Court Listener
Case Studies
Court Listener
A modern interface redesign for America's open legal research platform
Assignment
CourtListener, operated by the Free Law Project, approached Magnet to modernize their legal research platform serving millions of legal opinions across 421 jurisdictions. The challenge was to completely reimagine the user experience while maintaining the robust functionality that lawyers, journalists, academics, and researchers rely on daily.
CourtListener's platform needed a comprehensive overhaul to improve user engagement and research efficiency. The existing interface struggled to effectively present their vast database of legal opinions, oral arguments, and precedent analysis tools. Our objective was to redesign the entire platform interface while implementing a modern, high-performance frontend that could handle complex search queries and data visualization at scale.
Scope
- UI/UX redesign
- Frontend development
- Information architecture
Approach
Our team began with an extensive discovery phase, analyzing user behavior patterns and conducting stakeholder interviews to understand the diverse needs of CourtListener's user base. We mapped out complex user journeys for different personas including legal professionals, journalists, and researchers.
The design process focused on:
- Streamlining the search interface for efficient legal research
- Developing intuitive navigation patterns for millions of documents
- Creating clear visual hierarchies for complex legal data
- Optimizing precedent network visualizations
- Improving mobile accessibility for on-the-go research
Implementation
We executed the frontend overhaul using a component-based architecture that prioritized performance and accessibility. The implementation focused on:
- Building a responsive design system that scaled across devices
- Optimizing search result delivery through intelligent caching
- Implementing real-time updates using HTMX for seamless user experience
- Creating fluid transitions for complex data visualizations
- Developing mobile-first interfaces for core functionality
- Integrating advanced filtering and sorting capabilities
- Optimizing API response handling for large result sets
No items found.
Outcome
The redesigned platform has transformed CourtListener's ability to serve its mission of open legal research:
- 20% increase in average session duration
- 40% faster average page load times
- Enhanced accessibility compliance
- Improved user satisfaction among legal professionals and researchers
Kind words
Over our two-decade history we've delivered exceptional sales performance, and earned a great amount of trust, by following a battle-proven playbook for generating new prospects at scale using a combination of the solutions below.
Marketing Websites
Optimize for the right eyeballs with an engaging experience.
We craft websites that are value oriented, engaging to the reader, using carefully drafted SEO-optimized writing, designed to be responsive and accessible across platforms, developed with best-in-class code, performance and security baked in, future-proof and easy to manage.
Ecommerce Websites
Build a finely tuned internet selling machine on best-in-class tech.
Selling online is all about understanding your customers - who they are, what they care about and how your products solve a problem for them. We are super-nerds for website analytics and data, and utilize tools like surveys, A/B testing, heatmaps and customer funnels to craft ecommerce solutions that convert haphazard browsers into brand loyalists.
Search Optimization
Proven SEO tactics and content marketing strategies lower CAC.
One… two… three, ready or not, a new website just went online! Google estimates there are more than one-billion websites and that a new one is created every three seconds. The only way to stand out from all of that noise is to have a search engine optimization strategy that makes your website king of the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).
Paid Advertising
Creative messaging with precision targeting for better sales velocity.
For your audience to hear your signal above the noise we use Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SMM), Pay-Per Click campaigns (PPC) and Social Media Management (SMM) expertise and some powerful tactics. Paired with a strong brand and beautiful website, growth marketing is how you make sure your business will party on for years to come.