By the JUDGELENS Research Team · · 5 min read
There's a genre of judicial analytics site that shows a confident "68% plaintiff win rate" with no sample size, no timeframe, and no source. We think that genre is a public disservice. Here's the discipline behind JUDGELENS's numbers.
The single most important fact about judicial data: what a database has indexed is not the same as what actually happened. CourtListener indexes published opinions and volunteer-donated RECAP filings. A trial judge who rules mostly by unpublished order will look underrepresented next to an appellate judge who writes everything down. That difference is about indexing coverage, not about the judges.
So every analytics block on a JUDGELENS profile carries a coverage note: "Based on N opinions retrieved from CourtListener; this reflects only decisions indexed by the provider, not a complete docket record." The number is always accompanied by its sample size and timeframe.
We calculate a motion-outcome statistic only when the underlying documents reliably identify the motion and its outcome. If fewer than ten classifiable documents exist, the metric doesn't display a percentage. It displays:
Insufficient verified data to calculate this metric.
That sentence is the honest answer. A made-up percentage is worse than no answer, because it looks authoritative precisely when it isn't.
Even a well-sampled rate never proves bias, favoritism, or misconduct. Case mixes differ, litigant quality differs, legal standards differ. JUDGELENS doesn't rate judges and doesn't rank them. We show what the public record contains, plainly labeled, with sources — and we say "we don't know" whenever the record doesn't support a claim.
Every record links to its original source. Every metric states its methodology. If something looks wrong, request a correction — verified errors get fixed, disputed records get annotated.
A motion to dismiss that gets granted tells you about one case. Whether a pattern exists requires sample size, case mix, and time — here's how to tell the difference.
You got your case assignment and a judge's name you've never heard. Here's how to find the publicly documented record — and how to read it responsibly.
Behind every judge profile is a supply chain of nonprofits, volunteers, and official feeds. Understanding it explains every gap in coverage.