WHY SCALES?
Because The Vast Majority of Federal Litigation is Dark Matter
The SCALES – OKN (Systematic Content Analysis of Litigation EventS Open Knowledge Network) team is composed of computer and data scientists, legal scholars, journalists and policy experts, to develop a suite of tools to enable access to court records and analytics.
Our goal over the next three years is to build an AI powered data platform that makes the details of the federal judiciary and insights into how it works available and accessible to every single person.
Why are we on this mission?
The 94 federal courts have a profound effect on the administration of law in the United States, deciding cases that range from civil rights issues to nationwide product liability cases that affect every single American.
The reality is that almost everything we know about how the federal judiciary works comes from the written opinions of judges. These opinions are issued in less than 10% of cases—creating a vast dark matter of litigation that academics, policymakers, and the public know little about.
