After reading the new Technology Assisted Review (TAR) Guidelines from EDRM, it is clear that the evolution of the underlying technology in TAR solutions is reshaping the role of the subject matter expert (SME). While the Guidelines maintain the role of the SME—typically an experienced (and expensive) attorney most familiar with the project’s subject matter—in ensuring reviewer accuracy and assisting in training the model, they also acknowledge the emergence of new technologies which can reduce the burden on the SME.
Newer active learning solutions allow for a continuous training of the model through a prioritized review. This spares the SME the review of multiple training and QC rounds associated with TAR 1.0 solutions, and allows more time for more targeted training. TAR 1.0 solutions can take more time to train the model, whereas the training of the active learning model begins after reviewing a smaller threshold amount of documents.
