As a “next evolution” of the Westlaw Edge research platform, Thomson Reuters announced today the addition of a “Precedent Analytics” feature, which fully integrates into platform's Litigation Analytics component. Jeff Arvidson, director of product management at Thomson Reuters, said the new feature will allow users to see and analyze “the cases and court judges rely on when they are drafting opinions.”

With Precedent Analytics, users can select a state or federal judge to see her or his past rulings in a specific area of law, then determine what cases and courts were most cited or referenced in those rulings. The feature also includes a heat map that visually displays the federal districts or circuits, or all 50 state courts that a particular judge often cites from.

Arvidson said Precedent Analytics aims to empower attorneys with insight into a judge's approach to certain areas of law.

In a press release announcing the feature, Mike Dahn, senior vice president of Westlaw Product Management, explained the feature's value, adding, “Understanding which cases judges cite to most often by topic can be incredibly important for brief writing and effective advocacy.”

The addition of Precedent Analytics comes less than a year after Thomson Reuters released Westlaw Edge in July 2018. Described as one of the biggest updates to Westlaw in recent years, the new platform includes enhanced search capabilities, litigation analytics, and the ability to flag invalid or questionable rulings and case law, among other changes.

With the release of “Precedent Analytics,” Thomson Reuters joins a growing number of companies offering judicial ruling analytics. LexisNexis, for instance, launched LexisNexis href=”https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2018/11/29/new-data-analytics-tool-knows-every-federal-judges-favorite-cases-397-14291/”>, a judicial rulings analytics tool, in November 2018, just a few months after its July 2016 launch of Lexis href=”https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2018/07/12/lexisnexis-launches-lexis-analytics-leveraging-collective-power-of-recent-acquisitions/”>Analytics. Both products were a direct result of the company's June 2017 href=”https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/sites/legaltechnews/2017/06/08/lexisnexis-legal-professional-acquires-research-company-ravel-law-2/”>acquisitionof research company Ravel Law.

In addition to legacy companies, startup Gavelytics, which launched in 2017 as a judicial analytics platform initially focused on California judges, is also looking empower attorneys with case ruling information. The company, which raised $3.2 million in March 2018 and has since expanded to cover Florida judges as well, recently partnered with remote court appearance provider CourtCall in a bid to expand to the small law firm market.