A brief introduction

Why Does it matter?

Matter coding makes buying, staffing pricing and delivering legal services more efficient. Imagine this scenario: a client has the need for legal services in a class action wage and hour case. The client could now provide the codes for that kind of matter. The law firm could look in its database and, by code, it would determine which comparable matters it had handled, which attorneys had the most experience to optimize staffing, and if the client asked for a fixed fee the law firm could accurately see how to price the matter because it could easily find comparable matters.

How does it work?

Structure

The LMSS defines a structure that describes where to put information related to a matter. This allows for different systems to express matter-related data in a uniform manner. Here's an example of this structure:

{
   "document" : {
      "header" : {
         "lmss type" : "INST",  //Instance
         "lmss version" : "1.02",  //Draft LMSS 1.0 Rev 2
         "title" : "Instance: Wage and hour class action against XYZ Corp.",
         "language" : "en-us",
         "charset" : "UTF-8"
      }
      ,"matter" : {
         "title" : "Wage and hour class action against XYZ Corp.",
         "locale" : "NAM-US-US+GA",  //North America:United States of America (the):Georgia
         "process" : {
            "description" : "Wage and Hour Class Action in Georgia relating to service employees",
            "process type" : "D-CCI",  //Dispute:Court Proceeding, Civil
            "area of law" : "LEMP-WGHR",  //Labor and Employment Law: Wage and Hour Law
            "player" : [{
               "name" : "Jennifer Smart et al.",
               "player role" : "PLTF",  //Plaintiff
               "legal entity" : "CLASS",  //Class
               "counsel" : {
                  "name" : "Filbert Evans",
                  "firm name" : "Evans Lockridge & Paul LLP",
                  "representation role" : "COUN"  //Counsel/Attorney
               }
            },
            {
               "name" : "XYZ Corporation",
               "player role" : "DEFT",  //Defendant
               "legal entity" : "ENTITY-CORP",  //Entity:Corporation
               "counsel" : {
                  "firm name" : "Howard and Douglas LLP"
               },
               "industry" : "FAG"  //Food and Agriculture
            }],
            "process object" : {
               "filing date" : "2019-05-14"
            }
         }
      }
   }
}
		

The structure includes a document. The document includes one or more matters. A matter has a title, which describes the matter, a locale, which contains information about the location or jurisdiction of a matter, and a process.

A process is the legal service that is being provided. There may be multiple processes involved in any given matter and the way that you tell the kind of process is by the process type and by the area of law. The area of law provides context to interpret other information in the process.

Finally, processes have players. For example, in a litigation, the players will include a plaintiff and a defendant, but players may also include judges, witnesses and experts. Not only do players have names, their role is identified and you can also identify the kind of legal entity they are. Are they an individual or are they a corporation? Are they classic plaintiffs players can have counsel and in addition we can identify the industry they’re associated with and whether or not there are governmental authority.

Codes

The current draft revision of the LMSS defines 16 code sets, six of which are core. Within the structure of LMSS, the core code sets define legal matters to a basic specification. These core code sets are:

• Area of law - the body or bodies of law applicable.
• Industry - the industry of the players or matter
• Legal Entity - the types of legal entities involved with the matter
• Location - the location of the matter, which affects the jurisdiction
• Player role - the roles that the players of the matter have
• Process - the type of legal service or process being delivered

The codes are abbreviations so they are human readable as well as machine readable. Codes also have a name, a description, and some codes even have tags or synonyms. Codes are hierarchical and additive. Codes can have subcodes that provide a greater level of specificity. Codes are designed this way because at the beginning of a matter the specific area of law or process might not yet be known.

Finally, codes are viewer independent, that means they use neutral language that is independent of any party’s perspective. As an example, the standard does not use terms like client and opposing party. Rather it uses terms like plaintiff and defendant, or buyer and seller.

Diving deeper

You now have a basic understanding of the LMSS, but there is a lot more to learn and explore. Depending on your specific interests and use case, you might want to explore some of the elements we described above in more detail:

• The LMSS Codes
• The LMSS Structure
• The full LMSS Specification
• The LMSS API's made available by Legal.io

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about the LMSS. If you want to learn more about how the LMSS can streamline legal operations in your legal department or law firm, feel free to contact us!