The recent expansion by Lex Machina marks a significant augmentation of its litigation analytics platform. By integrating an additional 500,000 federal district court cases, Lex Machina now encompasses virtually every civil case filed in U.S. federal district courts. This enlargement excludes only prisoner petitions due to their limited commercial relevance for the platform’s clientele of law firms and corporations. More detailed information on this development can be found on LawNext.
Previously, Lex Machina concentrated its analytics on 22 major practice areas, prioritizing federal cases within those categories. The recent enhancement fills the gap by including the remaining 15% of district court cases not previously covered. Carla Rydholm, the general manager and head of product at Lex Machina, highlights that this milestone enables the platform to offer comprehensive insights into every commercially relevant case.
This update significantly broadens the platform’s utility, allowing legal professionals to conduct analyses across all federal cases. Users can now juxtapose analytics without pre-selecting a case type, offering deep dives into data via filters on courts, judges, counsel, and parties. Beyond the 22 primary practice domains, the platform has also introduced five additional categories—admiralty/maritime, forfeiture/penalty, FOIA, immigration, and RICO. Cases outside these areas receive a federal nature-of-suit code from the original filing.
Lex Machina, now integrated with the Lexis+ legal research platform owned by LexisNexis, promises a holistic view of federal court analytics, enhancing its analytical coverage from 85% to 100%. This completeness is crucial for evaluating outcomes, damages, and other vital metrics. The company’s robust data processing ensures the information is meticulously curated for accurate analysis, empowering legal entities to explore analytics concerning judges, courts, law firms, attorneys, and parties, along with outcomes such as case resolutions, timings, damages, findings, remedies, and motion metrics.
Since its origin as a 2006 Stanford Law School research project focused on patent cases, Lex Machina has continually evolved. Post its acquisition by LexisNexis in 2015, the platform has diversified to include more practice areas, state courts, and additional analytical features like federal courts of appeal analytics and the Litigation Footprint tool. With the addition of the latest case traunch, Lex Machina’s analytics now span over 3.7 million federal district civil cases across 17.5 million documents.
Accompanying this expansion are updated tools and novel features that Lex Machina claims add depth and nuance to its offerings. The “Custom Columns” feature facilitates streamlined report creation and sharing, while the “Findings Search” function assists users in pinpointing findings within specific practice areas that align with their own cases and practices.