Yesterday (July 21), Thomson Reuters announced that it added another generative AI tool to Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel. The new tool, called Claims Explorer, will enable legal professionals to enter the facts of their case into the platform. Claims Explorer will then identify potential applicable claims or counterclaims.
From experience, making sure you have know of and plead all applicable claims takes time and carries the risk of missing failing to plead good claims. While failing to plead one or more claims will not be fatal early in the lawsuit, it can lead to embarrassing requests to amend. These requests don’t make the lawyer look good to their client or even their adversary. Later in the litigation, it can be fatal if the claims become time-barred or leave to amend is denied. So this tool if it does what Thomson Reuters says, it can be quite valuable.
Finding claims with traditional research methods can be difficult and time-consuming
Why Claims Explorer
In making the announcement, Mike Dahn, head of Westlaw Product Management at Thomson Reuters, reiterated these points: “Finding claims with traditional research methods can be difficult and time-consuming. Even experienced lawyers can miss applicable claims. Customers have told us about the difficulty of claims research for years, and it’s not just that it can take hours – it’s error-prone, which is easy to see in how often reputable firms attempt to add new claims or counterclaims later in the litigation, after the initial pleadings. But courts won’t always allow you to add a claim later, and missing the best claims can have significant consequences. It can mean the difference between winning or losing a motion, recovering more in damages or attorney’s fees, or potentially losing a case.”
Thomson Reuters claims that the tool will do more
