Individual court cases, while typically drawing on similar, prior cases, are by nature unique, but despite their discrete existence, data from other cases can provide litigators with a powerful advantage. From analyzing the composition of juries to building stronger law firms and analyzing case facts, big data is changing the way litigators practice law.
Assessing Case Facts
One of the most powerful tools that modern law firms have access to are libraries of past cases that can be used to inform current arguments. Pushing practice far beyond what’s possible by looking at legal precedents, big data allows firms to use these past cases more strategically. As described by the technology firm Gartner, big data begins with low-value information (hindsight), uses those past cases to gain insights, and predicts future outcomes through a process of foresight and optimization.
Practically speaking, these technologically driven insights help lawyers understand what makes new cases different from past ones and draws on all of that data to identify the best path forward. This is in large part because, as Texas attorneys M. Scott Brown & Associates note regarding their own practice, the role of any good lawyer is to analyze factual and legal issues, look for fatal flaws. For small firms that have fewer human resources, such tools can help them compensate when they go to court against the government or large corporations.
Documentation And Devices
In addition to using retrospective data to predict future legal outcomes, the fact that even average Americans document everything about their lives “ if unintentionally “ using their personal devices, is also changing the legal landscape. Legal firms of any size can successfully mine smart devices for evidence, whether from smartphones or pacemakers. Even basic devices like FitBits contain potentially exculpatory, or incriminating, evidence. These cases will, of course, be a new horizon for privacy law, but for now, data mining is just another courtroom tool.
Battling the Big Names
Big data may be a useful and even compensatory tool for smaller law firms, but for big companies, government agencies, and even the largest firms, big data may provide an unfair advantage, over and above their financial resources. Insurance companies, for example, can use social media posts to deny claims, while others use big data to decide who they will cover in the first place. While there have always been actuaries to establish coverage norms, when an issue arrives in court, private data may be a weapon against vulnerable consumers and other end users.
The Power of Comparisons
As big data becomes more affordable, disparities will remain, but firms of all sizes will be better able to identify their own weaknesses, choose better expert witnesses, and otherwise establish themselves as more competitive participants in the legal marketplace. Complex comparisons between firms and their close competitors will allow smaller firms to make strategic hires, clarify their client base and focus, and even evaluate who they’re up against in court. Larger law firms have even used big data to identify the odds of cases being successful in front of a particular judge before they set foot in the courtroom.
Some insist that big data in law is primarily a gimmick for major law firms with a lot of money, but big data is a democratic force. Anyone can use it. As small firms learn to leverage these new tools, money may matter just a little bit less “ and that will be good for clients.
