Over the past decade, only 12K contract dispute cases awarded damages by the courts (vs. cases that settled). Legal analytics will upend this by giving attorneys unprecedented advantage in court by helping them predict the behaviors and outcomes different legal strategies will produce.
Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, announced an expansion of its award-winning Legal Analytics® platform with its new Contracts Litigation module, providing legal professionals with detailed data from more than 135,000 contracts cases pending in federal district court since 2009.
The new module expands upon Lex Machina’s former Commercial Litigation module, adding more than 45,000 non-commercial cases to the mix, including individual, class action, and government lawsuits. It also adds new data tags for improved filtering, and more analytical data, including an additional $5 billion in awarded damages. Existing subscribers to Lex Machina’s Commercial offering will receive all of these updates at no additional cost.
“The new Contracts practice area is comprised of cases where the parties are involved in a broad range of disputes centered around real or alleged broken promises and agreements,” said Karen Chadwick, the Contracts legal data expert at Lex Machina. “With its significantly expanded content, the new module has enhanced insights for contract litigators, enabling them to quickly make informed business and legal decisions and provide better counsel for their clients.”
The new Contracts Litigation module expands the analytical capabilities and insights available to attorneys. For example, attorneys can choose to analyze all “breach of contract” cases, or limit their analysis to just commercial, non-commercial, or class action contract litigation. Franchise attorneys can now gain visibility into cases involving individuals whose businesses have dissolved. Attorneys litigating contract disputes with government entities will be able to quickly find similar relevant cases by searching for a specific agency name.
Highlights from the new Contracts litigation module include:
- Findings go beyond breach of contract and include unjust enrichment, conversion, fraud, tortious interference, defamation, and breach of fiduciary duty.
- The practice area includes nearly 2,000 cases that resolved at trial and over 6,500 cases that resolved at summary judgment, over 8,000 cases at default judgment, and over 1,400 on consent judgment.
- A breach of contract claim was evaluated by the court in over 18,500 cases.
- Using a Franchise Agreement case tag, users can see about 6,500 cases relating to franchise agreement litigation, including both business and individual franchisees.
- Overall damages for the Contracts litigation module are over $2.2 billion, with over $1 billion in Class Action Settlement Damages.
- The top damages award in a Contracts case is $779 million which is an approved class action settlement.
- The top damages award in a franchise case is $69,072,258 in contracts damages awarded at summary judgment.
- The District of New Jersey ranks #1 in litigated franchise cases with 125 cases this year (16% of all franchise cases).
- The Central District of California ranks 2nd with 37 cases this year (5% of all franchise cases).
As with all practice areas on Lex Machina’s Legal Analytics platform, the new Contracts Litigation module can be used to uncover insights into case timing, resolutions, findings, damages, and remedies, as well as deliver actionable intelligence on opposing counsel, law firms, parties, judges, venues and other data that plays a critical role in determining case strategy.
About Lex Machina
Lex Machina’s award-winning Legal Analytics® platform is a new category of legal technology that fundamentally changes how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. Delivered as Software-as a-Service, Lex Machina provides strategic insights on judges, lawyers, parties, and more, mined from millions of pages of legal information. This allows law firms and companies to predict the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce, enabling them to win cases and close business.
Legal Analytics was named “Best Legal Analytics” by readers of The Recorder in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and received the “Best New Product of the Year” award in 2015 from the American Association of Law Libraries. The company was named a “Legal A.I. Leader” by The National Law Journal in 2018.
Based in Silicon Valley, Lex Machina is part of LexisNexis, a leading information provider and a pioneer in delivering trusted legal content and insights through innovative research and productivity solutions, supporting the needs of legal professionals at every step of their workflow. By harnessing the power of Big Data, LexisNexis provides legal professionals with essential information and insights derived from an unmatched collection of legal and news content—fueling productivity, confidence, and better outcomes. For more information, please visit www.lexmachina.com.
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