A New Context for Legal Analytics

Today, Lexis Advance launched its new Context product for legal analytics, currently featuring analysis for judges and expert witnesses. Lexis users at Duke Law can access this new tool from the grid in the top left corner of any Lexis Advance screen. (Be sure to choose "Context" and not "Litigation Profile Suite" – although the latter tool also includes profiles of judges and expert witnesses, these are separate products and do not appear to cross-link.) [Update: currently, Context access is available only to Law School faculty; student accounts will see the new product on January 2.]

If the Context report interface looks a bit familiar, you may have seen a similar version for judges on Ravel Law, the legal research start-up which Lexis acquired last year. Profiles for Judges include biographical information as well as "Analysis" data about motion outcomes, most-cited opinions and judges, and even the specific passages upon which the judge relies most heavily.

The Expert Witness portion of Context was not a feature previously offered in Ravel. Reports include biographical background as well as data on type of parties represented, amount of cases per year, and a "scorecard" for Daubert challenges. Currently available for federal courts, an expansion to state court expert witness data is planned for next year.

For more information on Context's release, and its availability for law firm customers, check out Bob Ambrogi's LawSites blog post. For help with using Lexis Advance or other legal analytics tools, be sure to Ask a Librarian.