by Rick Merrill

Would having detailed knowledge of a judge’s tendencies make you a better litigator and increase the likelihood of a successful outcome for your client? Would not having this information put you and your client at a competitive disadvantage? As a former big firm litigator, I started a California Superior Court-focused judicial analytics software platform to help California litigators win more cases, write better briefs, and win more business.

If you are a California litigator, you have probably heard about the recent explosion in the number of artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics software tools available to litigators. Advances in technology have suddenly provided litigators with lots of choices but little guidance in choosing the right tool for the job. Indeed, legal software product features are useless unless they provide actionable value, i.e., enable a litigator to do something they couldn’t otherwise do or know something they couldn’t otherwise know. Judicial analytics products are intended to provide key insights about judges’ unique tendencies, preferences, speed, preferred case law citations, and more, in ways never before possible.

Here are several important ways that California litigators can use judicial analytics products like Gavelytics to stay one step ahead:

1. Judicial analytics help you get the case in the first place. California litigators are beginning to understand the business-generation possibilities stemming from products that provide detailed, useful, quantitative data about Superior Court judges. If you are pitching to represent a prospective defense client, being able to explain your inside knowledge of the judge assigned to the case—and, better, your specific strategy for the case tied to that specific judge—then your pitch will stand out above all others.

2. Judicial analytics help you decide whether or not to CCP 170.6 the judge. Once you have the case, whether you’re representing the plaintiff or defendant, you must first decide whether or not to CCP 170.6 the judge. Until products like Gavelytics became available, litigators would make this decision without empirical knowledge, basing their decisions on random internet searches, anecdotal opinions from colleagues, or perhaps printed biographical material about the judge. There is a better way! With judicial analytics, litigators can now quickly determine to a high degree of empirical certainty whether or not the judge is good for your case. Is this a case you’re hoping to escape via summary judgment? If so, a CCP 170.6 could be warranted against the judge who tends to let all of her cases go to trial. Are you representing a personal injury plaintiff and the judge tends to favor defendants in discovery disputes? Avoiding an unfavorable judge could make all the difference.

3. Judicial analytics help you plan high-level case strategy. Once you are ready to litigate before the assigned judge, knowing the judge’s tendencies in motion practice and bench trials can help steer your entire case strategy. Does this judge tend to deny pleadings motions? Maybe you don’t waste your time with a demurrer, or instead, have a junior associate in your office argue the motion. Does this judge tend to actually grant discovery motions? Then you can be more aggressive in your document requests, knowing you’re more likely to win a motion to compel. Does this judge rarely tend to grant summary judgment motions? Then you can effect a different settlement posture, knowing you’re more likely to head to trial.

4. Judicial analytics help you write better briefs. Would you write your brief differently if you knew your judge rarely saw that type of motion? Would you cite different case law if you knew, in advance, which specific cases your judge liked to cite for a given legal issue? Would having thousands of your judge’s trial court rulings in a searchable database speed up your legal research? Litigators can use judicial analytics products like Gavelytics to see how often a judge sees a particular motion type, see how often the judge tends to grant that type of motion, and search through actual trial court rulings on that type of motion. Armed in advance with this knowledge, tailoring your brief to the judge is now possible for the first time.

5. Judicial analytics help you communicate better with your client. Managing client expectations is a challenge every litigator is familiar with. Good judicial analytics products can help answer common client questions better than ever before possible, like how long the case is likely to take, what is likely to happen in motion practice, and what other lawyers in the jurisdiction tend to do when appearing before this judge. An informed client is a happy client.

It will soon be unthinkable not to study your judge and tailor your case strategy and tactics accordingly. Gavelytics is an easy-to-use, AI-powered judicial analytics software platform designed by litigators. It is the only California Superior Court-focused product on the market that gives litigators key insights into judicial tendencies, such as a judge’s propensity to rule for plaintiffs or defendants in a bench trial, the likelihood of granting over 100 types of motions (all divisible by filing party and case type and compared to the county average), the frequency with which other lawyers file CCP 170.6 challenges against a judge, how quickly a judge moves through her dockets, and the types of cases the judge cites and legal arguments the judge tends to accept when ruling on key motions. Judicial analytics products are certain to become a ubiquitous feature of litigation practice, so litigators should familiarize themselves with products like Gavelytics and how they can use them to better serve clients.

Rick Merrill is Founder and CEO of Gavelytics, after spending years as a litigator at a big firm. For more information about Gavelytics, he can be reached at rick@gavelytics.com.