Court dockets in the age of data analytics

In law, data analytics applications are growing across all areas of practice, especially litigation and court dockets. Litigation is risky and expensive. Courts are limited resources. These two factors combined have created demand for the predictive value and time-saving efficiencies of data analytics.

Court data analytics for clients

Litigation is expensive, time-consuming and risky, which is why companies generally explore all options before pursuing legal action. Business clients welcome any tools or other solutions to reduce the time and expense of discovery. More critically, they want to understand previous judicial decisions and outcomes of similar cases to help them determine whether to pursue legal action.

Court data analytics for lawyers

Court docket analytics give attorneys an efficient, viable means to monitor and assess judge profiles and prior decisions, win rates, time to decision and other information that can help them predict possible outcomes and better advise clients. By tapping into this data, savvy lawyers can expand their thinking and gain more time and energy to plan and develop their litigation strategy.

Court data analytics for legal researchers

Human research time is another limited resource. Large volumes of unstructured legal data and background information are being created every day, with each new case adding more to be considered. And sometimes an old or obscure case is the best support for an argument. Aided by data analytics, the discovery process goes faster, freeing up researcher time to focus on and assess the most relevant information or to move on to other information needs.

Court data analytics for government

Courts are taxpayer-funded resources, and most taxpayers prefer their tax burden to be as low as possible and their tax dollars invested in something other than courts and jails. For example, Brexar County in Texas was facing a chronic problem of overcrowded jails. Rather than build a bigger jail, the county looked at ways to make court docketing more efficient, turning to data analytics to streamline the process, enabling the county to better manage the inmate population. And the data analytics solution cost far less than the estimated $350 million to build a new jail.

Court data analytics solutions

Following are some of the leading litigation data analytics technologies available today for monitoring and analyzing court dockets.

LexisNexis CourtLink

As part of the LexisNexis family, CourtLink is the choice of many firms for that reason alone. CourtLink allows you to set court docket watches for case alerts and access to records from civil and federal courts for intelligence on judges, expert witnesses, opposing counsel and more, based on prior performance in state and federal courts. Pricing depends on a number of factors, including features and applicable discounts.

Court Wire on Westlaw

Court Wire offers reporter-driven added value by parent company Thomson Reuters reporters who monitor and collect new cases as they are filed around the country, for pre-docket alerts and a synopsis of key legal issues in each filing. Related products to round out the offering include Dockets on Westlaw, Court Express and Practitioner Insights. Plans and pricing depend on content modules, number of users and other factors.

Bloomberg Litigation Intelligence Center

Highlights of Bloomberg’s offering includes Bloomberg Law Dockets coverage with search, track and alerts on a comprehensive library of published and unpublished court opinions, Bloomberg News and select Bloomberg BNA Law Reports and litigation tools that include Litigation Analytics, BCite, Docket Key search, Points of Law and Smart Code. As with the other major legal research suite providers, plans and pricing depend on a number of factors.

Fastcase and DocketAlarm

Fastcase incorporates patented data analysis tools and data visualization that marries legal research with web search and big data. It has been voted the most popular legal application in the ABA Technology Survey. In January 2018, Fastcase acquired New York-based start-up DocketAlarm, which offers search and tracking capabilities for many jurisdictions. Along with an extensive litigation record library, DocketAlarm implements machine learning and natural language processing. FastCase pricing depends on the chosen plan level.

Docket Navigator

Docket Navigator is a patent litigation intelligence platform covering trademark, copyright and antitrust litigation and reporting significant events and cases. US-based legal editors curate litigation data, recording a wide variety of data types to deliver a comprehensive litigation database with enhanced analytics. In addition, Docket Navigator offers transparent pricing options for singer users and groups with no long-term contracts and the ability to cancel your subscription anytime and receive a refund for any remaining unused months.