“There are two kinds of people in the world. Those with loaded guns and those that dig. You dig”.
Blondie to Tuco in the 1966 movie, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The increased number and sophistication of litigation analytical programs calls to mind the above line from one of my favorite movies, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. In the movie, the line sums up the obvious advantage a character holding a loaded gun (Blondie, played by Clint Eastwood) over a character with an unloaded one (Tuco, played by Eli Wallach). To paraphrase Blondie, there will soon be two types of litigators in this world: those who use litigation analytics and those who, well…dig. For those who use analytics, its a good time to be a litigator.
Three recent announcements in the field show just how sophisticated litigation analytical programs are getting. And how the litigation world– for those who use them–will be revolutionized. In general, litigation analytical programs allow litigators to access data and information that it would previously take them hours and hours of expensive digging to obtain. Which meant that it was often cost prohibitive. In many situations, the information simply couldn’t be found or accessed. All too often, the lawyer or legal professional didn’t know where to look.
Context Attorney Analytics
First, on March 1, LexisNexis announced the launch of Context Attorney Analytics. This product is the fifth module of its litigation analytics Context platform (the platform includes similar programs entitled Judge Analytics, Attorney Analytics, Court Analytics, Expert Analytics, and Company Analytics). Context Attorney Analytics tracks records of more than one million attorneys. It can then connect their argument activity with actual written judicial opinions. This, in turn, can enable attorneys to build their own arguments by anticipating and