Legal software

In its Technology Quarterly section in the March 11, 2006, issue of The Economist, there is a brief story about a "new program that uses game theory to produce fairer outcomes when dividing the property of divorcing couples." 

The software -- called "Family Winner" -- is the work of John Zeleznikow and Emilia Bellucci, who teach computer science at Victoria University in Melbourne.  The software "guides the couple through a series of trade-offs and compensation strategies."  The authors tested the program on 50 divorcing couples.  Each person in the couple was given the same number of limited number of points, which they then had to allocate among the property so as to indicate their relative valuation of that property.  The program then assigned all of the property among the couples so as to maximize their joint product.  Each couple that used the program is said to have received 70 - 80 percent of what they most wanted. 

Click here to link to a story written by the software program's authors about "Family Winner."

TSU