Australian firms not using technology during the course of discovery run the risk of being left behind.
The use of Technology Assisted Review (TAR) has become so widely accepted that it is considered black letter law in the US, according to US District Court Judge and TAR pioneer, Justice Andrew Peck. With courts in Ireland, and most recently in Britain, approving the use of TAR, it is only a matter of time before courts in Australia follow suit.
With many large Australian firms already using this data analysis technology during the course of their discovery review process, there is a risk that the rest of the legal community will be left behind. The leap required for an Australian court to endorse the use of this technology is not as great as you may think. In February this year, the UK case Pyrrho Investments v MWB Property endorsed the use of TAR and was based upon US and Ireland case law.
kCura Corporation, creators of the industry leading e-discovery software Relativity, recently purchased data analytics company Content Analyst to better integrate the use of analytics and TAR into standard document review workflows. This purchase was due in part to the exponential growth in the use of data analytics, which according to kCura is up 1,500 per cent since 2011.
These strategic advances are seen as particularly important to the legal technology community.
“In the future, we believe all e-discovery matters will use some form of text analytics because of the advantages it provides at every stage of the process,” said Andrew Sieja, kCura President and CEO.
Law In Order has been providing delivery of TAR and data analytics to its clients through the use of Relativity since 2009 and has seen significant growth in the use of data analytics in the Australian market in this time.
In a recent case study, Law In Order used TAR with such great success, they estimate to have saved more than 5,000 hours of legal review. With these advances in technology the challenge for law firms is to keep pace with an ever-changing technological landscape.
For further information on Law In Order’s eDiscovery solutions, contact our team.
This article appeared in the May 2016 issue of Lawyers Weekly.
