Legal Tech: A Deep Dive Into the Tech Upgrades in Thomson Reuters' Westlaw Edge

Mike Dahn, senior vice president of Westlaw Product Management at Thomson Reuters, says his team had heard from numerous attorneys concerned with a simple premise: “They want to know what's right. They want to know the right version of the law.”

Westlaw Edge uses machine learning and textual analytics to find similar issues to the ones that are overruled in a way that Dahn says is fundamentally different from simply looking up terms. For instance, he cites the example of the 2001 Supreme Court case In re Mercer, which overturned 1940's Davison-Paxon Co. v. Caldwell concerning false pretenses in bankruptcy. Over 300 cases contained similar wording and subject matter, but only 49 needed overruling risk warnings.

Currently, the precision of the rulings was around 80% to 85%, with human reviewers reviewing the rest and removing false tags as needed, according to Dahn.

Ultimately, he says, Thomson Reuters believes it's “created a new tier of citator” with the product, which he said advances risk calculation a new tier.

Next Generation Search

At its core, why do people use a technology such as Westlaw? Why, they want to answer a question! Dahn says that Westlaw Next currently allows for question asking but it functions like any other search. In Westlaw Edge, however, the search function can suggest questions when a user starts to type, similar to a Google or Amazon autofill field, which Thomson Reuters believes will lead to more targeted searches.

In addition, once those searches are completed, the new results interface provides additional information, such as more accurate text from the result in question, a link to the direct portion of the relevant text, and a link to statutes that may be relevant to the case.

“We're not trying to make a robot lawyer or anything like that. We're trying to get lawyers to the heart of the matter much faster,” Dahn says.

He notes that the search is also available on the Westlaw Edge iPhone app, though the company has no plans to make an Android app at this time.

Integrated Litigation Analytics

As larger companies such as LexisNexis have doubled down on analytics and start-ups such as Ravel Law (since purchased by LexisNexis) and Gavelytics have aimed to push the boundaries of the technology further, Thomson Reuters has built out its own analytics offering with a host of data insights into case types, judges, courts, law firms, and individual attorneys.

The analytics fundamentally change how Westlaw Edge users search — while past landing pages in those categories used to contain only biographical data, they now quick insights into a topics' tendencies and performance, with a further click allowing more exploration. Most of the data comes from dockets, according to the company.

Jeff Arvidson, director of product management at Thomson Reuters, demonstrated a search for Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California. From her landing page, users can navigate to her overall docket, the outcome of cases, motion outcomes, expert challenge results, appeals both of her rulings and to her bench, and other references. Each of those has subcategories of data analysis, such as each type of motion being broken individually by how likely Judge Koh is to accept, reject, or otherwise rule on the motion.

Thomson Reuters hopes to set its analytics apart through the amount of data and coverage it has loaded into the system, the granularity of motions it breaks down for federal judges (the system boasts 13 high-level types of motions and 30 to 40 in total), and a built out appeals section that contains more involved information than before.

Arvidson notes that bankruptcy proceedings and criminal motions as two areas the company is still building out, and the service is most robust for federal courts and local jurisdictions with a lot of litigation, like New York state courts or Cook County courts. For the local courts, most of the data is supplied by “legal editorial” staff at Thomson Reuters, while the more standardized federal data is compiled through machine learning.

Still, for the most part, he says, “If it's a docket on Westlaw, it's going to be in here.” He says that federal courts have data that is 100% comprehensive from 2000 and forward, and generally contains data from 1990 and forward. The Westlaw Edge website also features a link titled “Learn More About Docket Coverage” that features further state and local info about how much data and what type of data can be search.

Tool for Analyzing Statutory Changes

Laws can change rather quickly, and especially for an attorney or a firm operating in multiple jurisdictions, the thought of keeping up with the changes can quickly prove overwhelming. Westlaw Edge aims to tackle that problem through a “Statutes Compare” button that appears above the text of the statute itself within the platform.

By clicking the button, users see a redlined version of the statute, indicating where text has been either added or taken out. In addition, the tool tallies the total number of additions and subtractions, and it shows any potential changes to the statute's number as well. In addition, this comparison can be done with all prior versions of a statute, though Westlaw Edge will default to comparing the two most recent versions.

This service is available currently to all federal statute updates. It is also available in states with higher levels of litigation, Dahn says, though states with less litigation like Vermont or Alaska will see the feature rolled out in the future.

The company sees this tool having multiple uses all aimed at saving time, including being better able to show legislative intent, and advising clients on changes they need to make to their own internal systems and reports.

User Experience Improvements

Finally, Westlaw Edge features a number of user interface and experience upgrades that the company said are direct responses to user feedback from the Westlaw Next system:

• A “Restore Previous Filters” button on the search bar;
• More information listed and more citing references after a search when expanding a synopsis;
• The ability to click on a flag to see on-page why it is appearing;
• The ability to click on a note to see on-page what the user previously wrote;
• Up to 10 saved searches designated with a favorites star; and
• Re-tooled document display, as tested by more than 400 attorneys.

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Zach Warren is the Editor-in-Chief of Legaltech News. He can be reached at [email protected].