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Get Inside the Heads of Experts and Judges Using Their Own Historical Data

By Neil J. Squillante | Sunday, December 16, 2018

Today's TL NewsWire Hot Product enables you to analyze the historical record of experts and judges to inform your case strategy, including an expert's track record on Daubert challenges and citations your judge prefers (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to many previous TL NewsWire Hot Products, including cloud billing software for solos and small firms with new trust accounting and other billing productivity tools. Don't miss the next issue of TL NewsWire.

Everyone engages in mind reading. It's human nature. But it's not a good idea when it comes to the expert witnesses and the judges in your cases. You're much better off analyzing actual data.

Context in One Sentence

Context on Lexis Advance is a new litigation analytics product that enables you to visualize and leverage the historical record of experts and judges to draft better arguments.

The Killer Feature

Context grew out of Ravel Law, which LexisNexis acquired in 2017. Ravel Law garnered attention for its judge analytics offering, enabling lawyers to get inside the head of a judge before starting a legal research project.

With access to the vast store of legal knowledge on Lexis Advance, including more than 380,000 expert witness profiles, the Ravel Law team has achieved a breakthrough they call "case-law language analytics" -- the ability to transform unstructured documents into actionable data.

This has paved the way for Expert Analytics. Search for an expert and Context displays a dashboard with charts showing that expert's case volume by year, area of law, and jurisdiction, and another chart showing the hiring party breakdown. You'll also find current and past curricula vitae, contact information, and more.

Click the Analytics tab and you see the practical results of case-law language analytics. The Challenges Outcome Analysis chart lists the expert's Daubert challenge history, including the percent of testimony admitted, admitted in part, and excluded. An accompanying table lists each case, the basis of the challenge (methodology, qualification, relevance, or procedural), and the outcome. To the right, you'll find the corresponding court opinions for exploring these challenges in more depth.

"A resource like Context enables an attorney to better strategize," says Diana Witt, Director of Library Services at Akerman LLP. "Leveraging its analytics increases the probability of winning a case."

Other Notable Features

Context also brings case-law language analytics to bear on judges with Judge Analytics. After entering the name of your judge, the dashboard provides the judge's biography, contact information, etc. High-level charts break out opinion volume by year and area of law.

The Analytics tab takes you to the judge's Motion Outcomes chart, which compiles the percentage of motions granted, granted in part, and denied by 100 different motion types. You can filter by area of law, court, and motion type. Click on the type of motion that interests you and Context lists the applicable court opinions and outcomes.

Context also provides Citation Patterns for the judge you're researching. This means you can cite opinions in your brief that your judge is likely to find persuasive. A chart lists the judges most frequently cited by your judge (including self-citations). Cards that resemble those in Lexis Answers group related citations by point of law and display the key language from each case for you to copy and paste into your brief.

What Else Should You Know?

"With a few keystrokes, Context delivers the critical insights and analysis attorneys need to more quickly and successfully prepare their cases for court," says Jeff Pfeifer, Vice President of Product Management. "When attorneys know what specific language a judge regularly uses, or how well an expert's testimony will stand up to judicial scrutiny, they are empowered to argue more persuasively and effectively on behalf of their clients. Only Context delivers this level of insight, right from the very start of the litigation process." Explore Context on Lexis Advance and bookmark the website.

About TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. Each week, TL NewsWire reports on the hottest new products for lawyers and law office administrators. The innovative structure of TL NewsWire articles enable you to quickly understand each product's value proposition, and then zero in on its killer feature and other notable attributes. In each issue, you can easily revisit our back catalog of articles and the most recent TL NewsWire Top 25 Products Awards. Subscribe to TL NewsWire.

Topics: Legal Research | Litigation/Discovery/Trials | TL NewsWire
 
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