Lex Machina Develops New Torts Module for Legal Analytics
Lex Machina Launches Federal Torts Litigation Module Enabling Practitioners To Use Legal Analytics for Data-Driven Decision Making
Menlo Park, CA — July 9, 2020 —Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today announced the expansion of its award-winning Legal Analytics® platform with its new Torts module covering nearly 200,000 cases pending in federal district court since 2009. The Torts practice area includes cases in which a party seeks compensation for loss or harm caused by personal injury or reputational harm to an individual. This harm may be caused by intentional or unintentional torts.
With nearly 200,000 cases, this practice area is particularly apt for big data analysis. The new Torts analytics revealed important trends and insights. Notably, this practice area has a significant proportion of cases that go to trial. Damage awards are also crucial analytics because of the large number of jury trials in this practice area. In cases pending 2009 or later, nearly $26 billion in damages have been awarded, including over $9.6 billion in pain and suffering damages and $9 billion in punitive damages.
This practice area encompasses issues centered around the friction of everyday life, such as slip and fall cases, car crashes, and online harassment. Torts cases include claims for medical malpractice, premises liability, motor vehicle injury, and personal injury claims including negligence, assault and battery, defamation, invasion of privacy, infliction of emotional distress, loss of consortium, and wrongful death and survival actions. Lex Machina is also tagging cases associated with three notable mass tort actions related to the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the Doe Run lead smelter in Peru.
The Torts module includes the expansion of Lex Machina’s Expert Witness Explorer app, which enables practitioners to view rulings on the admissibility of expert witness testimony and reports. Expert witnesses are particularly important in this area of the law because they often establish a duty of care, recreate accidents, and help assign fault to one party or another.
“Because these cases are so personal, making strategic decisions in this practice area takes into account a lot of factors. Having data-driven insights into the judge’s or opposing counsel’s history in this practice area is an important consideration when entering settlement negotiations or deciding to take a case to trial,” said Anne Wise Kann, Legal Data Expert at Lex Machina.
With Legal Analytics, litigators can now answer, with precision, questions such as:
- Have punitive damages been awarded in a medical malpractice suit in this court?
- Which law firms have the most experience representing plaintiffs in cases filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act?
- Has this defendant ever taken a premises liability case to trial?
- Has my judge ever found No Causation in a negligence case at summary judgment?
- Who are the top ten expert witnesses in torts cases in the Central District of Illinois? In which cases were they admitted or excluded?
Lex Machina used a combination of machine learning and attorney review to develop additional practice-specific case tags and filters. The new tags, findings, and damage awards sharpen the ability of legal professionals to quickly locate the critical information most relevant to their own cases. Legal Analytics illuminates the track records of opposing counsel and parties, the experience and behaviors of judges, case timing, resolutions, remedies, damages, and injunctions. These data-driven insights can play a critical role in helping legal professionals plan the most effective case strategy for their clients.
Webcast on Legal Analytics for Torts Litigation
For more information about Lex Machina’s new Torts Litigation module, please register here for the Legal Analytics for Torts Litigation webcast on July 9 at 9:00 am PDT. Lex Machina’s Anne Wise Kann and Dr. Dennis Stolle, President at ThemeVision, will discuss trends and insights for tort litigation in federal court and give viewers a demonstration of Lex Machina’s new practice area capabilities.
About Lex Machina
Now celebrating the 10th anniversary of Legal Analytics, the Lex Machina platform fundamentally changes how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. The company provides strategic insights on judges, lawyers, law firms, parties, and other critical information across 16 federal practice areas and select state courts. Lex Machina allows law firms and companies to predict the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce, enabling them to win cases and close business.
Legal Analytics was named “Best Decision Management Solution” (AI Breakthrough Awards, 2019) and “Disruptor of the Year” (Changing Lawyer Awards, 2019). Based in Silicon Valley, Lex Machina is part of LexisNexis, a leading global provider of legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics. For more information, please visit www.lexmachina.com.