In the past few years, document review has begun to change from a heavily-staffed people effort to a solutions-based approach that optimizes both technology and high-level human involvement. Sometimes, though, the description and business case is pushed too far, as some e-discovery professionals advocate for futuristic, technology-centric methods and minimize what skilled document reviewers bring to the process. E-discovery blogs and B2B white papers are replete with assurances for the skeptical, knocking over straw-man Luddite attorneys and judges who stand in the way of progress. Why? In this digital age, does anyone honestly believe that a useful, calibrated application of technology to assist with discovery would be rejected by the courts?
This article first examines the leading authority cited for this proof, a 2011 article in the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology authored by Maura Grossman and Gordon Cormack1 and the 2009 Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) Legal Track Interactive Task study,2 which provides the basis for the Richmond Journal article’s conclusions.3 We explore whether the TREC study is sufficient to support these conclusions, and identify some useful practice points along the way. Finally, we address the computers-versus-humans debate as an insignificant distraction, and discuss what practitioners should be focusing on in this changing e-discovery landscape.
Terminology Primer
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