MOTION MAPPING AND ANALYTICS

• US 20160314549A1
• Filed: 08/11/2015
• Published: 10/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lex Machina, Inc. (RELX PLC)
• Original Assignee: Lex Machina, Inc. (RELX PLC)
• Inventors: Harris, Karl, Howard, Brian C., Lehmann, John, Malone, Timothy Wade, Pilon, Nicholas O., Carothers, Gavin, Rydholm, Carla L.
• Granted Patent: US 10,140,671 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2322 using timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2428 Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms G06F16/2423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/345 Summarisation for human users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services

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

1. A method for processing and analyzing electronic legal documents, the method comprising:

accessing a source of legal information;

retrieving a plurality of legal documents from the source of legal information;

performing word recognition on the plurality of legal documents;

associating each of the plurality of electronic legal documents with at least one of a plurality of legal entities using any recognized words;

storing the plurality of electronic legal documents in a database; and

generating a graphical user interface configured to;

allow a user to specify search parameters with which to search the database, the search parameters specifying one or more of the plurality of legal entities;

display a search result that includes any electronic legal documents determined to satisfy the search parameters by a legal analytics engine; and

allow the user to modify the search result by adjusting the search parameters.

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

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of legal entities includes judges, jurisdictions, lawyers, law firms, parties to lawsuits, patents, trademarks, copyrights, or any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

constructing a set of electronic legal documents corresponding to a particular legal event.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the set of electronic documents includes a motion and any documents subsequently filed in response to the motion.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the subsequently filed documents include a response to the motion, a reply to the response, an order that determines the outcome of the motion, or any combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

generating an outcome summary that identifies whether the motion was granted or denied.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining for each of the plurality of electronic documents a document type based on any recognized words, the document type selected from a plurality of document types.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the database is searchable by legal entity, document type, or both.

10. A legal analytics platform for acquiring and analyzing electronic legal documents, the legal analytics platform comprising:

a data crawler configured to access a remote source of legal information and retrieve electronic legal documents from the source of legal information;

a legal analytics engine configured to;

perform word recognition on the electronic legal documents;

determine, based on any recognized words, a document type for each of the electronic legal documents; and

store at least some of the electronic legal documents in a database; and

a motion mapping module configured to construct a set of electronic legal documents that includes a motion and any documents subsequently filed in response to the motion.

11. The legal analytics platform of claim 10, wherein the legal analytics engine is further configured to:

generate a graphical user interface that allows a user to interact with the legal analytics platform.

12. The legal analytics platform of claim 10, wherein the subsequently filed documents include a response to the motion, a reply to the response, an order that determines the outcome of the motion, or any combination thereof.

13. The legal analytics platform of claim 10, wherein the motion mapping module is further configured to generate a motion metrics report for the set of electronic legal documents that is presentable to a user via a graphical user interface.

14. The legal analytics platform of claim 13, wherein the motion metrics report includes a selectable hyperlink to the motion, selectable hyperlinks to the subsequently filed documents, and an outcome summary that identifies whether the motion was granted or denied.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the plurality of document types includes a motion, an order, a pleading, a complaint, a counterclaim, a corporate disclosure statement, an answer, an appeal, a judgment, an opinion, a trial, a claim construction order, a final judgment, a jury verdict, a findings of fact and conclusions of law, an unidentifiable type, or any combination thereof.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein identifying a legal document as unidentifiable causes the legal document to be marked for manual review.

15. A method for acquiring and analyzing electronic legal documents, the method comprising:

accessing a network-accessible legal database;

retrieving a plurality of electronic legal documents from the network-accessible legal database;

performing word recognition on the plurality of electronic legal documents;

determining, based on any recognized words, a document type for each of the plurality of electronic legal documents, the document type selected from a plurality of document types;

storing the plurality of electronic legal documents in a database; and

constructing a set of documents, the set of documents including a motion and any documents subsequently filed in response to the motion.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

generating a graphical user interface configured to;

allow a user to specify search parameters with which to search the database, the search parameters specifying one or more of the plurality of document types; and

display a search result that includes one or more of the electronic legal documents.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the graphical user interface is further configured to allow the user to modify the search result by adjusting the search parameters.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the search result includes any electronic legal documents determined to satisfy the search parameters by a legal analytics engine.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the search result includes textual summaries of any legal documents determined to satisfy the search parameters.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the search result includes selectable hyperlinks to any electronic legal documents determined to satisfy the search parameters.

23. A method for analyzing electronic legal documents, the method comprising:

accessing, via an interactive graphical user interface, a legal analytics platform configured to;

access a legal information source over a network;

retrieve a plurality of electronic legal documents from the legal information source;

perform word recognition on the plurality of electronic legal documents;

select, based on any recognized words, a document type from a plurality of document types for at least some of the plurality of electronic legal documents;

store at least some of the plurality of electronic legal documents in a database; and

construct one or more document chains of related electronic legal documents, each of the document chains including a motion and any documents subsequently filed in response to the motion;

specifying search parameters that are used to search the database, the search parameters identifying one or more document types; and

causing the legal analytics platform to present selectable hyperlinks to relevant electronic legal documents in the database that satisfy the search parameters.