Legal computer judge concept, cyber gavel,3D illustration

The rise of litigation analytics is extending to law firms of all sizes. An expansion to smaller firms is behind state and local judicial analytics provider Gavelytics teaming up with remote court appearance provider CourtCall to offer the latter's customers a “simplified version” of its platform ahead of court appearances. The move represents an expansion of litigation analytics to smaller law firms.

Through the partnership, CourtCall customers that rely on the service for remote appearances will be given the option to also purchase analytics exploring the rulings, preferences, biographical information and other facts about the judge they will be appearing in front of. This offering does not require subscribing to Gavelytics' larger enterprise service, and is expected to cost a couple hundred dollars per use.

The partnership coincides with a national expansion for Gavelytics, which to this point has been focused on California courts. The service will be provided to most California and some Florida customers starting in December 2018, with the expectation of rolling out to Illinois and Texas customers by the middle of next year.

For Rick Merrill, CEO and founder of Gavelytics, pairing with a remote court appearance provider was a natural fit. He told Legaltech News, “You can imagine how much sense it would make that if you're going to call into a hearing with Judge Zach, wouldn't it be cool to be offered information on Judge Zach at the same time?”

He said that unlike the current version of Gavelytics, which is primarily sold on a firm-wide basis, the CourtCall version will be “a simplified version of our product.” This means that the purchase will be limited to one judge's analytics, and feature most, though not all, of Gavelytics' features. Merrill added, “You can think of it as the difference between the Basic tier and the Pro or Enterprise tier, like a lot of software products.”

Of course, it also doesn't hurt for Gavelytics, founded in 2015, to break into new markets with a preexisting provider that many law firms of all sizes use on a daily basis. “That's going to put us in front of literally thousands of lawyers per day in those states. This is a really high-volume deal,” Merrill said.

From the CourtCall perspective, offering Gavelytics is a value-add for customers to use the service. “We are excited about the opportunity that this partnership affords us to help our users gain new perspective on trial court judges and utilize technology to develop customized litigation strategies,” said Bob Alvarado, CEO of CourtCall, in a press release announcing the partnership. “Through our national reach, the Gavelytics platform will give litigators, in California and beyond, statistical insights on significant judicial trends and behavior. This is a huge added value for anyone using CourtCall's one-of-a-kind technology.”

And with these sorts of partnerships, judicial analytics continues to grow. There has certainly been a renewed interest for it in the space—both Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis highlighted its federal court analytics capabilities in major product releases over the summer. For his part, Merrill said Gavelytics' expansion to other state courts outside of California and the partnership with CourtCall is an important next step.

He explained, “This is the sort of thing that just about every lawyer should be able to get.” And while Gavelytics may eventually see some of these solo report buyers become enterprise customers, in the end, he said, “we wouldn't be at all bothered if some of the smaller firms out there buy just the reports through CourtCall.”