Table of Authorities Builder

Table of Authorities Builder helps legal writers draft a preliminary Table of Authorities (TOA) from pasted text or uploaded .txt / PDF files. The tool suggests U.S. federal-style case, statute, and regulation citations, flags uncertain matches for review, lets you edit page references, and generates copyable, printable output. Processing runs in your browser. This is a document-processing aid — not legal advice and not guaranteed court-ready.

How to Use the Table of Authorities Builder

Paste or upload a brief, analyze U.S. federal-style citations, review and edit authorities, then generate a preliminary TOA. Draft aid only — not legal advice and not court-ready without review.

  1. Paste legal document text or upload a supported .txt or .pdf file.
  2. Click Analyze document to detect citations.
  3. Review the authorities table — edit text, type, pages, and status; remove errors; add missing citations.
  4. Mark uncertain items reviewed after you confirm them.
  5. Click Generate Table of Authorities.
  6. Copy, print, or download the draft TOA and verify it against your court’s requirements.

Methodology & legal citation classification

The Table of Authorities (TOA) builder processes legal briefs and appellate submissions according to Bluebook and ALWD citation guidelines. It categorizes extracted citations into statutory divisions: Cases, Constitutional Provisions, Statutes, Regulations, and Miscellaneous secondary authorities.

It generates clean page-referenced tables formatted for submission to federal and state courts of appeals.

Worked legal citation extraction example

  • Brief input: Legal brief citing Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984) and 5 U.S.C. § 706.
  • Processed Table of Authorities: - CASES: Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984) ... Pages 4, 12, 18 - STATUTES: 5 U.S.C. § 706 ... Pages 2, 8, 14.
  • Outcome: Court-ready legal indexing ensuring compliance with appellate court formatting rules.

Supported citation types (MVP)

  • Cases — common federal reporters such as U.S., S. Ct., F.2d, F.3d, F. Supp.
  • Statutes — U.S.C. section cites (for example 42 U.S.C. § 1983).
  • Regulations — C.F.R. section cites (for example 40 C.F.R. § 261.3).
  • Other / Needs Review — ambiguous or non-federal patterns flagged for manual review.

Common mistakes

  • Filing without reviewing Needs Review items and page references.
  • Expecting UK, Canadian, Australian, or state-specific citation systems to be auto-detected.
  • Treating detection confidence as legal verification of a cite.

Limitations

U.S. federal-style pattern matching only — deterministic, not AI. DOCX upload is not supported in this MVP. Output is a preliminary draft; court formatting rules vary. Not legal advice.

Privacy

Analysis runs in your browser. Brief text is not sent to external AI or citation APIs for this tool.

FAQ

What is a Table of Authorities?

A Table of Authorities (TOA) is an index of legal sources cited in a brief or memorandum, usually grouped by authority type with page references. Courts and schools often have their own formatting rules.

What types of citations does this tool support?

The MVP detects common U.S. federal-style patterns for cases (for example U.S., S. Ct., F.2d/F.3d/F. Supp.), statutes (U.S.C.), and regulations (C.F.R.). Unsupported or ambiguous citations are marked Needs Review.

Does it work with every court?

No. Citation and TOA requirements vary by court and jurisdiction. This tool focuses on U.S. federal-style patterns and produces a draft for your review — not automatic filing compliance.

Can I edit detected authorities?

Yes. After analysis, edit citation text, change the authority type, update page references, mark items reviewed, or remove incorrect detections before generating the TOA.

Can I add missing authorities?

Yes. Use Add authority to insert citations the detector missed, set the type and pages, and include them in the generated table.

Does it automatically find page numbers?

It extracts pin cites when present (for example ', 125' or 'at 125') and can assign document pages when you upload PDF or use page markers. Plain pasted text may lack reliable page boundaries — manual review is often required.

Is the generated TOA court-ready?

No. Output is a suggested draft. You must review every citation, page reference, category, and sort order against your court's rules before filing.

Does the tool provide legal advice?

No. Table of Authorities Builder is a document-processing productivity tool only. It does not provide legal advice or verify that citations are correct.

What file formats can I upload?

You can paste plain text, upload .txt files, or upload PDF files for client-side text extraction. DOCX upload is not supported in this MVP unless added in a future release.

Does my document leave my device?

Analysis runs in your browser. ToolsLibrary does not send your brief text to external AI or citation APIs for this tool.