[Tex/LaTex] Class available for law Reports

Question

Has anyone used LaTeX for writing Expert Witness reports or similar for UK Courts? These have to follow a particular format which would be ideal in Latex but I am a relative newcomer to Latex and unsure about writing my own class.

A little explanation of the needed format:

The report has to have

• a title page with the name of the court at top left (takes about 4 lines and is underlined);
• the number of the claim, top right;
• a centred list of claimants and defendants;
• then a title centred between 2 lines followed by details of the author.
• Each page has to numbered with a header containing the claim no.
• It will need a table of contents, figures and, perhaps a bibliography and will need appendices.
• Also,sections need to be numbered, sometimes paragraphs also.

Answer 1

I do not know "Expert Witness reports or similar for UK Courts" but I can show you how to use package scrjura. Because you gave no screenshot I can only guess what you need. Change the following code to fit your needs.

You asked about writing an own class. Because scrjura is still under development and can change (that is mentioned in the documentation, only in German) I would wait. Until it is finished just use a simple document like that I show you later or create an own courtxyz.sty file with your own definitons like a propriate titlepage with fixed court, adress, author etc. Then you call load it with \usepackage{courstxyz}.

To use scrjura you need to call package scrkbase (see texdoc KOMA-Script) or just use a KOMA-Script class, for example scrartcl).

To solve your problem I used scrartcl, loaded scrjura and created a titlepage with environment titlepage. If you want to use the special features of scrjura you have to use environment contract. That gives you the special numbering for paragraphs and sentences. See for example the used shortcut ('.) to number the next sentence with an superscripted sentence number before the sentence begins (the first sentence is not numbered).

There is also an special referencing system available, I show you a small part of them (see texdoc scrjura in German or texdoc scrguien for more information): \ref{p.name1} (usual reference), \refL{p.name1} (always long reference), \refS{p.name1} (short reference), \refN{p.name1} (numbered reference) and \refClause{p.name1} (reference to a clause).

Figures and apendix is working as usual.

I used package showref to visualize the typing area and margins and blindtext to create a dummy text. I used the image example-image-a.pdf/jpg/png which is part of package mwe (you have to install it, but you don't need to load it).

In the titlepage I added some \hrule commands to visualize special parts of the title page. Please delete them.

I defined a new command \claimnumber. This command is used on the titlepage and in the header definition.

MWE (please check the comments!):

\documentclass[%
  english           % Language
 ,paper=a4          % DIN A4
 ,fontsize=12pt     % 
 ,parskip=half-     %  
 ,numbers=noenddot  % numbers without end dot
]{scrartcl}% scrreprt scrartcl

\usepackage{blindtext}      % dummy text

\usepackage[english]{babel} % ngerman

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{textcomp}

\usepackage{enumerate}      % to change numbering sign

\usepackage[%
  juratotoc%=1              % juratotoc=0 0 chapter, 1 section
 ,paragraphmark=forceboth   % 
 ,juratocnumberwidth=2.5em  % 
 ,ref=long                  % (§ 314 paragraph 2 sentence 2), short numeric
]{scrjura}  
\useshorthands{'}
\defineshorthand{'S}{\Sentence\ignorespaces}% to number first sentence
\defineshorthand{'.}{. \Sentence\ignorespaces}% next sentence numbered

\usepackage{graphicx}       % 

\usepackage[%
% footsepline        % 
 ,headsepline        % 
%,automark           % 
]{scrlayer-scrpage}  % make own header and footer

\pagestyle{scrheadings}         % definition follows
\chead{}                        % empty
\ohead{\claimnumber}            % current claim no
\ihead{Example}                 % fixed text
\cfoot{\pagemark}               % pagenumer in footer

 \usepackage{showframe}          % shows typing area and margins

% line for signature
\newcommand{\dotbox}[2][.5\linewidth]{\hbox to #1 {\dotfill}\noindent#2} 

%\renewcommand*{\thecontractSubClause}{{\theClause~\alph{contractSubClause})}}
%\renewcommand{\numberline}[1]{\makebox[6em][l]{#1}}% Länge Zahl dreistellig>

\newcommand*{\claimnumber}{Cl~4711}


\begin{document}

\begin{titlepage}
\pagestyle{empty}

\parbox[c][4cm][t]{0.5\textwidth}{%
  Name of the court \\
  Name of the court line 2\\
  Name of the court line 3\\
  Name of the court line 4
}\hfill%
\begin{minipage}[c]{0.4\textwidth}
  \begin{flushright}
    \includegraphics[width=5cm]{example-image-a}\\
    Number of claim: \claimnumber
  \end{flushright}
\end{minipage}

\hrule% only to show the position; comment or delete!
\vspace{3\baselineskip}% vertical space, 3*\baselineskip
\hrule% only to show the position; comment or delete!

\begin{center} % ============================== claimants and defendants
  a centred list of claimants and defendants
\end{center}

\hrule% only to show the position; comment or delete!
\vspace{\stretch{1}}% vertical space
\hrule% only to show the position; comment or delete!

\begin{center} % ================================================ title
\Large
Title of Document
\end{center}

\begin{center} % ================================================ author
Details of the author
\end{center}

\hrule% only to show the position; comment or delete!
\vspace{\stretch{3}}% vertical space
\hrule% only to show the position; comment or delete!

\begin{center} % ================================================ date
\today
\end{center}
\end{titlepage}

\tableofcontents  
\listoffigures

\addsec{Introduction}
\blindtext

%\parnumberfalse\section{ABSCHNITT}\parnumbertrue
\section{Dummy Text}
\begin{contract}
\Clause{title={Name, address and year}}
\label{p.name}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit'.  
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.  

\SubClause{title={Sub paragraph}}\label{p.subp}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit'.  
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit'.  
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit'.\label{p.name1}  
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.  

See figure~\ref{fig:ExampleImage}! 

See ref: \ref{p.name1}.

See refL: \refL{p.name1}. 

See refS: \refS{p.name1}. 

See refN: \refN{p.subpdummy}. See \refN{p.name1}. 

See refClause: \refClause{p.name1}.

\begin{figure}[htb]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=5cm]{example-image-a}
  \caption{Example image}
  \label{fig:ExampleImage}
\end{figure}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,  lorem ipsum 
dolor sit amet,  lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
\begin{enumerate}[\qquad a)]
  \item Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,  
    lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,  lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,  lorem 
    ipsum dolor sit amet, lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
  \item consectetuer adipiscing elit.
\end{enumerate}

\SubClause{title={Sub paragraph},dummy}\label{p.subpdummy}
\end{contract}


\begin{contract}
\Clause{title={Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet}}
\blindtext
\end{contract}

\appendix % 

\section{Dummy Text Appendix}
\blindtext


\clearpage
Signatures:

\vspace{8ex}\dotbox{First Person}

\vspace{4ex}\dotbox{Second Person}

\end{document}

With the titlepage:

and page 3:

Please let me know if this is helpfull.