Ever thought how interesting it is to learn the entire idea of accurate legal data analytics?
Deloitte predicts 100,000 legal roles will be automated by 2036. The report also emphasized that a new talent strategy will be necessary for law firms by 2025.
Every industry in the world uses data analytics to make profitable business decisions. Data analytics also facilitates discoveries in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, insurance, law, and in the realms of medical and biotechnology. Many company procedures and processes sped up because of access to data in abundance. Data science and machine learning have opened up a whole new universe of opportunities.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence tech are rapidly revolutionizing legal study and practice. There are growing concerns about whether the legal profession will survive this digital transformation as a dynamic profession. In our blog we are making a statement, if data analytics methodologies are likely to continue to permeate law in domains previously dominated by human decision-makers.
What is legal data analytics?
Legal data analytics is a process of analyzing raw data on matters impacting law firms, like resource management, legal strategy, matter forecasting, invoice management to reveal fascinating insights, support decision making, and boost productivity.
Mostly data is segregated into three broad categories. Individual data, internal law firm data, and external data.
Individual data refers to any information related to your existing firm and clients. To name a few, traffic metrics from your website, client intake data, and more. Internal law firm data originates from a law firm’s daily activities, like billing rates and time tracking. External data, on the other hand, refers to information found outside the firm, it can be from the government, third-party research, or other law firms.
Previously, gaining any meaningful insight from the massive amounts of legal data accessible to law firms was relatively difficult. However, with the development of technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and language processing, attorneys now have the means to use data-driven strategies in: proceedings, forecasting, and discovering new clients via client intake forms. Due to their unmatched speed and ability to process enormous amounts of data, computers are able to save legal departments and professionals both time and money.
Application of legal analytics
Using data to your advantage you can generate reports through legal data analytics and reporting tools. This will help you control risks and improve business decisions. Data may assist you in finding the answers to numerous problems and improving your predictions across your law firm. Here are a few ways legal analytics might help your business:
1. Conducting Legal Research
You probably do a lot of research for your clients as a lawyer. Whether it’s studying specific statutes or looking over old cases, you put a lot of time into this process. You can optimize your research with legal analytics software if you’re seeking strategies to save time. Many free online legal research tools also provide enormous benefits by delivering the right data.
You can use the database of previous cases that these systems normally have as a resource. For example, if you’re working on a civil litigation case in Albuquerque, you can utilize legal data analytics software to locate other cases in your area that apply to yours and make informed decisions.
2. Predictive Analytics
Another great use of data is predictive analysis. With predictive analysis, lawyers can predict the precise characteristics, outcomes, and potential resources spent on a case using key performance indicators (KPIs). Let’s say, for instance, your client is stuck in a dilemma about going to trial or not.
He wants your advice on whether it will be worthwhile to dedicate the expenses. Even though you can’t forecast the future, you can still use predictive analytics to present them with an idea of how long it might take and the likelihood of them winning. Your client can use this information to guide themselves in making the best choice.
3. eDiscovery Analytics
Lawyers devote a significant amount of time to gathering, distributing, and reviewing information with other colleagues. This method is incredibly time-consuming. However, eDiscovery or electronic discovery analysis lessens the administrative burden.
eDiscovery analytics solutions specifically enable lawyers to look for particular keywords across their documents, filter for particular date ranges, or find patterns in client data. These features make it easier to review the information and spare users from needing to manually sort through all the data.
4. Enhance Marketing Efforts
With legal analytic software, lawyers can enhance their marketing strategy. Analyzing the firm’s website data can provide lawyers answers to various questions, such as:
- 1. How much time do customers spend on the law firm’s website?
- 2· Which services do prospective customers appear to be most interested in?
- 3· Does the legal firm’s website successfully reach its intended clientele?
- 4· Is there an increase in website traffic over time?
This data can help lawyers make better marketing efforts to increase client lead conversions and generate more revenue.
5. Increase Efficiency of Business Operations
You may significantly affect your company’s revenue and growth by keeping an eye on the relevant success measures. Key performance indicators (KPIs) for client acquisition include the expense of obtaining a new client, the number of fresh prospects with their source, and the estimated value of an average case.
