There’s been a bit of geek-world excitement recently about Jureeka, a Firefox add-on that automatically catches legal citations in web pages, enabling you to click on the citation and get the case from one of the public online caselaw repositories. I must admit, it’s pretty nifty. But for Minnesota lawyers, it’s currently limited to Minnesota caselaw after 1996. Basically, that’s what is available online through the Minnesota judiciary’s website or through Minnesota’s state law library.

Limitations aside, Jureeka is a useful add-on to have for Firefox, just to have it working inconspicuously in the background. If it happens to spot a citation it recognizes, you’ll be better for it, as the case will be a quick click away. But if you think it’s going to be a nifty cite-checker for your briefs (so long as you get them online, which is not hard to do), it’s got a long way to go, specifically in adding content to its federal district court, state court and state rules databases. For instance, it will recognize the U.S Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decision of Board of Regents of University of Minnesota v. Shalala, 53 F.3d 940 (8th Cir.  Minn., 1995) but not the U.S District Court case of Board of Regents of University of Minnesota v. Glaxo Wellcome, 58 F.Supp.2d 1036 (D. Minn., 1999) or the state court case of Board of Regents of University of Minnesota v. Reid, 522 N.W.2d 344 (Minn. Ct. App., 1994). If you have Jureeka installed, you’ll see what I mean by hovering over the citations with your mouse.

Don’t get me wrong. Jureeka is free, so who can complain. It also packs a real “cool” factor and likely signals more impressive things to come. But that time is not yet here.