Announcements

The Lex Machina team is excited about the launch of our ERISA litigation module. This brings Legal Analytics to one of the most complex practice areas in the U.S. District Courts. The new module helps attorneys navigate the complexities surrounding disputes over ERISA-protected Life, Health, Disability, Pension, Retirement, and Other Employee Benefit Plans. Practitioners can analyze the over 80,000 cases pending since 2009 to see how judges, parties, or law firms perform in ERISA litigation. […]

Lex Machina is pleased to announce the launch of our module for Product Liability litigation.  This launch more than doubles the number of cases in the Lex Machina system, and brings legal analytics to one of the largest practice areas in the U.S. District Courts. Practitioners can analyze the nearly 500,000 cases pending since 2009 to see how judges, parties, or law firms have behaved in litigation.  This data can not only help in-house lawyers identify winning outside counsel or help a law firm pitch it’s experience, but can also help lawyers on both sides make better strategic and tactical decisions during litigation.  From detailed metrics on motions practice, to case timing and budgeting, legal analytics can provide edge over the competition. Lex Machina’s Product Liability (PL) module includes access to case tags that identify key subjects within the larger practice area:  medical devices / pharmaceutical (61% of the PL cases pending since 2009), Asbestos (28%), Vehicles (1.7%) and Aircraft (less than 1%).    These tags allow practitioners to easily filter down to viewing only cases that are similar and relevant.  When combined with other filters for party, law firm, lawyer, or judge involvement, the tags provide more accurate insight [...]

Lex Machina is pleased to announce the launch of our offering for Bankruptcy Appeals in District Court.  With this launch, practitioners can, for the first time ever, get hard quantitative data on how parties, law firms, and judges perform on bankruptcy appeals.   Practitioners, especially bankruptcy court specialists, facing an unfamiliar district judge in an appeal can research the prior experience of the judge, seeing what issues they have encountered in past cases, and whether they’ve upheld the Bankruptcy court on those issues.  Companies can find counsel who have a winning record on the issues that matter most, as well as using data on the expected duration of an appeal to refine budgeting. With over 17,900 cases in our database and detailed information on the issues decided in those appeals, Lex Machina gives practitioners an edge over the competition.  For example, on a national level, judges are far more likely to affirm the bankruptcy court’s decision (30% of cases, shown as Claim Defendant Win below) than they are to reverse, remand, or vacate (7%, shown as Claimant Win below).  Regardless of which side of an appeal one is on, knowing whether the District Court judge has contributed to that 30% [...]

In October, Lex Machina wrapped up its annual two-day company retreat. As a running tradition, Owen Byrd, Chief Evangelist & General Counsel, challenged the company with a community kindness outreach project, to make a difference with $100. The members of the Lex Machina team were divided into groups of four with a mission to spend $100 and to contribute 4 hours of time delivering random acts of kindness in our local community. Some of the projects included donating to the Menlo Park Public Library to buy more books for the community, spending time and donating to the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula, bring high protein foods to Second Harvest in Redwood City such as canned tuna, canned stew, and peanut butter, donating to Project WeHOPE, delivering cupcakes and coffee to the Menlo Park Senior Citizens Center with the remaining cash being donated for home cooked meals at the center, and donating to the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County. We truly appreciated the open arms of the staff at all of the organizations we visited. Their passion and excitement about the programs they are running will resonate with our team as we continue to be involved with our community.

Lex Machina’s new Comparator Apps, launched earlier today, make it easier than ever before to analyze up to four different courts, judges, or law firms side-by-side, on a single page, and all within seconds.             The Law Firms Comparator simplifies the business decision of which law firm to hire, helping in-house counsel compare key factors like win-rate, previous experience, case timing, and damages history across the different law firms. Lawyers at firms can easily size up their competition, and those in business development can find new ways to tout their firm’s success. For those more involved in the practice of law, the Courts & Judges Comparator helps lawyers make informed decisions among different judicial districts. Plaintiffs can assess how their chances of success vary across districts, and defendants can determine how transfer to different venues compares with remaining before the judge they have. This blog post will explore three examples that demonstrate how these apps can help lawyers make more effective decisions when hiring outside counsel or selecting a venue. 1.     The business of law: company evaluates outside counsel (or counsel evaluating competition) Companies looking to “lawyer up” can now easily compare the records of [...]

Owen Byrd, Lex Machina’s Chief Evangelist and General Counsel, and the Lex Machina team had a great time speaking with our customers as well as new and old friends at the Bay Area and Chicago Legal Analytics Luncheons this month. During the luncheons, Owen presented trends and insights on patent, copyright, trademark and securities litigation data from Lex Machina's Legal Analytics platform.  He brought to the groups’ attention a noteworthy trend observed in the Eastern District of Texas.  In Q2 2016 there was an uptick in its proportion of total new filings to 37% against Q1 (30%). In comparison, in 2015, the district had 43% of the patent cases filed. Don’t miss the Legal Analytics luncheon in your city!  Click here to see all cities and dates for the Legal Analytics Tour.

Lex Machina is proud to announce that our Legal Analytics platform is now extended to  securities litigation.  For the first time, practitioners in this area now have the ability to analyze legal data, helping them to win clients and cases.  From showcasing experience with judges and districts in client pitches (or sizing up a law firm’s experience), to outcome data helpful for estimating risk, a data-driven approach provides a new universe of facts helpful to your cases and to your business.    This blog post focuses on a small subset of Lex Machina’s securities litigation data, the 932 securities cases terminating last year (in 2015).  We will analyzes those cases in four parts, looking first at where the cases are filed and which judges hear them, next at which parties file the cases and which firms handle them, then at the findings and resolutions of those cases, and concluding with a short analysis of the damages awards from those cases.  While the conclusions drawn in this post have value from looking at the industry as a whole, Legal Analytic’s real power lies the ability to find the data that most closely fits your particular circumstance - something no static report [...]