While e-discovery software is commonly used by law firms to cut down on the time and costs associated with document review, an evolving technology called “predictive coding” is making some firms uneasy about the defensibility and reliability of producing documents.
Unlike previous e-discovery methods that relied on humans to develop and conduct keyword searches, predictive coding (also known as computer-assisted review) is an automated process that culls through electronic documents and analyzes them for attributes other than keywords such as context and word frequency. It’s not, however, without human input, because the software requires attorneys familiar with a case to set the search parameters ["The Electronic Eye," Litigation Supplement, Fall 2011].
