Extract from Dave Lewis’ article “DOJ proposes advanced review tech for the Michael Cohen Privilege Review”
Yesterday, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York proposed that a special master, aided by technology-assisted review, be assigned to make the initial privilege determinations on materials that the FBI seized in its raid on Michael Cohen’s office and hotel room. The DOJ proposal is a fascinating document for the electronic discovery industry, and perhaps a confusing one for others following the Cohen case. Here’s a primer on the technologies involved.
What is Technology-Assisted Review?
Technology-assisted review (TAR) is the use of machine learning and related technologies to accelerate the review of documents in lawsuits, investigations, and other legal matters. Over the past few decades, the volume of documents — particularly email and text messages — relevant to any given legal matter has exploded. It is often impossible for the attorneys and investigators to read every document of potential interest. Increasingly they are turning to TAR. TAR substantially speeds review and, given the frailties of human reviewers, studies have shown it can be as or more effective than brute-force human examination of every document.
