Discovery stretches on. A hearing is postponed. A fully briefed motion sits for months without a ruling. From inside a single case, these delays can seem random—and therefore impossible to plan around. But although every lawsuit brings its own surprises, the court systems through which lawsuits move exhibit recurring patterns. Those patterns vary across jurisdictions, […]
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Continue Reading Where Does the Time Go? Accounting for Docket Drag in Litigation Planning

A debt collection agency uses Trellis to track emerging litigation risks by monitoring state trial court filings. This system enhances early visibility while preserving privacy, aiding proactive risk management.
The post Early Signals: How a Debt Collection Agency Uses Trellis to Spot Litigation Risk Before It Escalates first appeared on The Trellis Blog.
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Deposition transcripts provide insight into an attorney’s questioning techniques, strategies, and how they manage witness uncertainty, revealing crucial dynamics not evident in typical court records.
The post Table Stakes: What Deposition Transcripts Reveal About Opposing Counsel first appeared on The Trellis Blog.
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For the first time, AI research agents can access the nation’s largest state trial court dataset across Claude, ChatGPT, and Trellis Chat. Trellis announced the launch of the Trellis plugin for ChatGPT and Trellis Chat. These additions follow the recent release of the Trellis MCP Connector for Claude, which enables users to use Trellis directly […]
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Continue Reading Trellis Expands Agentic Access to the Nation’s Largest State Trial Court Dataset

The full picture of how courts rule isn’t hidden. It’s scattered across thousands of trial court filings. Most law firm brief banks capture only a fraction of it. Every litigator knows fraud must be pleaded with specificity.  But what does this rule look like in practice?  In this article, we’ll compare two fraud complaints involving […]
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Continue Reading Side by side: lessons from a litigation brief bank

According to Trellis, the Hon. Gary Y. Tanaka of the Los Angeles County Superior Court grants 55.5 percent of the demurrers that come across his bench.  Should that make you more likely to file one?  A grant rate is hard to read in isolation. On its own, it’s just a number. The value comes from […]
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Continue Reading No Assembly Required: Prompting Strategies for Judicial Research

Legal research can yield vastly different results based on the search methodology used. Boolean search provides precise, predictable results but can miss relevant cases due to varying terminology. In contrast, natural language search captures broader case concepts. Effective legal research combines both methods, enhancing exploration and ensuring comprehensive analysis across jurisdictions.
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How attorneys can use judge biographies to drive smarter judicial research with the Trellis Connector. Start with data and you’ll learn how a judge rules. Start with a biography and you’ll know where to look next. In part one, we looked at how a judge’s background shapes the research questions worth asking. In this article, […]
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Continue Reading Putting the Biography to Work: Judge Research with the Trellis Connector for Claude

What can a judge biography tell you? A judge biography helps focus judicial analysis from the outset. Employment history, educational background, and professional affiliations can surface useful lines of inquiry and shape the questions attorneys bring to state trial court data.
The post The Judge Biography: Reading Between the Lines first appeared on The Trellis Blog.
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With the Trellis connector, you can ask Claude to research how a specific judge has ruled on motions, profile opposing counsel’s litigation history, pull verdicts and damages awards in comparable cases, surface relevant filings and pleadings, and vet expert witnesses — all grounded in actual trial court records. Queries run in plain English, with no need to log in to…
Continue Reading Trellis Brings the Largest State Trial Court Dataset in the U.S. to Claude—and Anyone Can Try it for Free

How can you see where a case is headed? Start with the attorney behind it.  Litigation strategy shows up in what attorneys do, not what they say. The theories they argue may frame the claims, but the choices they make…
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The post The Opposition’s Playbook: How to Assess Opposing Counsel Using Legal Data first appeared on The …
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Patterns in Practice follows cases from first filing through resolution, showing how the right information, at the right time, turns uncertainty into strategy. With analysis grounded in state trial court data at Trellis, each installment focuses on a different stage…
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The post Repeat Litigants: How Party Patterns Change Case Strategy first appeared on The Trellis Blog.
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When a new case lands, the first 15 minutes matter more than most attorneys realize. Before formal assignment, before strategy sessions, before anyone has read the full complaint, there’s a window. The party that uses it well enters the case…
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The post The First 15 Minutes: Why Early Case Research Changes Everything first appeared on The Trellis …
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