Recently there have been some good commentaries on the use of Technology Assisted Review (“TAR”) in the discovery process.
The first was an excellent guide to the TAR process from leading eDiscovery Consultant Terry Harrison, who is based in South Africa.
The other was a case study by Australian litigation support provider Law In Order, on a matter that I managed for a New Zealand law firm and a large global client. The case study explains how TAR saved the client considerable time and money, whilst also the competitive advantage it gave a small specialist litigation law firm to manage a large document heavy matter.
Many will have heard similar justifications of deploying TAR previously (I have also written many posts), but there is always value in hearing how effective TAR can be in tackling the discovery process.
TAR has been around for many years, although it is only starting to become more mainstream.
Smarter methods to tackle discovery
Todays’ increasing data volumes and the subsequent cost of managing this data require us to work smarter and make better use of technology.
It has simply become too expensive to ‘eye ball’ every potentially relevant document. New tools have been developed to respond to these challenges to enable lawyers to identify relevant documents required to be disclosed more quickly and cost effectively.
TAR is a proven method to effectively get through large volumes of information. It is considerably faster, cheaper and more accurate than any human review method ! It prioritises what we look at, allowing you to get to the most important information, whilst quickly removing irrelevant material.
Surely that cannot be a bad thing?
Simplifying how to deploy TAR
Often what restricted TAR adoption was the work required upfront with training and protocols, whilst also justifying its use. The shift to more continuous active learning, whereby the technology continues to learn as the review progresses has helped simplify the use and adoption of TAR.
As TAR is always running in the background, you can choose if or when to use it.
I have found this beneficial when at the outset, the legal team may not be certain about deploying TAR, but know that they can utilise it later if they choose. Inevitably I have found on large matters, the onerous nature of the exercise, may only be realised once they review is well underway. The advantage is they can quickly deploy TAR, which has been working in the background, fully using the existing work of their review.
TAR is being used, and by more than you might think…
I am often asked if TAR is actually being used in practice. Many are surprised, when I explain how many people I use TAR with, just here in New Zealand. They are comforted when I explain the type of matter, both volume of documents and size of firm.
Sure, not all of these instances of using TAR make headlines or Court decisions, but there is an increasing number that are using TAR in one form or another. Not everyone is using TAR in its fullest sense, but the adoption of TAR is increasing all of the time.
Typically what I find is once TAR has been used, the more likely they want to use it on their next matter.
For many it is just taking that first step !
While TAR will not be right for every matter, it should at least be one of the options considered.
If you would like to know more about TAR, then do not hesitate to contact me. I will be able to explain more about how the process works, together with if it might be the right option for you.
