The law’s a lottery. Without a crystal ball it’s impossible to predict, with absolute certainty, the outcome of any legal process. But AI is getting close.
Israeli startup Canotera says it’s developed an algorithm that is 85 per cent accurate. It scours the available documentation for every comparable case – a task that could tie a lawyer up for weeks – and provides its best assessment of how it will be resolved.
It’s a potential game changer for anyone involved in litigation agonising over whether they should fight or settle an insurance claim – a worker falling from a ladder for example, a diner scalded by hot coffee, or a tenant whose home is flooded.
AI does the heavy lifting and presents them with a solid, objective, evidence-based prediction that will help them identify the winnable cases and ditch the no-hopers.
“Litigation is a very unknown territory,” says Yariv Lissauer, a former lawyer and now CEO at the Haifa-based company.
“There are a lot of unknowns, a lot of complications, a lot of regulations and decrees. But at the end of the day, all cases are based on facts that happened in the past and that need to be put into a regulatory framework that already exists. Nevertheless, when you step into court, you have no idea how you will get out. That’s an anomaly we’re trying to fix.”
Canotera uses large language modeCanoterals (LLMs) – the kind of tech that powers ChatGPT – as well as geometric machine learning (which can compare similar cases despite their differences) and conformal analysis technology. This can quantify uncertainties without making strong assumptions about the data distribution.
It collects details of the case in question, analyses patterns, generates predictions and, critically, it explains its “thinking”. All of which “massively improves” its customers’ ability to decide which cases to take on, what to charge, how to proceed and how to manage risk.
“We are not replacing the experienced knowledge and professionalism of the lawyers,” says Lissauer. “We are their best friends because we massively expand the breadth of precedents or facts that eventually a litigation outcome is based on. And we do it in a scalable manner.
“There’s still space for the instincts of a seasoned professional. It’s just that they can base their decision on a far bigger pool of facts with a fraction of time and effort.”
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