LexisNexis will in 2019 launch a UK analytics solution that will enable lawyers for the first time to analyse the language of judges to help argue their cases, we can reveal. The solution will be a spin-off from Context, which only became available in the US in the third week of September and which combines the capability of Ravel Analytics (after Lexis’ acquisition of Ravel Law in June 2017), Lexis Advance and the former Lexis Litigation Profile Suite.
Unlike Lex Machina, Lexis’ flagship analytics tool that mines the metadata contained within vast quantities of public dockets, Context examines in great detail the language used by judges, including the cases they cite.
Speaking to Legal IT Insider, Lexis’ vice president of product management, Jeff Pfeifer told us: “Context allows people to analyse language to make informed decisions.
“By mining the data, we can isolate the argument the judge will find most persuasive. Judges generally apply the law consistently and we can say ‘in more than 100 motion types, the judge has ruled this way on a motion to dismiss’ and we can see if the motion was granted, partially granted or denied and what the rationale was.
“The next level of citation analytics looks at what language does she cite. For example, she cites Adams v Johnson 37 times, or repeats it at every instance. So, from that you may conclude that your case is unlikely to be persuasive.”
While in the UK case law is not as widely available as it is on PACER, Lexis has long been curating case law within Lexis Library and it is here that the language analytics capability will become available, whether that be as a separate product or baked into Lexis Library itself.
Lexis is planning to launch Context in Canada in early Q1 2019 and will then focus on the UK, which significantly trails behind the US in terms of its ability to use analytics to help guide decision making within the litigation process. Pfeifer said: “We spend tens of millions of dollars collecting data and we enrich it and add value and that differentiates it from other data available. It’s labour intensive.”
He adds: “We’re working at the intersection of law and human behaviour. When we talk to judges, they say ‘I tell you what to argue – the roadmap is in the judgment.’”
In the US, Context extends that analytical capability to expert witnesses, where Lexis has refined its language recognition capability and applied it to much bigger data sets.
Pfeifer said: “We’ve been collecting expert data for a while. We can say ‘this expert was either admitted or fully or partially excluded, and work out what has the judge said about his appearance. It’s very difficult to get this information and there have been no good sources until now. If you’re trying to impeach you can see if the expert has been challenged before and the reason for that.”
But while expert witness analytics is likely to form part of the product release in Canada, the UK will have to wait a bit longer.
The release is part of a big play by Lexis to dominate the analytics scene and it’s doing a good job. Seventy of the top 100 US law firms now use Lex Machina as well as “dozens” of corporates.
In the run up to ILTA Lexis released a suite of practice area focussed tools under the brand Lexis Analytics, dividing its analytics offering into three pillars: litigation, regulatory and transactional, leveraging the analytical firepower of Ravel, Lex Machina and Intelligize.
Transactional analytics offerings include Intelligize and a new offering, Lexis Search Advantage | Transactional Powered By Intelligize, which applies contract analytics to in-house and law firm document collections. Pfeifer said: “Lexis Analytics is a map of analytics that is applicable no matter what area of law you work in.
NB: Since we had this conversation with Jeff at ILTA, Lexis has appointed Danielle McCormick as UK director of solutions. You can read about her appointment in our interview here: http://legaltechnology.com//latest-news/lexis-appoints-former-lawyer-as-new-director-of-solutions/
See also:
http://legaltechnology.com//latest-news/access-to-justice-and-the-urgent-need-for-a-law-tech-revolution/