Co-authored by Thomas Connor, Technical Specialist, and Karyn Harty, Partner, of McCann FitzGerald, Technology in Practice 2017 Thursday Morning Keynote Speakers.

Instead of fighting the change that is prevalent in the legal industry, McCann FitzGerald embraced it by turning disruptive, cutting-edge technology to their advantage, and using it to support their expert legal advice to the ultimate benefit of their clients.

"The onus is on us to ask ourselves: how can we leverage these new and emerging technologies to create innovative and sustainable revenue streams?”

In eDiscovery, lawyers often think they’re experts at crafting keyword search terms to reduce the volume of documents for manual review. Unfortunately, lawyers, and human beings in general, are not good at stringing together Boolean search terms that result in finding all relevant, or potentially relevant, documents.

The problem with developing highly-accurate keyword search terms is often caused by one of two things:

1. The human tendency toward confirmation bias – “the tendency to search for, interpret, and recall information in a way that confirms one's pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses”. – The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making, p. 233
   
   
2. Humans don’t know what they don’t know, or what I like to call, the “unknown unknowns”.

The result? Keyword search strings inherently miss the "unknown unknowns", and are therefore not complete.

Here's an example...

THE CASE:

There has been a lot of buzz about the Ernst & Young Inc. v. Essar Global Fund Ltd et al, 2017 ONSC 4017 (CanLII) Ontario Superior Court decision regarding the recovery of eDiscovery document review costs within the context of a bankruptcy proceeding under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). While on the surface it may look like the Court attempted to liken apples to oranges by comparing the dissimilar outsourced review costs borne by each of the Applicant (“Algoma”) and the Defendant (the “Essar Defendants”), this is not the case.

Myths, misconceptions, alternative facts... whatever you want to call them, these days they seem to have a way of working themselves into all facets of our lives, and the eDiscovery industry is no exception. Technology is constantly changing and evolving, and misinformation can lead even the most seasoned legal professional down the wrong path.

Here are six common myths about Technology-Assisted Review (TAR) that we'd like to dispel and uncover the truth once and for all. 

Small and mid-sized law firms face unique challenges when managing eDiscovery. Data volumes that seem manageable to a larger firm may be overwhelming to a boutique firm or sole-practitioner.

In an effort to support a legal profession with systemic challenges accessing technology, and barriers for accessing legal services, the American Bar Association (ABA) established a Commission on the Future of Legal Services. The Commission presented an Annual Report on August 6, 2016 with key recommendations. In its publication, the ABA wrote that, regarding the legal profession, the proliferation of technology, such as mobile apps and artificial intelligence that now does the work of multiple lawyers, continues to change how legal services can be accessed and delivered.

“We must open our minds to innovative approaches and to leveraging technology
in order to identify new models to deliver legal services. Those who seek legal assistance expect us to deliver legal services differently. It is our duty to serve the public, and it is our duty to deliver justice, not just to some, but to all.” 

- William C. Hubbard, American Bar Association President 2014-15

The legal profession as a whole stands to gain from predictive analytics. For legal professionals, predictive analytics is a strategic tool to anticipate risks, provision expenses related to litigation and assist in decision-making by providing helpful insight that will guide one into the right direction. It can also uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations, and other useful business information...

During the course of the 500-day-long U.S. Presidential Election campaign, there has been a great amount of discussion and concern surrounding the review of Hillary Clinton’s emails. Most recently, James Comey, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, sent a letter to Congress indicating that the FBI had “reviewed” all 650,000 documents contained on a newly-discovered laptop owned by Huma Abedin, a close aide to Hillary Clinton.

A revolutionary document review offering that seamlessly aligns human expertise with technology efficiency.

TORONTO, ON, CANADA – October 6, 2016 – Commonwealth Legal, a division of Ricoh Canada and the Canadian leader in ediscovery solutions, is pleased to announce the launch of a brand new service offering: Intelligent Review.