The Lex Machina team is excited to launch Legal Analytics for litigation in the federal courts of appeals. Federal appellate litigation includes all of the civil cases that are heard by all 13 federal courts of appeals. It is a crucial piece of the litigation landscape in which transparency and understanding are critical. 

Our federal appellate dataset adds all civil cases, docket entries, and documents filed in the 13 circuit courts of appeals since 2012, which joins the existing federal district court dataset of all civil cases filed since 2009 (excluding social security and prisoner rights cases). Consisting of approximately 390,000 federal appellate cases, 70% of which originated from federal district court, Lex Machina’s federal appellate data provides crucial data-driven insights on judges, law firms, attorneys, and parties across the span of federal district and federal appellate courts.

Lex Machina’s federal appellate analytics incorporates notable features such as filters for 17 case resolutions (e.g., Affirmed, Reversed, Dismissal, Likely Settlement) to understand the final result of an appellate case, including the effects of rehearings and Supreme Court decisions. It also incorporates grant rates for three appealability rulings (Certificate of Appealability, Petition for Review, and Permission to Appeals), including tags and filters to discover these cases and documents. In addition, it provides filters for the originating courts, venues, practice areas (all 18), and judges, including comparative reversal rates. The inclusion of these unique parameters enables users to find the most relevant information and analytics quickly and easily.

With our new federal appellate analytics, you can quickly and efficiently discover insights such as:

  • Judge Gee has a reversal rate of 19% out of 161 cases, lower than the median reversal rate for judges in the C.D.Cal. which is 29%.
  • For the five-year period from 2017 to 2021, the 2nd Circuit granted Permissions to Appeal 57% of the time (in 110 cases).
  • While it takes a median of 159 days for a case to terminate in the 5th Circuit, for Consumer Protection cases appealed to the 5th Circuit, it takes a median of 175 days.
  • For the three-year period from 2019 to 2021, the top three counsel that represented appellants in the highest number of appeals in Employment cases were: Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart; Littler Mendelson; and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
  • The appellant won in 9% of appealed cases, while 10% of appealed cases were resolved in likely settlement and 33% of appealed cases were resolved on procedural grounds.

Lex Machina allows users to filter by a myriad of different parameters in order to find the most relevant cases. These filters include:

  • Case Tags – Panel Rehearing Granted, Rehearing En Banc Granted, SCOTUS Decision, Writ of Certiorari Granted
  • Circuit Judges – all judges on the federal appeals courts
  • Customizable Reversal Rates – reversal rates of all district court judges, which can be compared against each other or the district court median reversal rate
  • Appeals Resolutions – Appellant Win (Affirmed/Reversed in Part, Reversed, Granted (Other), Appealability Granted), Appellee Win (Affirmed, Denied (Other), Appealability Denied), Likely Settlement, Procedural (Dismissal, Remand, Transfer, Other Ruling, Consolidation)
  • Supreme Court Decisions – Affirmed by SCOTUS, Reversed by SCOTUS, Affirmed / Reversed in Part by SCOTUS
  • Appealability Rulings – Appealability Ruling, Certificate of Appealability: Grant, Certificate of Appealability: Deny, Petition for Review: Grant, Petition for Review: Deny, Permission to Appeal: Grant, Permission to Appeal: Deny

Depending on your subscription, users can access the federal appellate data now.

To learn more, contact our sales team.