Predictive Justice is a program developed by the start-up company Predictice that allows lawyers to assess their chances of winning a trial. Simply with a single click, an algorithm calculates the probability of resolving a dispute, the amount of available damages, and identifies the most influential elements in judicial decisions by searching through a database of case law and statutes.

Currently, approximately fifteen French law firms are testing Predictive Justice to determine whether it will actually work in practice. According to some lawyers, the software which is a meeting between mathematics and law, is going to be of considerable help as it will allow to objectively inform the parties of the risks that they incur in the event of a judicial procedure. Moreover, this system will also permit lawyers to know the arguments mostly used by courts ahead of time and thus better prepare for the cases. However, for ethical reasons, it must be noted that the program is not applicable to criminal law.

Initially skeptical lawyers who were afraid of being “replaced” by the machine were quickly convinced by this seemingly exceptional instrument which allows to better assess a case’s chances of success, thereby limiting situations where lawyers have to fly by the seat of their pants. Predictive Justice is also facilitated by the recent French law for a “Digital Republic,” which imposes the dissemination of all judicial decisions, a process that is common in the U.S.

This raises the question whether Predictive Justice would also work in the U.S. However, unlike in France, the judicial system in the U.S. depends largely on jury decisions, making it nearly impossible to predict a case’s outcome.

Best regards
und viele Grüße aus Charlotte
Reinhard von Hennigs
www.bridgehouse.law