ALM has released a new trend detection feature  on Law.com Radar  which combines their deep editorial experience with algorithms and litigation data to help lawyers identify emerging trends in federal litigation. New features including trends and surge indicators  will automatically appear for all existing Law.com Radar premium subscribers who have active alerts. Vanessa Blum the Director of Newsroom Innovation described  trend detection as an “open beta.” Law.com Radar was released in November 2020 and providing breaking alerts called “blips” for practitioners in litigation and corporate practices.

What is  Radar Trend Detection? The trend detection system analyzes new federal lawsuits and their case attributes and then applies statistical tests to determine whether a case volume over several days weeks or months represents a surge or a trend.

What is a Surge?  Surges are defined as unusually high levels of federal litigation in particular regions practice groups or industries.. These are compared to a baseline after accounting for normal variations.

This is all powered by a proprietary algorithm that incorporates the man Kendall trend test along with other statistical measures. ALM‘s data scientist have fine-tuned the application for litigation data.

 

Read the underlying cases. Users can automatically link through to the full text complaints underlying the trend.

 

What is the Trend Scale? The trend detection feature includes a radar trend scale and a signal strength indicator. The Radar Trend Scale measures the intensity and business significance based on a score of 1 to 10. Factors contributing to the trend scale include case count Z score, Sen’s Slope and degree  of change, statistical confidence, business impact and the existence of a directional pattern.

Here is what the trend scores mean:

  • Scores of 123 indicate “be aware”
  • Score 4 to 6 indicates “pay attention”
  • Score 7 to 10 warns “take action”. A pattern is clearly evident and may have some significant impact on a practice area or industry sector.

How are industry trends detected? Industry trends are determined using an index of companies for each sector. The documentation cautions that this should be seen as an indicator not a comprehensive summary. View industry categories here. ADD LINK

 Editorial review of trend detection ALM is using their unique editorial talent to determine which findings are relevant to lawyers. What they described as publishing statistically valid data driven findings. They also that results for accuracy  (eliminate duplicate filings) credibility (weed out suits that do not pass basic tests of reliability)  and and clarity (provide contextual details to help readers understand the surges and trends.)

Read the complete FAQ here And here’s a link to the FAQ page that will give you some additional information: https://www.law.com/radar/trends/learn-more/

ALM will continue to improve Trending and is seeking input from subscribers using the Trend detection features. Send comments to radarfeedback@alm.com..