Lex Machina Brings Powerful Legal Analytics to Insurance Litigators

Data analysis illuminates critical decision-making elements, such as case timing, resolutions, damages, and track records of opposing counsel, parties, and judges

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Lex Machina

Aug 07, 2018, 08:00 ET

MENLO PARK, Calif., Aug. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today announced the eleventh expansion of its award-winning Legal Analytics® platform, which now covers insurance litigation. The new module encompasses more than 92,200 cases pending in federal court since 2009 that involve disputes between an insurer and a policyholder, a beneficiary, or another insurer asserting the rights of a policyholder. Insurance cases represent the third-largest case set on the Legal Analytics platform, with court-awarded damages totaling nearly $2.8 billion.

The Insurance Litigation module provides valuable data-driven insights and trends to help litigators successfully prepare case strategies, and counsel their clients. It covers a broad spectrum of policy types, including homeowners, automobile, life, commercial liability, professional liability, uninsured/underinsured motorists, health, disability income, and many more, with the exception of Medicare, Social Security and ERISA claims. The module focuses solely on insurance cases (including class actions) that were litigated in Federal District Court, in which parties that reside in different states dispute claims involving more than $75,000.

As part of the product development process, Lex Machina interviewed experienced insurance litigators and insurance industry insiders to better understand the intricacies of insurance litigation and incorporated their feedback directly into the new offering. As a result, Lex Machina has added 50 insurance case tags and annotations that enable attorneys to focus on the most relevant cases and filter out others – such as hurricane-related cases – that could skew the results. The new module illuminates the track records of opposing counsel and parties in these cases, the experience and behaviors of judges, and other critical factors, such as case timing, findings and damages, which play a critical role in determining case strategy.

"Whether you're battling against an entrenched and well-capitalized insurance company or defending against a steady stream of litigation, Legal Analytics provides insurance litigators with critical insights that help them identify potential outcomes and make data-driven decisions," said Owen Byrd, General Counsel and Chief Evangelist at Lex Machina. "Having accurate and compelling data on case timing, resolutions, damages, judicial behaviors, and the opposition's track record, enables attorneys to counsel clients on whether it would be more beneficial to settle quickly or dig in for a potentially protracted lawsuit."

With Legal Analytics for Insurance Litigation, attorneys can now see all federal insurance cases in one place to help them prepare for cases – including those outside their familiar jurisdiction. Using the case tags and filters, attorneys can drill down into Lex Machina's data to answer specific insurance litigation questions such as: "In which cases did insurers win in California because they had no duty to indemnify?" or "How often have claimants won a case because the insurer acted in bad faith?" Legal Analytics is the only platform that incorporates these unique filters into its offering.

Among the 50 new insurance-related case tags added to Legal Analytics are:

Forty-two new Findings, including: Duty to Defend, Duty to Indemnify, Bad Faith, Insurer Negligence, Policy Exclusion, Failure to Pay Premium, Insured Fraud, Unjust Enrichment, Estoppel/ Waiver and more
Seven insurance damage types: Contract Damages, Restitution, Tort Damages, Emotional Distress Damages, Enhanced Damages, Punitive Damages and Approved Class Action Settlement
Two Insurance Remedies: Rescission and Reformation

With the launch of its insurance module, Lex Machina has already uncovered interesting historical insights into insurance litigation, including:

There are 15,691 cases involving insurance claims for damage caused by hurricanes; 14,459 of these cases are terminated.
73% of Federal insurance cases that have terminated settled before trial. The median time to summary judgment of all terminated insurance cases was 429 days.
Summary Judgment was granted to claim defendants in 7% of terminated cases and to claimants in 2% of terminated cases.
In cases that had a trial, claimants and claim defendants each won about 1% of the time.
The Eastern District of Louisiana has seen the most insurance cases overall (7,527 cases, or 8%); however, when hurricane-related cases are removed, E.D. La. drops out of the top five (1,124 cases or 1.2%).

Webcast on Legal Analytics for Insurance Litigation
For more information about Lex Machina's newest practice area, please register here http://pages.lexmachina.com/Webcast_Insurance-Launch_LP-banner.html for the Legal Analytics for Insurance Litigation webcast on August 9 at 10:00am PDT. Lex Machina's Owen Byrd and Ron Porter will discuss trends and insights for insurance litigation in federal court and give viewers a peek into Lex Machina's new practice area capabilities.

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.

SOURCE Lex Machina