# US 10,121,216 B2 · Analyzing and characterizing legal case outcomes

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- Number: US 10,121,216 B2
- Document ID: US10121216B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 14/823,496
- Filed: 2015-08-11
- Published: 2016-10-27
- Granted: 2018-11-06
- Earliest claimed: 2015-04-22
- Assignees: Lex Machina, Inc.
- Applicants: Lex Machina, Inc.
- Inventors: Gavin Carothers; Karl Harris; John Lehmann; Timothy Wade Malone; Nicholas O. Pilon
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10121216B2

## CPC

- G06Q 50/18: Legal services
- G06F 3/0484: for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
- G06F 16/2322: {using timestamps}
- G06F 16/24: Querying
- G06F 16/2428: {Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms (G06F16/2423 takes precedence)}
- G06F 16/25: Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
- G06F 16/338: Presentation of query results
- G06F 16/345: {Summarisation for human users}
- G06F 16/93: Document management systems
- G06Q 10/10: Office automation; Time management
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)

## Abstract

Various of the disclosed embodiments concern systems and methods for applying legal analytics. In some embodiments, a legal analytics platform retrieves legal data from an electronic database, analyzes some or all of the legal data, and identifies interesting patterns and results of statistical analyses. In order to permit searching of the legal data, metadata elements or tags can be generated for legal entities and legal events. In some embodiments, the legal analytics platform identifies timestamps in the legal data and performs time-based statistical analysis. Results of the statistical analyses can be presented to a user via a graphical user interface (GUI), which may also allow the user to interact with the legal analytics platform and search one or more databases of legal data.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for acquiring and processing legal data, the method comprising:
accessing a source of legal information;
retrieving legal data from the source of legal information;
recognizing words in the legal data by performing word recognition on the legal data;
receiving input from an administrator manually modifying the legal data by modifying text previously incorrectly recognized during a word recognition process and inputting supplemental data by adding metadata to the legal data where no metadata element has already been generated;
identifying one or more portions of a data set derived from the legal data and the supplemental data, each portion including a legal event;
generating a metadata element for each legal event identified in the one or more portions, wherein a plurality of metadata elements of different types are generated for at least one of the portions;
associating each of the one or more portions with at least one of the plurality of metadata elements, the at least one metadata element signaling which legal events are identified within each portion;
identifying, based on one or more of the recognized words, references to legal events within the one or more portions of the data set;
identifying a first portion, within the one or more portions of the data set, in which a reference to a legal event was found;
associating the first portion with a different metadata element corresponding to the legal events referenced in the first portion;
constructing a legal database that is searchable by legal event and includes the data set and the plurality of metadata elements;
generating a graphical user interface;
receiving input, via the graphical user interface, from a user specifying search parameters used to identify a segment of the data set;
applying legal analytics to the segment of the data set;
presenting, via the graphical user interface, analytic results that include a graphical summary; and
receiving input from the user adjusting the analytic results by modifying the search parameters.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the legal event is a procedural event, a damages type, a damages amount, a case resolution, a remedy type, or a patent finding.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2, wherein the case resolution comprises a likely settlement, procedural, a claimant win, or a claim defendant win.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the analytic result includes a table and a chart that summarize the segment of the legal data selected by the user for analysis.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The method of claim 4, wherein the chart is a line graph, a bar chart, a pie chart, a doughnut chart, or a histogram.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the source of legal information is Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER), Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR), or Electronic Document Information System (EDIS).

### Claim 7

A legal analytics platform comprising:
a data crawler configured to:
access a plurality of legal information sources and retrieve legal data from at least one of the plurality of legal information sources; and
recognize words in the legal data by performing word recognition on the legal data;
an outcome coding module configured to:
identify one or more portions of the legal data, each portion including information regarding at least one legal event;
generate a metadata element for each distinct legal event identified within the one or more portions of legal data, wherein a plurality of metadata elements of different types are generated for at least one of the portions; and
associate at least one metadata element with at least one of the one or more portions, the at least one metadata element identifying legal events present in the at least one portion; and
a legal analytics engine, comprising memory and a processor coupled to the memory, configured to:
identify, based on one or more of the recognized words, references to legal events within the one or more portions of the data set;
identify a first portion, within the one or more portions of the data set, in which a reference to a legal event was found;
associate the first portion with a second metadata element corresponding to the legal events referenced in the first portion;
construct a database that includes the legal data or the plurality of metadata elements and is searchable by legal event;
generate a graphical user interface that receives input from a user interacting with the legal analytics platform;
receive input, via the graphical user interface, from the user specifying search parameters that are used to identify a segment of the legal data;
apply legal analytics to the segment of the legal data; and
present, via the graphical user interface, analytic results to the user.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The legal analytics platform of claim 7, further comprising:
a normalizing module configured to:
identify a variant of a legal entity name in a portion of the legal data; and
associate the portion with the legal entity name rather than the variant.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The legal analytics platform of claim 8, wherein the normalizing module is further configured to:
receive an authoritative version of the legal entity name that is known to be correct, wherein the authoritative version of the legal entity name is used to identify the variant.

