Extract from Doug Austin’s article “Machine Learning and AI Use in the UK for eDisclosure”
I recently recognized the 10-year anniversary of now retired New York Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck issued the ruling in the Da Silva Moore case that was the first court approval of predictive coding in the US (or anywhere else for that matter). Judge Peck’s decision “opened the floodgates” for cases that approved using predictive coding – to a point that it’s no longer a question of whether courts will approve it. And we’re seeing many other use cases for machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in legal technology as well.
UK courts got a later start regarding predictive coding acceptance, but their acceptance of machine learning and AI technologies may have caught up quickly with their counterparts on this side of the pond, if not even exceeded it. I decided to revisit that history and look at where things stand today.
First UK Cases Accepting Predictive Coding
UK acceptance of predictive coding happened three to four years after it did here in the US. Here are three notable cases regarding acceptance of predictive coding in the UK:
Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Ltd v. Quinn: It was the Irish who first approved the use of predictive coding in the UK in 2015, almost a full year before it was approved in England (and two weeks before St. Patrick’s Day to boot!). In that case, the process was proposed by the plaintiffs and approved by the court over the objections by the defendants.
