It took a global pandemic to advance new document review models into wider acceptance—from remote discovery to leaner and adoption of advanced technology. As document collections (and eDiscovery risks) continue to grow, without a commensurate increase in the time (or budget), legal teams are under intense pressure to identify new techniques to maximize efficiency and quality, while controlling risk. Tools such as technology-assisted review (TAR) based on continuous active learning certainly help limit costly eyes-on review—but that is often not enough.
Today’s new normal has fueled the adoption of a document review model that empowers in-house teams to optimize technology and resources, minimize risk and gain budget predictability:
1. Enhance alignment with small, agile teams
Many organizes deal with time constraints or increased workload by throwing more review bodies at the project, assuming that more resources will accelerate project completion. In reality, larger review teams introduce risk with inconsistent coding, driving up quality control (QC) costs and time-consuming “re-dos”. Smaller, more focused managed review teams align the attorney reviewers with the client and their external counsel.
Alignment is critical for reliable coding, with consistent QC processes employed for privilege, responsive, non-responsive, PII, hot docs, etc. When robust QC processes are employed from the start, the managed review team can reduce QC by outside counsel to 5% or less, resulting in substantial cost-savings—in the order of tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per project.
2. Exploit technology for better control
Technology-assisted review based on continuous active improves control for reviewer consistency by surfacing likely responsive documents to the top of the pile to review. TAR based on continuous active learning ranks documents to take advantage of additional judgments by reviewers in real-time. As training continues, the algorithm and document rankings improve so the review team finds relevant documents faster. Moreover, TAR can be used stop and validate review at a reasonable recall rate (how many of the relevant documents in a collection have been actually found), saving time and costs of reviewing unnecessary or extra documents. The smaller the team using TAR, the better the review results.
3. Get fixed-fee budget certainty
Alternative fee arrangements are one approach for curbing costs and making providers accountable for time (efficiency), costs and results. Innovative managed review teams provide fixed free pricing upfront, providing budget certainty.
It took a global pandemic to advance new document review models. Today, when large volumes are involved, the solution is never to throw more bodies at the project. Rather, a small, aligned managed review team using optimized technology and comprehensive QC processes will get the job done faster, with measurably better results and at substantially lower cost.
Learn more about OpenText High-Efficiency Managed Review.