Lex Machina Expands Employment Practice Area

Lex Machina's Employment Expansion Enhances Over 175,000 cases in Federal District Court

News provided by

May 10, 2021, 11:00 ET

MENLO PARK, Calif., May 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today announces the expansion of its award-winning Legal Analytics® platform with its updated Employment Practice Area coverage, which now encompasses state law employment claims in federal court. Previously, Lex Machina's Employment Practice Area required claims to be based in federal employment law. This expansion provides litigators with an even more comprehensive view of employment litigation in federal district court.

This expanded coverage includes a new "State Employment Claim" case tag, a new "State Statutory Penalties" damage type, and 14 new findings. By case volume, this expansion enhances over 175,000 cases. These cases include over 150,000 cases that have both federal and state law employment claims, as well as nearly 24,000 cases that contain only state law employment claims but no corresponding federal employment claim. This brings Lex Machina's Employment Practice area to over 325,000 cases.

While the majority of employment cases in federal court have both state law and federal law claims, a large number of cases with only state law employment claims are filed in or removed to federal court. Now, users can find out how often a court remands these cases back to state court and other important case strategy information before filing a notice of removal.

"Although this is a major enhancement to an existing dataset, we treated it much like a new practice area given the massive number of cases in federal court that contain state law employment claims," said Andrew Judson, Product Manager at Lex Machina. "The enhancements, particularly the new damages and findings, draw an even more precise picture of what is going on in employment litigation."

The enhancements allow users to gain even more insights into litigation strategy. Users can now explore whether a judge ruled on both federal and state law retaliation in the same case, or focus on cases containing only state law claims in their district to see how those cases resolved. This further enhances a practitioner's ability to assess the opposing counsel or party.

Analytics insights from the new dataset include:

More employment cases contain state law employment claims than cases with only federal claims (over 175,000 vs. nearly 150,000)
Looking at the top districts in overall employment cases compared to those with state law claims, the Central District of California jumped from sixth to second place as 89% of employment cases filed there contain state law claims. On the other hand, the Southern District of Florida dropped from first to fifth place as only 41% of employment cases filed there contain state law claims.
Nearly $64 million in state statutory penalties have been awarded in cases filed 2010 or later.
As with federal claims, courts ruled in favor of employers far more often than employees on state law employment claims. For example, courts found that there was no discrimination under state law 19 times more often than there was discrimination under state law, most often at summary judgment.

Lex Machina used a combination of machine learning and attorney review to develop additional practice-specific case tags and filters. The new tags, findings, and damage awards sharpen the ability of legal professionals to quickly locate the critical information most relevant to their own cases. Legal Analytics illuminates the track records of opposing counsel and parties, the experience and behaviors of judges, case timing, resolutions, remedies, damages, and injunctions. These data-driven insights can play a critical role in helping legal professionals plan the most effective case strategy for their clients.

About LexisNexis Legal & Professional

LexisNexis Legal & Professional is a leading global provider of legal, regulatory and business information and analytics that help customers increase productivity, improve decision-making and outcomes, and advance the rule of law around the world. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis® and Nexis® services. LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which serves customers in more than 160 countries with 10,400 employees worldwide, is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

About Lex Machina

Lex Machina 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 17 federal practice areas and a rapidly increasing number of state courts. Lex Machina 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.

Lex Machina was named "2021 Legal Technology Trailblazer" (National Law Journal Trailblazer Awards, 2021), Winner of the "Media Excellence" Award for Analytics/Big Data (13th Annual Media Excellence Award, 2021), "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