Lex Machina Brings Data-Driven Insights to Business Litigators and Consumer Advocates with New Legal Analytics for Consumer Protection Litigation Module

More than $43 billion in damages has been awarded in consumer protection cases since 2009; Equifax, Volkswagen and Facebook among the seminal consumer protection cases

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Lex Machina

Aug 27, 2019, 09:00 ET

MENLO PARK, Calif., Aug. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today announced the 15th expansion of its award-winning Legal Analytics® platform with its new Consumer Protection Litigation module covering nearly 145,000 cases, including more than 26,000 class action lawsuits, pending in federal district court since 2009. The module helps business litigation attorneys and plaintiffs firms gain critical insights about the judges, courts, law firms, individual attorneys, and parties involved in consumer protection cases to help them make data-driven decisions, develop winning case strategies and win new business.

The new module covers two major areas: consumer finance, which includes litigation focused on debt collection practices, credit reporting, and truth in lending practices; and unfair or deceptive trade practices, which includes statutes involving fraud, deception, abuse of consumer information, consumer privacy and government enforcement actions. Consumer protection cases allege at least one of the following federal consumer protection statutes: the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Truth in Lending Act, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or a federal consumer protection enforcement statute, such as the FTC Act or Consumer Financial Protection Act.

"Consumer protection is a rapidly shifting practice area with a high volume of case filings, high-profile cases, and large proportion of class action cases. Both consumer protection laws and frameworks for existing laws are often being updated as new technology and trends emerge," said Laura Hopkins, Legal Data Expert at Lex Machina. "Lex Machina's Consumer Protection Litigation module delivers the practice-specific insights that litigators need to increase their chances for a successful outcome."

Initial data findings since 2009 show that cases alleging abuses of the Fair Debt Collection Act have declined slightly, while Truth In Lending Act cases have decreased dramatically. Conversely, cases alleging Fair Credit Reporting Act and Telephone Consumer Protection Act violations have skyrocketed. More than $43 billion in damages have been awarded in consumer protection cases. Among some of the larger, high-profile cases covered by the module includes Capital One, Equifax, Volkswagen and Facebook. Lex Machina plans to issue a comprehensive Consumer Protection Litigation Report later this year.

As with all Legal Analytics modules, Lex Machina worked closely with experienced business and consumer protection attorneys to develop practice-specific data tags and filters. These tags enable users to quickly find the most detailed, relevant information about cases that are most like theirs. Among the practice-specific new case tags, damages categories and findings include:

Case Tags: Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Fair Credit Report Act (FCRA), Truth in Lending Act (TILA), Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), FTC / CFPB Enforcement, and Unfair / Deceptive Trade Practices
Damages: Statutory Damages, Enhanced / Trebled Damages, Compensatory Damages, Punitive Damages, Restitution, Civil Money Penalties, Settled Claim Damages, and Approved Class Action Settlement
Findings: Violation Findings: FDCPA Violation, FCRA Violation, TILA Violation, TCPA Violation, Other Federal Consumer Finance Violation, State Consumer Finance Violation, Fraud, Negligence, Federal Enforcement Violation, and State UDTP Violation
Class Certification Findings: No Class Representative Standing, No Ascertainable Class, No 23(a)(1) Numerosity, No 23(a)(2) Commonality, No 23(a)(3) Typicality, No 23(a)(4) Adequate Representation, and No 23(b)(3) Predominance and Superiority
Defense Findings: Bona Fide Error Defense, Good Faith Reliance Defense
Remedies: TILA Rescission

Webcast on Legal Analytics for Consumer Protection Litigation
On August 28 at 11:00am PDT, Lex Machina will sponsor an ALM webcast entitled, "Legal Analytics for Consumer Protection Case Strategies." Panelists include Lex Machina's GC and Chief Evangelist Owen Byrd and Legal Data Expert Laura Hopkins; Jessica E. Salisbury-Copper, a partner at Thompson Hine; and Timothy P. Kingsbury, associate attorney at McGuire Law, P.C. For more information or to register please click here.

About Lex Machina
Lex Machina's award-winning Legal Analytics® platform fundamentally changes how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. The company provides strategic insights on judges, lawyers, law firms, parties, and other critical information across 15 federal practice areas and the Delaware Court of Chancery. 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" (The Recorder, 2014, 2015, 2016), "Best New Product of the Year" (American Association of Law Libraries, 2015), a "Legal A.I. Leader" (The National Law Journal, 2018), "Best Decision Management Solution" (AI Breakthrough Awards, 2019), and "Disruptor of the Year" (Changing Lawyer Awards, 2019). Based in Silicon Valley, Lex Machina is part of LexisNexis, a leading global provider of legal, regulatory and business information and analytics. For more information, please visit www.lexmachina.com.

SOURCE Lex Machina