Having all of this data collected and systematically classified allows lawyers to make preliminary predictions for a case, which they can choose to disclose or not with the client. Analytics can also make predictions about the outcomes of motions or the likelihood of winning a case at trial, making it easier to decide whether to settle the dispute before it goes to trial, saving firms’ operational costs.
6. Budgeting and Finance Management
You can generate financial and billing reports using data analytics and reporting tools, which can assist you in creating a budget for the following quarter or fiscal year. Encourage your financial department to get these data and use them to forecast future spending if you need to make expense reductions, but are unsure of which ones.
If you need to conduct any extra analysis, you can also pull information regarding employee wages and the billable hours they put in. Because you can find out how much every employee costs you and whether you have the funds to grow your team, these reports can also help you with recruitment and hiring strategies. If money is tight, you might think about hiring outside legal counsel for a particular issue.
7. Analysing Historical Data for Risk Assessment
If your long-term client was sued, you’d almost certainly have to accept the case, since you don’t want to compromise your relationship with the client. The information you require to develop a strategy and take the best possible approach to the issue may be readily accessible via analytics tools. You can use them to forecast how the procedure will turn out.
However, if a new client comes to you with the desire to bring legal action against someone and wants your assistance, analytics will enable you to weigh the risk you would have to assume and determine whether the case is worthwhile. You might not want to do it if it would take up too much of your time and resources with a potentially disappointing result.
Does your law firm really need legal analytics?
The need for data analytics differs from firm to firm. Legal analytics can help you save time and money if you have a lot of data and want to automate the analysis. These cost reductions may eventually be passed on to your customers. However, we advise that you still go through some cases on your own during the course of your study if you want to replace or outsource more specialized jobs like verifying whether the evidence can support your case.
It’s crucial to understand the limitations of legal data analytics, though. It can be difficult to quantify and measure legal data due to the complexity and subjectivity of legal contexts.
The field of legal analytics is still developing, and there are still many changes and obstacles to be implemented. However, it is also undeniable that it has altered the legal sector, from law schools to firms and litigation strategies
Frequently Asked Questions
Legal analysts are professionals who help and support attorneys and legal teams. They gather evidence and legal papers, track and organize documents, evaluate them, and file them, all while maintaining databases. Legal analysts are well-versed in the law and have a good understanding of individuals who are skilled at navigating the uncharted territory of legal and justice technology.
Data, especially substantial amounts of litigation data, is the only thing that supports legal analytics. The firms’ matter and case management information, court dockets and filings, or even public records that reveal case procedures and other facts can all be used to get this data. Any information, including how a specific judge handles a particular kind of case, which the attorney has previously represented, and the results of those representations, can make or break the case. The quality of the data that a platform for legal analytics is provided with determines how effective it is. With the use of the legal analytics tool, the rate of accuracy and efficiency increases as the data becomes more detailed and complex.
Although the majority of lawyers are driven by altruism, it would be naïve to forget that the profession of law is still a business, and attorneys and law firms must be successful in order to continue. Legal analytics tools enable lawyers and legal firms to balance the expected cost of a case against its potential financial payoff, in addition to reducing the obvious expenses of time and human resources spent on laborious procedures. The law firm may wind up saving a significant amount of time, money, and effort if they do something that initially seems counterintuitive. This will enable them to take on more cases and increase their success rate.
Companies need to have comparable data sets on client fees as alternative billing arrangements are used in the legal services sector. A firm can make a fixed-fee proposal by looking at issue management and billing data to determine the expenses of similar matters.
Conclusion
Despite this, the discipline of legal analytics is revolutionizing how legal executives and professionals decide, forecast litigation outcomes, and enhance legal workflows. You may plan ahead for sluggish months by using data analysis and visualization tools to help you make proactive business decisions. Leveraging the potential of legal analytics will provide your organization the competitive edge it needs to stand out in a digital world, whether you’re utilizing it for legal research, business insights, or something totally different.