Bloomberg Law has announced launch the Brief Analyzer product which they previewed shrouded in much intrigue during 
the American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting last July. According to the press release the Brief Analyzer reduces the amount of time it takes to analyze a brief by at least 25%, based on feedback from 80% of beta testers. As with all Bloomberg Law enhancements, the Analyzer will be available to all subscribers at no additional charge.
The Brief Analyzer can be used to analyze a brief during the drafting process or to expose weaknesses in an adversaries brief. Here are the key features:
· Users drag and drop or upload a brief, and within minutes Brief Analyzer displays the brief and analysis in a side-by-side comparison.
· Brief Analyzer uses the content of each securely uploaded brief to pull multiple types of materials – including dockets, caselaw, and secondary sources – from the Bloomberg Law platform.
· It leverages Bloomberg Law’s cutting-edge legal research tools including Points of Law, Smart Code and Docket Key to provide suggested content, drawing from a database of more than 3 million briefs.
· Notably, Brief Analyzer includes reasons for suggested content, explaining why these suggestions are relevant to the argument.
Making the Black Box Transparent. Brief analysis tools in general have a rather “black box – trust me” feel to them at first blush. It is a really smart move for Bloomberg Law’s analyzer to display the reason why the any case is being suggested. Lawyers are known to be skeptical and they are responsible in the end regarding of what any tool recommends – so making the reasons for a recommendation transparent will build credibility and adoption.
“Brief Analyzer is a complete workflow solution,” said Joe Breda, president of Bloomberg Law. “It expedites the time-consuming task of reviewing and researching briefs, pulling together the best of Bloomberg Law’s content in an easy-to-consume format in seconds and freeing up attorneys’ time.”
Check out an introductory video in the press release here:
The Brief Analysis Market Heats Up – Casetext launched the first Brief analyser tool in 2016. Since that time there has been an intense competition in the space. Ross launched Eva, vLex launched Vince, Thomson Reuters launched Quick Check. LexisNexis is reported to be launching their brief analyzer in the near future. Just as the library community has been scrutinizing the performance of products in the legal analytics space, I expect a new wave of studies comparing the performance of the products in the brief analysis market. These products require a level of trust and unbiased comparisons of all the players and each products specialized features will serve to enahnce confidence in algorithms driving these tools.
