Silicon Valley based start-up ‘Legalist’ is to be the first litigation financer to use big data in its assessment process. Litigation finance is where a third party covers the legal cost of a court case, in exchange for a share of the settlement.
Legalist’s founders have developed an algorithm that allows them to trawl through fifteen million previous cases, and analyse the influence of 58 factors on the chances of a favourable reading. By using a data-backed method, the lengthy and costly assessment process is streamlined significantly. If a given case has a potential return exceeding $1 million, and a favourable chance of success then Legalist will back it.
