The gold standard of legal technology information.
See What Cases Are Really Worth and the Likelihood of Success
July 18, 2019
Today's TechnoLawyer Buyer's Guide report covers an online research service for verdicts and settlements, including new charts for quickly assessing a case's value, prevalence, and odds of success.
See What Cases Are Really Worth and the Likelihood of Success
Experienced litigators develop instincts that often serve them well. But increasingly data science can provide affirmation or prevent well-intentioned mistakes. One such area concerns damages in practice areas with highly repeatable facts such as employment law, medical malpractice, and personal injury. If a chart could help you achieve a more favorable result, wouldn't you want to take a look at it?
LexisNexis Verdict & Settlement Analyzer in One Sentence
Part of the Lexis Advance platform, LexisNexis Verdict & Settlement Analyzer recently modernized its graphs to help litigators better leverage its database of more than 1.3 million verdict and settlement documents.
The Killer Feature
The new version of LexisNexis Verdict & Settlement Analyzer stems from user feedback — namely what lawyers find most useful when formulating case strategies. This information is just a click away —simply enter search terms such as the injury at issue.
LexisNexis Verdict & Settlement Analyzer then displays three graphs — Award in US Dollars by Resolution, Number of Cases by Resolution, and Number of Cases Per Year by Resolution. The Award graph gives you a sense of how much a particular claim is worth by listing the average and median award for cases resolved by verdict, arbitration, mediation, settlement, etc. The Resolution graphs let you know how such claims are usually resolved and how prevalent in the legal system.
Filters enable you to see how this data changes for a specific time period, jurisdiction, award amount, or injury. When you select the Timeline filter, a histogram shows you whether litigation for the claim you're researching is trending up or down over time.
The Injury filter lists specific injuries within your search from most to least prevalent. For example, if you search for perforated bowel, the injuries in this filter will include death, gastrointestinal disorders, pain, organ loss, and other unpleasantries that may afflict your client. You can select any of these to see how the graphs change and drill down to access specific cases related to your client's injury by resolution type.
The graphs in LexisNexis Verdict & Settlement Analyzer help you assess the value of claims.
Other Notable Features
You can search within a search. Start with an injury and then add facts, a frequent defendant, economic or punitive damages, etc. When you find exactly what you need, save your search and set up an email alert for notifications about new settlements or verdicts.
While the graphs provide a helpful snapshot, you'll also want to review the most relevant cases. Click a graph to read the underlying case summaries. Use the filters to narrow the list. Checkboxes enable you to save the cases most of interest, including any court opinions (if you start your search in Lexis Advance, it'll let you know which opinions have accompanying information in LexisNexis Verdict & Settlement Analyzer).
LexisNexis Verdict & Settlement Analyzer gives you several export options so that you can use the information in a memo or presentation. You can export the graphs, case summaries, and/or documents in a variety of formats. For example, you can export a graph in PDF format or its data in Excel format.
What Else Should You Know?
Most of the data in LexisNexis Verdict & Settlement Analyzer is proprietary but it also draws from a variety of vendors. LexisNexis de-duplicates the data to ensure that no case comprises more than one datapoint on the graphs. Explore LexisNexis Verdict & Settlement Analyzer and bookmark the website.
Generate Complex Documents in Minutes Rather Than Hours
Law firms with contingency-based practices such as personal injury, malpractice, and mass tort may find that generic practice management software requires significant customization to meet their needs. But why spend so much time and effort customizing when you could instead use a product tailor-made for such purposes? Filevine is cloud practice management software that initially focused on plaintiffs firms but has since broadened its reach …
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 the only email subscription they need. 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.
