Introduction:
In the ever-evolving legal landscape, personal injury lawyers need innovative tools to stay competitive and better serve their clients. One such tool is machine learning, which is revolutionizing the way personal injury attorneys predict case values. By leveraging machine learning algorithms, attorneys can make better-informed decisions about whether to accept or reject settlement offers and whether to take cases to trial, ultimately improving their clients’ outcomes. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the benefits of using machine learning to predict case values and share a personal anecdote highlighting its potential impact.
The benefits of using machine learning in personal injury law:
- Enhanced decision-making: Machine learning models can analyze vast amounts of data to determine the factors that contribute to the value of a case. By incorporating this knowledge into their decision-making process, personal injury lawyers can better assess the strength of settlement offers and make more informed choices on behalf of their clients. There are simply too many factors and too much data available for a lawyer to do this off the top of their head. Yes, a lawyer can mentally run through the litany of cases they have handled and arrive at a best guesstimate as to what the case is worth. But nothing beats having a reliable machine learning model that literally delivers the value to you after analyzing the thousands of possible scenarios a case could play out in.
- Time and resource savings: Evaluating a case’s potential value can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Machine learning models can quickly analyze numerous factors and produce predictions, freeing up valuable time for lawyers to focus on case strategy and other essential tasks. The secret is that, while some lawyers think that tracking data takes a lot of time, digging around in a file to figure out what is going on in a case takes longer. Moreover, asking other lawyers about their results with certain attorneys, adjusters, and judges requires even more time. When the information is organized and delivered to you in a coherent manner, countless manhours are saved along with the best possible decision based on the information that is available.
- Competitive advantage: In a competitive legal market, using cutting-edge technology like machine learning can set a law firm apart from its rivals. Demonstrating the ability to predict case values accurately can give clients greater confidence in your firm and help you secure more clients. When you tell a client you use advanced technology to assist you in determining the value of their case, they listen. When you tell adjusters their offer sucks because you can clearly see it in the data, they shut up about your case’s supposed weaknesses. When you call the defense lawyer’s bluff on a liability dispute because the data says you’re going to win, they cave. But the best thing is that 99% of lawyers aren’t using machine learning at all! This means you can gain an advantage against the losers who lack the foresight to see that this is the way of the future.
A real-life example: CasePredict in action.
As a personal injury lawyer with years of trial practice, I had firsthand experience with the challenges of assessing case values. There were times when I would be in court, the insurance defense lawyers would make an offer on a case, and I would find myself wishing for a tool that could tell me whether or not the offer was good.
This would happen all the time. John from PCIGC says hey, I got 10k on this case, you got 8k in meds, but it was all from a dubious physical therapy provider and the property damage to your vehicle is minimal. You think that you’re going to have Judge Thomas, but you might get moved to Judge Russell, neither of whom are great for you. The client has zero clue what their case is worth, which means they are relying 100% on you to deliver this information to them. You can take the 10k, get the provider to reduce the balance, cut your fee a bit, and everyone walks away happy, right? WRONG. You are leaving money on the table, for you and your client. So, what do you do!?
I struggled with this problem for years: knowing that there was more money on the table and that I was throwing it away. I kept thinking about a solution and I kept coming back to the same conclusion: “I need a computer to tell me how much this case is worth.” Yea, I had an idea of what the case was worth, but I didn’t really KNOW. I knew more or less my chances in court (I would tell the client bs banalities like “this is a 50/50 case” or “I think the judge will give us around 10k if we win”). However, I was aware that my advice wasn’t precise, which led me to seek a tool that could provide the most accurate information when it mattered most—when making critical case decisions.
So, I developed CasePredict, a machine learning tool specifically designed to predict case values. However, it wasn’t quite that straightforward: first, I had to immerse myself in data analytics and Python programming. Then, I needed to learn how to transfer this information from the back end to a front-end web application using JavaScript. Along the way, I became familiar with MongoDB, Random Forest, XGBoost, and a multitude of other fascinating concepts that, to my surprise, turned out to be quite enjoyable!
But back to topic: we trained the model on the 1000s of cases we have handled over the years and from cases that colleagues had shared with us. The result: an all-around winning product.
We had a case recently where Allstate offered a settlement of $12,000. After running the case through CasePredict, the AI model suggested that the case was worth $15,000. Armed with this information, we decided to reject the offer and push for more. The calculation from the machine learning model made our decision so much easier. Before, we would have really sweated the 12k offer and probably bit on it. But the key to being a data-driven practice is to actually follow the data! So, that’s what we did.
To our delight, we ultimately secured a judgment of $17,500 for our client – a significant increase from the pretrial offer. This experience underscores the power of machine learning in personal injury law and how it can help attorneys make better decisions for their clients. Now we do this with every case we handle => check it against the data to see whether the result lines up with what the algorithm says. This gives us and our clients the confidence we need to be assured that we are making the right decision in every case that we touch.
Conclusion:
Embracing machine learning technology like CasePredict can be a game-changer for personal injury lawyers. By harnessing the power of AI to predict case values, attorneys can improve their decision-making process, save time and resources, and gain a competitive edge in the legal market. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to enhance your practice with machine learning – start using CasePredict right now!