Analytics on judicial rulings in state courts seemed like a good idea. Apparently, not enough people thought so, as Gavelytics is closing, effective today, June 30th.

According to Legaltech^® News (Judicial Analytics Provider Gavelytics to Close Company on June 30, written by Zach Warren), today, court analytics provider Gavelytics announced that it will be shutting its doors, effective June 30. In a statement, founder and CEO Rick Merrill pointed to a lack of additional financing as the reason behind the decision why Gavelytics is closing.

Gavelytics made its mark through the introduction of state court analytics in an arena where many previous court analytics had been federally-focused. Originally launched in California, the company had expanded its offering to 10 states by the end of 2020. It also had expanded its data scope beyond just information on judges and their rulings to include information on lawyers’ and law firms’ clients, the types of cases they’ve worked on, and the presiding judges they’ve faced in state courts, among other data points in what Merrill had called “Gavelytics 2.0.”

The company had previously raised a $3.2 million funding round in 2018, which followed a seed funding round of $2.5 million in 2017. But according to the statement provided by Merrill and Gavelytics, the company’s growth was not enough to attract additional investment.

“Despite our fast start and many accomplishments, I have been unable to grow the business fast enough to secure sufficient financing to continue,” the statement said. It later added, “I am very sorry for our team members, investors and clients. We got extremely close to success but ultimately fell short. I will always be proud of our ambition’s reach, even though it exceeded our grasp.”

Unlike the federal system, which heavily relies on a single source in PACER for case information, state court data across disparate systems has proven tougher to handle. Companies such as Trellis and LexisNexis’s Lex Machina have similarly rolled out state court analytics on a court system-by-court system basis, but coverage of courts in all 50 U.S. states remains elusive.

Dewey B Strategic has more on the story that Gavelytics is closing here.

At least for rulings related to eDiscovery, eDiscovery Today Affinity Partner eDiscovery Assistant has quite a collection of state rulings across all 50 states, so that may be the best resource for analyzing all 50 states for eDiscovery decisions.

So, what do you think?  Are you disappointed Gavelytics is closing? Or had you even used or heard of it? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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