Due to increasing data volumes and the subsequent cost of managing this data require us to work smarter to find new ways that enable us to get to the most important information quickly and cost effectively. Technology Assisted Review (“TAR”) is one of these smarter ways.
Needless to say it has simply become too expensive to ‘eye ball’ every potentially relevant document.
Recently LawTalk published an article of mine – Working Smarter to reduce the cost & burden of the discovery process. The article highlighted how TAR is a proven method to effectively get through large volumes of information, being considerably faster, cheaper and more accurate than any human review method !
Even though TAR has been around for many years, it is only now becoming more mainstream. I mentioned how one of the advantages is that you can choose as and when to use it –
As TAR is always running in the background, you can choose if or when to use it.
This is beneficial as the legal team may not be certain about deploying TAR at the outset, but know that they can utilise it later if they choose. Often the onerous nature of a discovery exercise is only fully realised once they review is well underway. The advantage is it is easy to quickly deploy TAR, which has been working in the background, fully utilising your existing review work.
I reinforced how TAR is not solely for large firms or for large matters, as TAR is a great option to empower those with limited resources and budgets.
TAR is often thought of as a tool primarily for large firms working with high document volumes, however TAR can be just as valuable for smaller firms that may have limited resources and budgets. Smaller firms often need to look for smarter ways to work to compete with larger firms on matters with large document volumes.
TAR also helps firms with less resources manage a matter that may otherwise have been too vast and costly for them to manage. By working smarter and embracing options like TAR, firms that may have limited resources can help produce faster, cheaper and better results than competitors that use more traditional methods.
Deploying TAR can enable firms to maximise the expertise of maybe just one or two lawyers. This assists them conduct the discovery exercise quicker and cheaper, so they can devote their energies into progressing the rest of the matter post the discovery process.
TAR could be your answer
These messages are reinforced in the conclusion of the LawTalk article –
If you are finding eDiscovery both challenging and expensive, then Technology Assisted Review could be your answer.
TAR will not be right for every matter, although it should be one of the options you consider if you want to work smarter to reduce the cost and burden of the discovery process.
Any option that facilitates getting to the most important information quicker and cheaper, whilst helping to isolate irrelevant material, cannot be a bad thing !
You can read the full article in LawTalk here.
