I’m pleased to announce that Lex Machina’s Legal Analytics® platform now includes District Court Bankruptcy Appeals. Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, unveiled the latest expansion of its award-winning platform earlier this week. That announcement, and an explanation of the benefits of this expansion, are reproduced below, courtesy of the company.“The new module covers 18,000 bankruptcy appeals, involving both business and individual debtors, filed since 2009. It provides valuable data-driven insights and trends into the unique characteristics that separate bankruptcy appeals from all other federal practices. With this release, Lex Machina has proved that analytic insights can be uncovered for appellate matters and that these insights are enormously valuable for lawyers and their clients.Bankruptcy appeals are much less common than traditional appeals. Whereas bankruptcy judges are highly specialized, most district court judges rarely encounter bankruptcy appeals, making the process more challenging for attorneys and outcomes less predictable.‘Although there are relatively few bankruptcy appeals cases at the district court level compared to commercial or employment litigation cases, the stakes are incredibly high for all those involved, so it is imperative that attorneys know the lay of the land before entering the courtroom,’ said Karl Harris, CTO of Lex Machina. ‘With Lex Machina, attorneys will now be able to get critical insights into the behaviors of district court judges, allowing them to provide the most informed counsel and formulate the best-case strategy.’As part of the product development process, Lex Machina interviewed top bankruptcy appeals lawyers to better understand their needs and incorporated their feedback directly into the new offering. As a result, Lex Machina has added 10 practice-specific tags and 15 unique “dispute appeals” categories, which attorneys can use to find the most relevant information and insights, and gain a distinct competitive advantage throughout the appeals process. Lex Machina’s Legal Analytics is the only platform that incorporates these unique filters:

• The new case tags include: Bankruptcy Appeal; Individual Debtor; Business Debtor; Adversary Proceeding; Chapter 7; Chapter 9; Chapter 11; Chapter 12; Chapter 13; and Chapter 15.

• The new dispute appeals categories include: Procedure and Jurisdiction; Malfeasance and Remedies; Officers; Administration; Lift of Automatic Stay; Debtor's Rights and Duties; Plan and Disclosure Statements; Objection to Confirmation; Property of the Estate; Dismissal and Conversion; Discharge and Dischargeability; Claims and Liens; Objection to Proof of Claim; Avoidance; and State or Other Federal Law.

Cases, PTAB Trials, and ITC Investigations; graphic courtesy of www.lexmachina.com.

‘If you’re a creditor trying to decide whether or not to file an appeal, knowing whether a particular judge has a tendency to affirm or reverse the lower court’s ruling will have a significant impact on your appeal strategy,’ said Owen Byrd, chief evangelist and general counsel at Lex Machina. ‘Similarly, having concrete data at your fingertips about the expertise of opposing counsel or how often larger creditors, such as banks, win their appeals could weigh heavily into your decision-making. With Lex Machina, attorneys no longer have to rely on anecdotes and educated guesses when counseling their clients.’Lex Machina will be releasing a comprehensive report on district court bankruptcy appeals in October, containing insights and analyses of bankruptcy appeals cases filed between January 1, 2009 and September 30, 2017. The company  also released a blog post that provides a sample of data points to be featured in the upcoming report, including:

• More than 17,000 cases have been pending since 2009.

• Nationally, U.S. District Court judges are more likely to affirm the Bankruptcy Court’s decision (30% of cases pending since 2009) than to reverse, remand and/or vacate (7%)

• The most common issues in bankruptcy appeals include Administration, Objection to Proof of Claim, and Dismissal and Conversion.

About Lex Machina Lex Machina’s award-winning Legal Analytics® platform is a new categories of legal technology that fundamentally changes how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. Delivered as Software-as a-Service, Lex Machina provides strategic insights on judges, lawyers, parties, and more, mined from millions of pages of legal information. This allows law firms and companies to predict the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce, enabling them to win cases and close business.Lex Machina was named ‘Best Legal Analytics’ by readers of The Recorder in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and received the “Best New Product of the Year” award in 2015 from the American Association of Law Libraries.Based in Silicon Valley, Lex Machina is part of LexisNexis, a leading information provider and a pioneer in delivering trusted legal content and insights through innovative research and productivity solutions, supporting the needs of legal professionals at every step of their workflow. By harnessing the power of Big Data, LexisNexis provides legal professionals with essential information and insights derived from an unmatched collection of legal and news content—fueling productivity, confidence, and better outcomes. For more information, please visit www.lexmachina.com.”