Guest post by Jean O’Grady, Esq., originally published on Dewey B Strategic
Today Lex Machina is announcing the launch of “Custom Insights” functionality which will add two new high-voltage analytics tools: Caselist Analyzer and Motion Metrics to the Lex Machina platform. These interactive tools will put customized competitive insights within reach of every subscriber. I found the variety, flexibility and granularity of Lex Machina’s new offerings to be truly “breathtaking.” In a few clicks the Custom Insights reports can display interactive charts, trends and data based on highly specific criteria. Docket analytics platforms from competitors such as Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis and Bloomberg Law have allowed users to generate litigation reports based on a few standard criteria such as judge, law firm, party and cause of action. Lex Machina has enhanced Pacer data to allow deeper and more granular analysis of cases and motions. Until now these types of reports could only have been generated after days or weeks of research.
From Dockets to Big Data
There is no shortage of products selling Pacer dockets. Most are selling access to flat data, not a transformative platform for insights and iterative analysis.Lex Machina which focuses on IP litigation is about to raise the competitive stakes for lawyers and Lex Machina’s competitors in the docket analytics space.
Lex Machina which debuted in 2010 as a platform for analysing IP litigation. The Lex Machina platform combines natural language processing and machine learning. The data is further enhanced with some human curation and a healthy dose of data normalization. They use a custom taxonomy engine referred to as Lexpressions to analyse and assign tags to each docket.These tags enhance precision and retrieval .If you ever wondered whether a judge was likely to grant a “motion to transfer” or wanted to estimate the “time to trial” in specific court, Lex Machina now offers such predictive analytics and insights.More than 20 data elements can be combined to create custom reports. (Tags include:Judge, Party, Role, Law firm, Lawyer, Case type, Case status, dates of filing or termination, trial date, damages, resolution,findings, invalidity.)
The Wow Factor
Each of the new modules includes at least one ” show stopping” new feature. Case List Analyser allows you to easily create a custom list of cases based on key word criteria. These keywords are identified in the docket or the underlying complaint or motion.A search for cases involving “touch screen gestures” delivers a narrow universe of cases which deal with this very specific issue . The litigation history of these cases can be compared and analysed.
Motion Metrics offers the ability to track “Motion Chains.” This feature enables a quick review of grants and denials for a specific case.
Webinar: Lex Machina will be offering a webinar at 11am PST/ 2pm EST today.
Case List Analyzer: Key Features
- Build a strategy- select cases of interest using custom defined criteria. Then in a few clicks, create charts, expose trends using metrics law firms, judges, parties issues, damages, patent findings.
- Custom Insights for Timing (Analyze Time to Termination, Claim Construction,Hearing, and Trial, to determine how long it may take to litigate your case and set your budget.
- Custom Insights for Damages (View a breakdown of patent case damages type(e.g. Reasonable Royalties, Lost Profits) overtime, to determine the risk and how much is at stake.)
- Custom Insights for Case Resolutions (Review the resolution of selected terminated patent cases to view analytics on outcomes such as summary judgment, settlement, voluntary dismissal.)
- Custom Insights for Patent Findings (View a breakdown of each finding of infringement, invalidity, or enforceability and analyze trends in those case histories)
Motion Metrics maps each motion in selected cases to determine outcomes.
- Track Motion Chains. Compare motion success by judge, party, or motion type, Examine motion chains and access the underlying documents.
- Judges History Determine which kinds of motions a judge tends to grant or deny
- Assess opponents motions history and patterns in cases similar to your own to develop a “motion strategy.”
Today IP Tomorrow the World?
Lex Machina does plan to expand beyond IP. Next up they plan to tackle the 80,000 commercial litigation cases filed in the US.
As firms become more focused on understanding the cost of litigation and competitive pricing issues, Lex Machina is positioning itself to address one of the biggest pain points for law firms.Lex Machina’s new Custom Insights tools will be raising the bar for both law firms and Lex Machina’s competitors. We may be witnessing the opening volley in a competitive analytics “war” where established players and upstarts like Lex Machina vie for a foothold on the litigator’s desktop.
[Lex Machina’s press release was originally reproduced below and has been omitted]