FYI for July 2007

2007 Case Assessment & Analysis Survey Findings

In January 2007, LexisNexis commissioned an online survey (conducted by Cogent Research) of 341 practicing litigators at mid-sized and large law firms across the United States asking them a series of 40 questions about their early Case Assessment & Analysis practices, the perceived value of those practices, and outcomes they ascribe to early Case Assessment & Analysis. In May, we unveiled the results of the survey on a live Webinar. Kurt Hansson, a leading litigator at the cutting edge of case assessment & analysis from Paul Hastings, joined the Webinar and shared best practices and success stories related to Case Assessment & Analysis.

View the Webinar.

Download the Case Assessment & Analysis survey findings.
Many who attended the live event stated it really hit home—defining the challenges and the great rewards of early case assessment. They also felt they walked away with invaluable insights that they could apply to their practice right away. While both the report and Webinar made the benefits of early case assessment clear ...

• Reduced litigation costs
• More favorable results
• Better communication and enhanced client relationships

… it also shows that there are still a number of obstacles that keep it from being conducted as thoroughly and as frequently as it should be.

Over the past few years, LexisNexis has made significant investments in resources that enable firms to develop simple, cost-effective, sustainable processes for successful early case assessment, including the acquisition of CaseSoft just over a year ago. Today, we offer an unmatched arsenal of Case Assessment & Analysis resources to help litigators:

• Perform cost/benefit analysis of a potential case and gauge the likelihood of success
• Collect, organize and evaluate vital case information with greater ease, speed and confidence
• Assess case strengths, identify early risk and map out the most effective course of action
• Enhance collaboration and critical information sharing
• Tap into underutilized content that can help you uncover more critical facts sooner

To learn how LexisNexis Litigation Services can help you streamline and enhance case assessment and analysis in your firm, contact your Litigation Services solutions specialist today.

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Case Analysis & Assessment Tips—Tip #1, Stand-Alone Annotations in TextMap® 3

For many years, Dan Reeves, a stalwart in our Support Department, and now a trainer with the Case Analysis Consulting Group, has been writing great tips for the CaseMap® Client List Serve that makes its home at Yahoo!® Groups. The Client FYI would like to begin this new ongoing series with some of his great “tips.” First up, Stand-Alone Annotations in TextMap® 3:

As many of you may know, our new TextMap 3 has been designed to not only work with CaseMap but to also be a stand-alone program. Stand-alone annotations are just one of the new features in TextMap 3 that benefit both CaseMap users and those who wish to use TextMap without using CaseMap. These annotations will allow a paralegal or attorney to mark up sections of a transcript that he/she feels is relevant to the case along with any notes about the selected passage. The notes can be reviewed before sending this text to CaseMap as new Facts.

In TextMap 3 you have two modes for creating annotations. The first option is Select Text Mode. This option exhibits the same behavior as what you are used to finding in TextMap 2. When you highlight text, you can right-click on the text and choose New Annotation to send this text directly to CaseMap. Your second option is the new Annotate Mode. When you select text using this option, a New Annotation dialog box immediately opens where you can enter notes about the selection. You can then click OK to close the annotation and move to the next passage or you can choose Send to CaseMap to move the text to CaseMap. Please note that annotations are not included in the text added to CaseMap Facts. You are able to toggle between these two selections from the Annotation menu at the top of your screen.

TextMap also provides an Annotation Detail pane at the top of your screen. From this Annotation Detail pane you can review, edit, or navigate through your annotations. You can also access all the Send to CaseMap dialogs from this pane.

TextMap also includes a new Transcript Annotations report that details each of your annotations followed by the page/line reference for each. Any notes print prior to the annotation text and include the Case Name and Transcript Name at the top of each page. Also, your footer on the report includes a Date/Time stamp and page number. This Transcript Annotations report can be found under File > Print > Transcript Annotations.

As always, if you have any questions in relation to the use of annotations in TextMap 3, please do not hesitate to let us know. 

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Introducing LexisNexis® Total Litigator Gold Case Rewards for CaseMap Clients

The Total Litigator Gold Case Customer Rewards program is designed to introduce you to the LexisNexis Litigation Services portfolio of products and services. LexisNexis Total Litigator puts all your vital litigation resources in one simple, powerful package. Bringing you even more essential tools and content when you need them the most, Total Litigator continues to solidify its position as the only litigation resource organized to reflect the way litigators truly work today—from initial case intake to trial.

Tools such as CaseMap, CourtLink®, File & Serve, lexis.com®, Shepard’s® and many others, are intuitively organized within Total Litigator, around the key stages of the litigation lifecycle including early case assessment, draft, file & serve, discovery, research, gather intelligence, and trial prep.
Register on the Gold Case home page by going to www.totallitigator.com and then clicking the Gold Case link. Next, explore the various Gold Case activities by clicking the Gold Case links across the Total Litigator site. 

Points are redeemable for great rewards through the LexisNexis® Customer Rewards site at www.lexisnexis.com/rewards. Redeem your points for iTunes® or Starbucks Cards or treat yourself to something special by shopping Specialty Stores. Whatever your taste, there's something for everyone—there are millions of rewards from which to choose! View examples of the exciting rewards you can redeem your points for.

Visit www.totallitigator.com and click the Gold Case link on the home page for more information!

Special Promotion—Download TextMap 3 by August 31 and Earn 250 Gold Case Points!*

We’re offering a special promotion in this Client FYI for Gold Case. After you’ve registered, download a 30-day free trial copy of TextMap 3, enter Gold Case in the promo field on the download page and you’ll receive 250 points! TextMap 3, our transcript summary tool, has tighter integration than ever before with CaseMap, but it now also works independently of CaseMap. TextMap 3 introduces new reporting functionality that makes it easy to print or PDF reports based on your annotations and notes. Be sure to read the previous article on Stand Alone Annotations in TextMap 3 for more information. Download TextMap 3 here.

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A Case Study—Bill Branscum and Oracle International

Lone Investigator Helps Indict Group Accused of a Decades-Long Scam, Armed Only with a Software Program

It wasn’t just a fraud. It was a series of frauds that had gone on for 20 years, bilking hundreds of victims out of tens of millions of dollars. It was a series of frauds so big that its true dimensions had never before been grasped by the federal or state authorities who caught glimpses of it here and there—until a single private investigator, armed with a unique software program, took on the case.

You’ve just read the opening paragraph of our new case study about Bill Branscum and his firm’s use of CaseMap and TimeMap®. We want to develop a library of case studies regarding case analysis and assessment. If you also have successes to share around your firm's usage of LexisNexis products such as CaseMap, CourtLink, File & Serve and Total Litigator, and would like to participate in a case study, please contact us. The process will require your ability to participate in a one-hour phone interview with our writer, your final approval on the piece and permission to release your case study for publication once it is completed. For more information contact Heidi Carlson at heidi.carlson@lexisnexis.com.

Read the entire Bill Branscum case study.

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Thanks For Being A Client!

*Some restrictions may apply. Software is a full version available for 30-day trial use from the date of download. Offer expires August 31, 2007.

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