Point of viewProcurement & public finance

Government's hidden liability: cases and arbitrations nobody can total

Cases and arbitrations against government run for years across courts and tribunals. Without one record, exposure and ageing are guessed. A single analytics view — and actions tracked to closure — changes that.

5 min read By · Point of view
8
analysis modules in a litigation platform we built for cases against central ministries1

Key takeaways

  • Litigation data is spread across ministries, courts and law officers, so total exposure is rarely known.
  • Ageing and pendency, not just counts, show where attention is needed.
  • Analytics only help if the actions they prompt are owned, dated and tracked.
  • Legal strategy stays with law officers; agents total, track and remind.

Every ministry and department carries a portfolio of court cases and arbitrations. Individually each is managed by a law officer; collectively they are a financial liability that is rarely added up, and an ageing problem that is rarely seen whole.

What one view makes visible

Exhibit 1

Modules in the litigation platform we built

From our public-sector case study

ModuleWhat it answers
Executive dashboardHow many cases, how many open, win rate, financial exposure
Ministry analysisWhich ministries and departments carry the load
Court & statusWhere cases are and how courts compare
Financial analysisExposure on open cases; high-value cases flagged
Ageing & pendencyHow old cases are, across nine ageing buckets
Category analysisWhich of 43 service-matter types drive cases
Advocate analysisOutcomes and duration by advocate
Case explorer & reportsDrill to any case; build custom reports

Note: Capabilities as built.

Source: DaasLabs, “Public-sector case study: from case files and spreadsheets to a decision record” (2026)

From insight to action

For a law ministry's arbitration work we went a step further: decisions from a review are emailed to the owning office with the relevant data extract, a priority, an SLA and an escalation path; progress is updated from a link, and overdue actions are flagged. The dashboard stops being a report and becomes a way of running the portfolio.

For executives

What this means for your bank

  1. Build one case record across ministries and departments.
  2. Report ageing and exposure, not just counts.
  3. Turn review decisions into owned, dated actions.
  4. Keep legal strategy with law officers.
Put it to work

How DaasLabs can help

Build litigation analytics in our Procurement, Public Finance & Audit service.

Learn more

Read the case study.

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See the finance, litigation and audit agent squad.

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Sources

  1. 1

Figures are drawn from the cited public sources. Opinions labelled “DaasLabs point of view” are our own.

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