COVID-19 Complaint Tracker.

Lawyers are saving time by using computer analytics to pinpoint key coronavirus litigation pending in courts across the country.

Torsten M. Kracht, a partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth, says his firm is working with a data service provider to show publicly available data about those cases. Its new interactive map streamlines the process of identifying national and statewide COVID-19 lawsuits.

"If you look at our map and you click on Connecticut, for example, you'll see that there were three complaints that we identified," Kracht said. "The balance of the cases that you are seeing in New York is a product of having more commercial activity in New York than you do in Connecticut generally."

As of April 17, New York has 143 pending COVID-19 actions, according to the interactive map, outpacing other states. The filing date starts March 13, where one complaint had been filed in New York and 25 complaints had been filed across the country. The chart shows progressive increases as nearly each day litigation is commenced in New York, versus the total amount of cases filed nationally.

Another chart with a table entitled "NOS Description" gives a breakdown of the nature of the claims asserted in each complaint. It shows that 113 complaints filed in New York are related to claims arising from "prison condition," four concern "general" issues and two for "recovery of overpayment and enforcement judgment."

"We take data from a couple of different sources and we use the coding of those cases that were filed," Kracht said. "The federal cover sheet has a couple of check boxes on the front or MOS code. When the plaintiff files that case, he checks one or more of those boxes to indicate what type of lawsuit it is. And that's the foundation of the MOS descriptions that appear in that lower left-hand corner of our screen."

The filings in other state courts were more complicated to input into the interactive chart. Since each state has its own form of civil cover sheet for the plaintiff to describe the nature of the claims asserted in the action, some states' actions could be inputted by code, while others required manual input.

"And then, we'll put it into that bucket," Kracht said. "That's how we get to this sortable map here of all the cases that have been filed in the state and federal courts for a particular jurisdiction."

A version for the firm's clients includes a case summary that pairs with each action described in any given category. So, if a lawyer wants to learn more about the 19 coronavirus marine cases that have been filed nationally, he or she can quickly browse the summary of the 16 cases filed in California and the three cases filed in Florida. That summary makes it easier for the lawyer to decide if reading the entire case file is appropriate.

While Kracht admits the system is not capturing all of the cases at the moment, he says if there is client interest, his firm will continue building out the database.

"To the extent that the data that we are pulling together here related to lawsuits become robust enough to get meaningful data analytics out of it," Kracht said. "That's part of the plan for where this tracker will go."