Fastcase Bad Law Bot logo Image: Fastcase
Fastcase, a legal publisher and research service, today released new software to identify overturned or reversed cases in its Authority Check system. The new algorithm, called Bad Law Bot, surfaces citations that give negative treatment to a cited case.
Fastcase CEO Ed Walters told LTN from Washington, D.C., that yesterday the company's Authority Check system provided a data visualization timeline and citations analysis and integrated citation history into search results, but it had no flags or symbols like its competition, LexisNexis Shepard's Citations Service and West's KeyCite, to indicate that a case had been overturned or reversed. Today, however, the Bad Law Bot brings red flags to Authority Check to indicate a case is bad and should no longer be used as authoritative precedent. See Figure 1.
Fastcase's new Bad Law Bot feature helps users identify negative treatment of cited case in judicial opinions. Because it only reports what cases say in citations, researchers should rely on Bad Law Bot as an aid to identify negative history and not as a comprehensive guide. Click image to enlarge.
Walters said that judges adhere to the Bluebook as the definitive style guide for legal citation in communicating important information about sources and legal authorities, and use "overturned" and "reversed" among other words or signals when negatively treating a cited case. The Bad Law Bot looks at Fastcase's approximate 65 million citations and extracts Bluebook signal information on how the case was treated by citing cases, according to Walters. When the bot identifies a citing case as overturning or reversing a cited case, it flags the negative history as reported by the court and surfaces it at the top of Authority Check results as indicated in Figure 1.
Walters said that, generally, Authority Check's lack of flags for negative case treatment protected a law firm's investment in Westlaw or LexisNexis research service. With the new Bad Law Bot, Walters hopes that Fastcase will make further inroads into Am Law 200 firms.
The Bad Law Bot is the first of many additions to Authority Check that Fastcase will roll out over the next year, said Walters. When pressed for details, Walters confirmed that future enhancements will focus on some of the mandatory Bluebook language judges use to treat prior case law.
Bad Law Bot will be out of Beta and available after May 1. Washington, D.C.-based Fastcase was founded in 1999 and according to the company, has more than 500,000 subscribers.
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Attorney Sean Doherty is LTN's technology editor.You must be signed in to comment on an articleSign In or Subscribe">
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