eDiscovery Daily Blog

• March 22, 2017

A lot of people can talk about technology assisted review (TAR), but how many people actually know how to conduct an eDiscovery review using TAR?  Here’s a TAR course that’s designed to show you how to do it.

On Ralph Losey’s excellent e-Discovery Team® blog, he has unveiled the e-Discovery Team’s training course on how to conduct electronic document review enhanced by active machine learning, a type of specialized Artificial Intelligence.  In other words, the training course is designed to teach you how to “do” TAR.

The TAR method that Ralph discusses is called Hybrid Multimodal IST Predictive Coding 4.0 and the Course is composed of Sixteen Classes, which are individual pages on the e-Discovery Team site.  The Classes are here (links to each one are available via the Introduction link below):

1. First Class: Introduction
2. Second Class: TREC Total Recall Track
3. Third Class: Introduction to the Nine Insights Concerning the Use of Predictive Coding in Legal Document Review
4. Fourth Class: 1st of the Nine Insights – Active Machine Learning
5. Fifth Class: Balanced Hybrid and Intelligently Spaced Training
6. Sixth Class: Concept and Similarity Searches
7. Seventh Class: Keyword and Linear Review
8. Eighth Class: GIGO, QC, SME, Method, Software
9. Ninth Class: Introduction to the Eight-Step Work Flow
10. Tenth Class: Step One – ESI Communications
11. Eleventh Class: Step Two – Multimodal ECA
12. Twelfth Class: Step Three – Random Prevalence
13. Thirteenth Class: Steps Four, Five and Six – Iterate
14. Fourteenth Class: Step Seven – ZEN Quality Assurance Tests
15. Fifteenth Class: Step Eight – Phased Production
16. Sixteenth Class: Conclusion

Ralph notes that “With a lot of hard work you can complete this online training program in a long weekend. After that, this course can serve as a solid reference to consult during your complex document review projects.”

The sixteen classes in this course cover seventeen topics, split into nine insights and eight workflow steps:

1. Active Machine Learning (aka Predictive Coding)
2. Concept & Similarity Searches (aka Passive Learning)
3. Keyword Search (tested, Boolean, parametric)
4. Focused Linear Search (key dates & people)
5. GIGO & QC (Garbage In, Garbage Out) (Quality Control)
6. Balanced Hybrid (man-machine balance with IST)
7. SME (Subject Matter Expert, typically trial counsel)
8. Method (for electronic document review)
9. Software (for electronic document review)
10. Talk (step 1 – relevance dialogues)
11. ECA (step 2 – early case assessment using all methods)
12. Random (step 3 – prevalence range estimate, not control sets)
13. Select (step 4 – choose documents for training machine)
14. AI Rank (step 5 – machine ranks documents according to probabilities)
15. Review (step 6 – attorneys review and code documents)
16. Zen QC (step 7 – Zero Error Numerics Quality Control procedures)
17. Produce (step 8 – production of relevant, non-privileged documents)

Ralph provides charts to illustrate the insights and steps on his Introduction class.  Ralph notes that they “offer this information for free on this blog to encourage as many people as possible in this industry to get on the AI bandwagon.”  I asked Ralph if he wanted to say anything additional to our readers regarding the course and he told me that he “will be adding homework assignments next at the end of each class.”  I look forward to “diving in” and reviewing the classes on my own ASAP.  Thanks, Ralph!

So, what do you think?   Have you used TAR on a case yet?  If so, how did it go?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.