The legal analytics company Lex Machina today announced what it is describing as the most ambitious and largest expansion yet of its analytics into a new practice area, commercial litigation.

Since its acquisition in November 2015 by LexisNexis, Lex Machina has been using LexisNexis’s collection of federal and state docket data to expand its analytics platform beyond its original area of intellectual property into other practice areas, adding securities last July and antitrust in November. It plans eventually to cover every federal practice area.

With today’s release, Lex Machina is adding data on 62,000 commercial cases dating back to 2009. Attorneys will be able to use its analytics to obtain insights on case timing, resolutions, findings, damages, , remedies, and also to obtain competitive and strategic intelligence on opposing counsel, law firms, parties, judges, venues, and more.

Lex Machina says that, to meet the needs of commercial litigators, today’s release adds new practice area-specific tags and features, including:

  • Expanded case timing analytics. In addition to the time-related analytics it already had — such as time to dismissal, trial and termination — this new release adds time to permanent injunction and summary judgment.
  • New damages categories. Commercial cases include contract damages, restitution, and other damages, as well as tort compensatory damages and punitive damages.
  • New breach of contract and business tort findings. New tags have been added for contract breach, existence, rescission, and termination, as well as contract defense and unjust enrichment. Business tort findings include conversion, defamation/trade libel, fraud/misrepresentation, misappropriation of trade secrets, negligence, tortious interference, and tort defense.

In announcing today’s news, Lex Machina CEO Josh Becker said the addition of commercial litigation was the company’s most ambitious addition yet because the category transcends so many types of legal practice. Of over 62,000 commercial cases filed since 2009, 80 percent include a breach of contract claim and 57 percent include a business tort claim. Roughly 25 percent of commercial cases meet the definition of an intellectual property, securities or antitrust case, and are coded in PACER as such.

At noon Eastern today, Lex Machina is presenting a webcast about its new commercial litigation analytics: “New Legal Analytics for Commercial Litigation.”

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.