Smart Legal Assistant

The Problem: Unreliable Official Legal Data Sources

When handling labor disputes, loan issues, or consumer rights cases, obtaining accurate legal provisions and precedents quickly is essential. However, official channels like the National Legal Database API aren't always reliable—the API may timeout, return empty results, or become unavailable due to network fluctuations. For tools or applications dependent on legal information, this instability is critical. Hardcoding local provisions lacks comprehensive coverage and incurs high maintenance costs.

Dual-Layer Architecture: API-First with Local Fallback

Smart Legal Assistant addresses this with a hybrid query strategy:

1. Official API Priority: Requests https://flk.npc.gov.cn/api/ with parameters type: flfg and keyword for fuzzy matching, returning 5 results by default. This ensures data authority.
2. Automatic Degradation: When the API returns error status codes, times out (default 8 seconds), or yields no results, the system seamlessly switches to local databases.
3. Local Data Support:
   • law_db.json: Pre-loaded with common provisions from Civil Code, Labor Contract Law, etc., structured as {"provision_name": "full_content"}.
   • case_db.json: Contains labor dispute, tort, and other cases with multi-dimensional matching via keywords array, fact, judgement, etc.
4. Structured Output: Results are divided into "📜 Legal Provisions" and "⚖️ Reference Cases". Provisions prioritize API-sourced official content (falling back to local when unavailable); cases always come from the local library, sorted by relevance.

Usage Scenarios and Customization Notes

Typical query keywords include:
- Labor: 试用期辞退, 未签劳动合同, 工伤
- Loans: 借钱不还, 砍头息
- Contracts: 定金不退, 格式条款无效

Key considerations:
- File Completeness: main.py, law_db.json, case_db.json, and info.json are all mandatory.
- Case Library Accuracy: Match quality depends directly on keyword accuracy in case_db.json—continuously optimize based on actual query logs.
- API Timeout Adjustment: For slow networks, modify self.timeout parameter in main.py.
- Data Freshness: Local libraries require manual updates; API queries retrieve the latest provisions.