Legal Terms Search Helper

Overview

The Legal Terms Search Helper is a web application designed to assist users in searching and understanding legal documents such as terms of service, NDAs, and other contracts. Users can upload a text file containing legal content, ask questions about it (e.g., "What is the refund policy?"), and receive concise, easy-to-read answers extracted from the document. The application leverages natural language processing (NLP) and stores question-answer pairs in a MySQL database for future reference.

Features

• Upload a .txt file containing legal content.
• Ask questions about the uploaded document (e.g., "When can a user cancel?").
• Receive simplified answers (e.g., "Users can cancel within 14 days as per section 3.2.").
• Store question-answer history in a MySQL database.
• User-friendly React-based interface with a chat-like experience.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+ for the backend server.
• Node.js and npm for the frontend.
• MySQL Server for storing Q&A history.
• Required Python libraries (listed in requirements.txt).
• A .env file with MySQL credentials and API base URL.

Installation

Backend Setup

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd client/legal-terms-search-helper/server

2. Create a .env file in the server directory with the following content:

   MYSQL_HOST=localhost
   MYSQL_USER=your_username
   MYSQL_PASSWORD=your_password
   MYSQL_DB=legal_terms_db
   

3. Install Python dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set up the MySQL database (the app will create the necessary database and table on first run).
5. Run the Flask server:

   python app.py

Frontend Setup

1. Navigate to the client/legal-terms-search-helper directory:

   cd client/legal-terms-search-helper

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Update the REACT_APP_API_BASE_URL in the .env file to match your backend URL (e.g., http://localhost:5000).
4. Start the React app:

   npm start

Usage

1. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000.
2. Upload a .txt file containing legal text using the file uploader.
3. Once uploaded, type a question in the input field (e.g., "What is the refund policy?").
4. View the answer in the chat window and explore previous Q&A history.

Project Structure

client/legal-terms-search-helper/
├── public/
├── src/
│   ├── components/
│   │   ├── ChatWindow.js
│   │   ├── FileUploader.js
│   │   └── QuestionInput.js
│   ├── App.css
│   ├── App.js
│   ├── index.css
│   └── index.js
├── .gitignore
├── package-lock.json
└── package.json
server/
├── env/
├── static/
├── uploads/
├── app.py
├── .gitignore
├── legal_terms.txt
└── requirements.txt
README.md

Technologies Used

• Backend: Python, Flask, SentenceTransformers, ChromaDB, Hugging Face Transformers, MySQL.
• Frontend: React, Material-UI, Axios.
• NLP: Embedding generation with all-MiniLM-L6-v2, Question-answering with distilbert-base-uncased-distilled-squad.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please fork the repository and submit a pull request with your changes. Ensure to follow the existing code style and add tests if applicable.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Contact

• Email: kckdeepak29@gmail.com
• GitHub Issues