Will Robot Judges Change Litigation and Settlement Outcomes? A First Look at the Algorithmic Replication of Prior Cases

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The promise (or threat) of so-called Robot Judges has captured the attention of popular media and legal scholarship. But little has been said about the details. How would automated judging actually work? Specifically, how does one translate big data and probabilistic predictions into judgments? Exploring the effect of using litigation assessment algorithms in judicial decision making, this article models one form of automated judging. We show that the use of algorithms to assist or automate judicial decision making can distort litigation and settlement outcomes. The particulars of distortion depend on the methods that judges use to translate predictions into judgments. Each method available is accompanied by different costs and different trade offs.