LawPavilion Launches the First Legal Analytics Software in Africa at the 56th Annual General Conference of the NBA In Port-Harcourt

With a penchant for spearheading innovations in the legal technologies industry in Nigeria and Africa, LawPavilion has commercially unveiled a brand new Legal Analytics software dubbed “LawPavilion Prime®”.

Times are changing, technology is impacting human interaction and businesses in more ways than one, and legal practice is evolving amidst all of these advancements. Ope Olugasa, Managing Director of LawPavilion went on to formally announce the innovative software during his presentation at the Session on “Setting Standards: The Future of the Legal Profession” at the Nigerian Bar Association’s 56^th Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. In his speech, he stated thus:

“History has shown that the practice of law has evolved with changing trends and technology over the centuries. When man was in the cave, tribal rules and regulations were written upon tablets of stones, not electronic tablets. In 4,000 B.C. Ancient Egyptians invented the first substance like paper from papyrus, and legal practitioners moved to write the laws on rolls. When in 1440, the printing press was invented by the German Johannes Gutenberg, based on existing screw presses, the legal profession moved into books. But the first computer resembling today’s modern machines was the Analytical Engine, a device conceived and designed by British mathematician Charles Babbage between 1833 and 1871. Consequently the world moved into law e-library.

This 2016 and this day, we unveil to you a new technology in Africa, that will enable our legal practice catch up with the rest of the world. We are introducing the next era, the future of law practice, which has come upon all of us. Welcome to the Age of Legal Analytics.

Before now, when there are questions of law and justice, such answers and legal authorities were tediously sought, leafing through volumes of law books and case indexes. But poring through a law book doesn’t readily divulge how many authorities are contained in one principle; likewise having an e-Library doesn’t tell you how valid or relevant such authorities are, though it may tell you how many authorities exist. Law books store legal authorities/answers but until you look close enough and often beneath the surface, a legal practitioner risks not finding the hidden authorities. All of those headaches are by gone in the age of legal analytics. Legal Analytics doesn’t just provide you with search results, it gives you correct answers.”

LawPavilion Prime was first unveiled at the “Words in Gold” Judicial Awards in Abuja – organized by LawPavilion to honour Nigeria’s Judiciary and their contribution to national development. LawPavilion Prime comes to enhance legal practice in Nigeria and beyond.

Speaking about the software, His Excellency, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo SAN, GCON, The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria said, “Things have changed dramatically, but I think that what LawPavilion has done is to take this a notch higher with Legal Analytics. As it is pointed out, Legal Analytics is not the same with electronic law reporting because what Legal Analytics does is that it helps lawyers to actually derive legal opinion. In the past, of course, if you are researching a point you’ll have to find out for yourself whether there were conflicts in the cases or conflicts in the authorities; that was up to you to find out, or you had to go and look for it in a textbook if there was any. But now, just by using this particular software, it will tell you if there have been conflicts in the cases, how many there have been historically, so you can actually have a historical statement of all of the different twists and turns in a particular legal topic so you can tell what the High Court said, what the Court of Appeal said, what the Supreme Court said at various times on the same point.”

According to Ope Olugasa, with LawPavilion Prime’s legal analytics, a lawyer is provided with a plethora of search results and is actually given the correct answers every time! The software calculates the law with predictive analysis. It gives you in-depth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of legal positions and authorities by generating a never-before-seen statistical analysis, historical data, precedential value ratings, conflicting judgments, locus classicus, statutory or literary authorities and opinions, judicial standpoints of presiding judges, and computer generated intelligent information on such authorities.

Amongst other features, LawPavilion Prime’s Personalized Subject Matter Index for each Appellate Court Judge lays before the legal industry a history of every position taken by a particular judge on any matter or principle of law, analyzing its consistency so they can present same before such judge, eruditely propounding the compelling reasons to remain consistent in their matter judging from their past judicial pronouncements.

The new software contains the Laws of the Federation, annotated with cases. It boasts of a world class e-book reader that allows users to highlight texts, bookmark pages and even write their Practice notes that can be synchronized across multiple devices. The software’s robust cloud backup ensures availability and easy recovery even in the case of device malfunction or theft.