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Flip the Script on Product Liability Research
December 21, 2020
Today's TechnoLawyer Buyer's Guide report covers a new research service that finds everything a product liability practitioner needs from just one search, including relevant cases, recalls, product reports, regulations, experts, verdicts and settlements, and more.
Flip the Script on Product Liability Research and Get Everything You Need in Less Time From Just One Search
A simple search box is not always the optimal solution when it comes to legal research. LexisNexis recently surveyed more than 300 legal professionals about their research workflow for product liability cases. Many expressed frustration with traditional open-ended searches that generate overly broad or narrow results, requiring a series of revisions. LexisNexis set out to build a better way to conduct product liability research.
Lexis Product Liability Navigator in One Sentence
Lexis Product Liability Navigator is a new research service that uses proprietary algorithms to find everything a product liability practitioner needs from just one search, including relevant cases, recalls, product reports, regulations, experts, verdicts and settlements, and more.
The Killer Feature
Jason Tortorici, a founding partner at Schilleci & Tortorici, is one of the litigators who provided feedback to LexisNexis. "Lexis Product Liability Navigator cut my research time in half," he says. "I have it all right at my fingertips."
Tortorici is referring to the four search fields at the top of Lexis Product Liability Navigator — Product Type, Product Name, Manufacturer, and Jurisdiction. You must enter a product type. The other fields are optional.
This search interface takes advantage of the commonalities across all product liability investigations and lawsuits — they always involve a product category and within that category a specific product made by a manufacturer.
Traditional searches present a list of results to scroll because they search only one content type as a time such as case law. By contrast, Lexis Product Liability Navigator runs the equivalent of 19 searches simultaneously and displays the results in a dashboard called Product Overview. Here you'll see the number of cases, regulations, recalls, verdicts and settlements, expert witnesses, and multidistrict lawsuits that your search turned up. Click any dashboard section or use the tabs at the top of the page to view specific search results.
By default, Lexis Product Liability Navigator employs a new algorithm called No Fail Searching. This technology eliminates getting zero results by automatically dropping the lowest ranked field — typically a product name without any litigation or regulatory history — and then rerunning the search.
No Fail Searching flips the script on legal research. Instead of starting broad and then wasting time searching within the results or adding Boolean operators to narrow the results, you start narrow and let the algorithm instantly broaden your search until it generates relevant results. With a single click, you can restore or drop terms or turn off this feature.
The Product Overview dashboard in Lexis Product Liability Navigator offers immediate insights about a product and one-click access to relevant case law, regulations, recalls, experts, and more.
Other Notable Features
Each dashboard category lets you know which of your search terms they contain and which they lack, the latter indicated by a strikethrough. You can click on these Chips as they're called to turn them on or off and change the search results. For more fine-tuning, a panel on the left offers options such as related product topics, theories of liability, affirmative defenses, and injury types (see the screenshot above).
The Verdicts & Settlements section of the dashboard features a bar chart showing the damages you can expect. This chart changes in real time as you change the search results. This can help you make a quick decision to take a potentially lucrative case.
The expert witnesses listed derive from the verdicts and settlements data. You can see their curriculum vitae, which parties hired them, the number of cases they worked on and when, and the products they have testified about.
What Else Should You Know?
Both Lexis+ and Lexis users can add Lexis Product Liability Navigator to their subscription. "Lexis Product Liability Navigator is a powerful solution that addresses the unique needs of litigators practicing product liability law," says Sean Fitzpatrick, CEO of LexisNexis North America. "The workflow-based solution illuminates the risks or rewards of a case and saves time and resources on case assessment."
Neil J. Squillante is the founder and publisher of TechnoLawyer, an award-winning network of free email newsletters for lawyers and law office administrators. Many consider TechnoLawyer newsletters the only ones they need. A Fastcase 50 award winner, Neil has a long track record of inventing successful advertising and publishing technologies and related best practices. Previously, Neil practiced commercial litigation at Am Law 100 firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher. He received his J.D. from UCLA School of Law and his B.A. from Duke University. At UCLA, Neil served as a Managing Editor of UCLA Law Review.
