Time For Document Review 2.0

An arguably bigger issue relates to privileged documents. Because review 1.0 is so inefficient, clients are often unwilling to pay for a separate pass through the document collection to specifically look for privileged documents. However, with the sheer volume of today’s document collections, review attorneys using review 1.0 tools are increasingly missing key documents—to the great alarm of the same clients who are unwilling to foot the bill for multiple passes through the same collection. The net result of all of these review 1.0 shortcomings is more cost, greater risk (for outside counsel and clients), inferior service and, ultimately, lower chances for success on the merits.

What Should Review 2.0 Look Like?
Given the shortcomings of review 1.0, the obvious question is "What can be done to improve the review process?" Put another way, what would a better approach look like? The best place to start is to look at what this new and improved process (we’ll call it "review 2.0") should deliver. At a high level, review 2.0 should allow attorneys to conduct a "computer-expedited review," meaning attorneys would contribute the high-level analysis for which they have been trained while having the computer handle the lower value, more repetitive elements of the review. Outside counsel should not be required to make multiple passes through the same document collection. Similar documents should be able to be coded in similar ways quickly and easily, so reviewers don’t have to "recreate the wheel" during review and can instead leverage work already completed. Such an approach should dramatically modernize the review process while still allowing attorneys to truthfully stand before a judge and state unequivocally that every document in a collection had been reviewed and coded by a real attorney.

The benefits from this would be significant. Attorneys would be able to work far more efficiently, which in turn would lower e-discovery bills for clients while in the process delivering a higher level of service. Review 2.0 would also dramatically expedite the e-discovery process, providing a strategic advantage for any attorney utilizing it—an advantage which is all the more pronounced under the revised FRCP. Finally, review processes would be more consistent and accurate, which would greatly reduce the odds of key documents being missed or privileged documents mistakenly being turned over to the other side. 

Meet Review 2.0: One Click Coding
Launched in August of 2007 with Recommind’s Axcelerate e-discovery product, One Click Coding™ represents a dramatic modernization of the review process. At a high level, One Click Coding uses a very small amount of input from a senior attorney to produce computer-generated coding "suggestions" for each document in a collection, with explicit confidence scores for every coding suggestion and key terms highlighted, all of which is made visible in the reviewer’s coding panel. This entire process occurs before any documents (other than the small sample set) have been reviewed, and before the review process itself has even started. This allows attorneys to instantly gain context for each document, dramatically expediting the review process while simultaneously improving the accuracy and consistency of the entire review process. And the best part of the system may be what it doesn’t do: by supplementing—but not replacing—the coding decisions of the review attorney, One Click Coding delivers review 2.0 benefits using the same processes and approaches attorneys and judges have used for years.

While the algorithms powering One Click Coding may be complex, how the system works is not. The basic process is as follows:

• A senior attorney (usually a senior associate, junior partner or highly seasoned paralegal) locates a few documents which are representative of whatever categories for which they need to code documents (typically responsiveness, relevance, privileged and relationship to issues and subject codes for starters);
• The senior attorney tags the documents—usually 5-20 in number—to the relevant category(ies), which tells the software what it should be looking for;
• The One Click Coding system then uses these sample documents to "retrain" the entire collection of documents, basically identifying the similar elements in the sample set and rating every other document with respect to these elements;
• Documents are assigned for review (by the senior attorney, a paralegal or someone else entirely) in the Axcelerate e-discovery system;
• Individual reviewers then open each document assigned to them and look at the computer-generated coding suggestions and highlighted words in each document to instantly gain context for each document;
• Reviewers can simply follow the coding suggestions and click "save," or can adjust the codes for each parameter asnecessary; and
• Once the documents are coded for each relevant parameter, the review process is done.

The benefits of One Click Coding are numerous and significant. To begin with, because the system utilizes sophisticated conceptual search and auto-categorization algorithms (a byproduct of Recommind’s core technological expertise), it delivers better document "recall" and "precision" than a review 1.0 process does. To translate this to English, the system is more accurate with respect to the coding designation given to a particular set of documents (precision) and better at ensuring all documents which should be given a particular coding designation are, in fact, included in such category. This means the system is much more likely to not miss key documents (the proverbial "smoking gun") while also ensuring documents are not mislabeled (e.g. preventing privileged documents from being inadvertently produced due to coding errors). Additionally, theentire review process becomes dramatically quicker as attorneys are given significant context for each document, similar documents can be "bulk coded" as appropriate and relevant terms within each document are highlighted before a reviewer even looks at it. Inaddition to speed, this allows for a more consistent review across all reviewers, regardless of location. By incorporating all reviewer input, including repeated adjustments to a single category which can automatically force a computer-generated "retraining," One Click Coding also "learns" in real time, and allows the senior attorney to effect quality control across an entire review in near real-time.

The tactical benefits delivered by One Click Coding include greater speed, accuracy, consistency and efficiency, which in turn provide dramatic strategic advantages for clients and outside counsel alike. Document collections can be reviewed much more quickly, which gives outside counsel a significant leg up on the competition from the case’s outset while also keeping e-discovery costs down for clients. This allows both client and outside counsel to negotiate from a position of strength right away, and focus resources appropriately with all requisite knowledge. In today’s hypercompetitive litigation environment operating under stringent new rules, such an advantage will often make all the difference in the world.