At this point I need help wrapping my mind around a logical view of the database design.  I am not a lawyer, and am not very familiar with the best taxonomy to use for the database.  The closest frame of reference for me is Robert's Rules of Order, which I am very familiar with.

For a loose example a database of information about a deliberative body that uses Roberts Rules could look like:

Table: body_ids
body_id
body_name
body_description

Table: committee_ids
parent_body_id
committee_id
committee_name
committee_description

Table: motion_ids
motion_id
motion_date
motion_number
motion_type (primary, amendment, incidental, secondary, etc..)
motion_title
motion_text
motion_maker (subcommittee_id, officer_id, etc..)
motion_seconder
motion_disposition (yea, nea, table, refer, etc..)

Any ideas on the logical structure and taxonomy for a legal case documentation database would be most welcome.  Does anyone know of an open source project that already does this that I can use for an example?  What do legal researchers use?

The basic information would be, for example:

title of case
short description of case
date case was filed
what court the case is being tried in
name of judge
claim type (claim, counter claim, psj, etc..)
claim date
claim description
claim title
claim status

document name
document date
document legal type (deposition, claim, evidence, etc)
claim document is related to
document submitter? (plaintiff, defendent?)
document type (text, pdf, html)
document provider (pacer, transcribed by x, etc)
document length