normalizing the legal data, receiving input from an administrator to manually modify the legal data and to input supplemental data that adds a legal outcome for which no metadata element has been previously generated; identifying one or more portions of a data set comprising the legal data and the supplemental data input, each portion including a reference to a legal entity; generating a metadata element for each legal entity referenced in the one or more portions, wherein the metadata element is one of a plurality of metadata elements; associating each of the one or more portions with at least one of the plurality of metadata elements, the at least one metadata element signaling which legal entities are referenced in each portion; and constructing a legal database that includes the data set and the plurality of metadata elements, wherein the legal database is searchable by legal entity.
1. A method for acquiring and processing legal data, the method comprising: accessing a source of legal information; retrieving legal data from the source of legal information; automatically normalizing inaccuracies in the legal data; after normalizing the legal data, receiving input from an administrator to manually modify the legal data and to input supplemental data that adds a legal outcome for which no metadata element has been previously generated; identifying one or more portions of a data set comprising the legal data and the supplemental data input, each portion including a reference to a legal entity; generating a metadata element for each legal entity referenced in the one or more portions, wherein the metadata element is one of a plurality of metadata elements; associating each of the one or more portions with at least one of the plurality of metadata elements, the at least one metadata element signaling which legal entities are referenced in each portion; and constructing a legal database that includes the data set and the plurality of metadata elements, wherein the legal database is searchable by legal entity. 6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one metadata element specifies a judge, a jurisdiction, a lawyer, a law firm, a party to a lawsuit, a patent, a trademark, a copyright, or any combination thereof.