### Claim 10 (depends on 8)

The legal analytics platform of claim 8, wherein the legal analytics engine is further configured to:
receive input, via the graphical user interface, from the user adjusting the analytic results by modifying the search parameters.

### Claim 11 (depends on 7)

The legal analytics platform of claim 7, wherein the analytic results are presented using a table and a chart.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The legal analytics platform of claim 11, wherein upon hovering over or selecting a piece of the chart, an entry in the table corresponding to the piece is highlighted.

### Claim 13 (depends on 11)

The legal analytics platform of claim 11, wherein the chart is a line graph, a bar chart, a pie chart, a doughnut chart, or a histogram.

### Claim 14

A method for applying legal analytics, the method comprising:
accessing a source of legal information;
retrieving legal data from the source of legal information;
recognizing words in the legal data by performing word recognition on the legal data;
identifying, based on recognized words, references to legal events in the legal data;
identifying portions of the legal data that include a reference to a legal event;
associating at least some of the portions with a first metadata element corresponding to the legal event referenced in each portion, wherein a plurality of metadata elements of different types are generated for at least one of the portions;
constructing a database that includes the legal data and is searchable by legal event;
receiving input from a user specifying search parameters that are used to identify a segment of the legal data, the search parameters including one or more metadata elements that specify one or more legal events;
identifying, based on one or more of the recognized words, references to legal entities within the portions of the legal data;
identifying a first portion, within the portions of the legal data, in which a reference to a legal entity was found;
associating the first portion with a second metadata element corresponding to the legal entity referenced in the first portion;
applying legal analytics to the segment of the legal data; and
presenting analytic results to the user.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14, further comprising:
receiving input from an administrator manually modifying the legal data or inputting supplemental data.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, further comprising:
generating a graphical user interface configured to:
present the analytic results to the user; and
receiving input from the user adjusting the analytic results by modifying the search parameters.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, further comprising:
identifying one or more inaccuracies in the legal data; and
normalizing the one or more inaccuracies.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The method of claim 17, wherein the inaccuracies are misspellings of legal entity names.

### Claim 19 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14, wherein the analytic results include a chart that graphically represents the segment of legal data.

### Claim 20 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving input from the user searching the database by legal event or legal entity.

### Claim 21 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, wherein the legal entity is a judge, a jurisdiction, a lawyer, a law firm, a party to a lawsuit, a patent, a trademark, a copyright, or any combination thereof.

### Claim 22 (depends on 17)

The method of claim 17, wherein normalizing the inaccuracies comprises:
identifying a variant of a legal entity name in a second portion of the portions; and
associating the second portion with the legal entity name rather than the variant.

### Claim 23

A method for applying legal analytics, the method comprising:
accessing, via an interactive graphical user interface, a legal analytics platform configured to:
access one or more legal information sources over a network;
retrieve electronic legal data from the one or more legal information sources;
recognize words in the legal data by performing word recognition on the legal data;
identify and associate portions of the electronic legal data with at least one of a plurality of metadata elements, the metadata elements identifying legal events present in each portion, wherein a plurality of metadata elements of different types are generated for at least one of the portions;
identify, based on one or more of the recognized words, references to legal events within the portions of the data set;
identify a first portion, within the portions of the data set, in which a reference to a legal event was found;
associate the first portion with a second metadata element corresponding to the legal events referenced in the first portion; and
construct a database that is searchable by legal event and is communicatively coupled to the legal analytics platform;
specifying search parameters that are used to search the database, the search parameters including one or more metadata elements that correspond to one or more legal events;
causing the legal analytics platform to identify a segment of the electronic legal data that satisfies all of the search parameters;
causing the legal analytics platform to apply legal analytics to the segment of the electronic legal data;
reviewing, via the interactive graphical user interface, analytic results that include a graphical summary of the segment of the electronic legal data; and
modifying the search parameters by adding a new metadata element or removing a previously-specified metadata element, wherein modifying the search parameters causes the analytic results to be adjusted.