Big data and subsequent analytics that process the big data are going to revolutionize the legal industry. Here are a few ways that big data and analytics are going to impact how a lawyer and their firms deal with cases.
The security and privacy of legal documents is a top priority for lawyers and their law firms. This is because many of them deal with personal information that should be kept private. Many corporate lawyers also deal with legal issues involving patents and other intellectual property. Such information must be kept secure and away from the media and thieves.
Big data is going to create a greater need for security and privacy for law firms. These firms are going to have to invest heavily in digital security and methods to ensure that only authorized personnel access personal and trade secret info. Failure to secure big data in legal cases is something that lawyers and law practices cannot afford to skimp on.
The great amount of data that can be collected can also be useful to lawyers. Using analytics, law firms can analyze court ruling by judges and see how their current case and reasoning compare to past decisions. In other words, it allows lawyers to forecast whether a case will be successful or not. The data and analytics can also help attorneys find arguments that are more likely to be successful.
The United States is built upon a common law legal system. This means that precedents must be taken into account when arguing a case and when a judge decides a case. Finding a precedent can mean digging up old cases that can be hundreds of years old. Instead of scavenging through volumes of books, big data can let lawyers easily find precedent cases digitally. This process could be much cheaper and save lawyers an untold number of hours.
Big data and analytics can also be used to analyze a case and ruling after it has been decided in court. This will let lawyers see what was successful and what can be improved upon next time. Gathering data and measuring it in terms of some metric can prove immensely useful for lawyers. The metrics can be things such as the amount of money won for a client, rulings handed down by a judge and guilty pleas by a defendant.