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Today the Special Interest Group (SIG) of the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) released its draft of a Best Practice guide for the use of Active Learning technologies in managing electronic discovery or disclosure in litigation and called on all sector professionals to provide feedback. One of the driving forces behind ILTA is that sharing knowledge empowers everyone and serves the ends of justice.
The proposed Guide was compiled over a six month period by Litigation Support professionals from Norton Rose Fulbright, Eversheds, Squire Patton Boggs, A&O Shearman, Linklaters, Ashurst, Fieldfisher, DLA Piper, Eltemate – a Hogan Lovells Technology Company, Travers Smith, RPC, and CMS, providing a technology agnostic blueprint for the most efficient and fairest way to conduct an Active Learning project.
The conduct of eDisclosure (or eDiscovery) in England and Wales is mainly controlled by Court rules and Practice Directions which encourage parties to consider the use of eDiscovery software tools to search documents using keywords, email threading and other conventional techniques. Technology Assisted Review has been used for some years now, successfully. However recent developments in the use of AI in “Active Learning” are not the subject of specific guidance, and there is a risk of negative impact on justice if techniques are inconsistent between parties or across the industry.
Active Learning applies AI principles to enable eDiscovery to self-adjust, dynamically, based on learning from the document data set in the case. Whilst it offers benefits in effectiveness and efficiency, it is essential that parties know how and when it is being applied by opponents because it can shape the nature of what documents are disclosed. The Guide aims to encourage the use of this technology by outlining a consistent process which lawyers can follow. Legal teams on both sides of a dispute can then be confident that a known and fair process has been followed to satisfy their and their opponents’ disclosure obligations.
Speaking in London, recently retired High Court Master Victoria McCloud, a regular speaker on Legal Tech, AI and e-Discovery who recently attended an ILTA round table meeting said: “It is essential that eDiscovery techniques are efficient, consistent, open and defensible. In the developing field of AI in law, and in the face of court backlogs this Guide if adopted would reduce conflict between opposing parties over the technicalities of Active Learning. It would reduce some of the burden on courts of having to resolve arguments on the mechanics of eDisclosure. Active Learning in particular is a different beast from conventional search techniques because of its self-adjusting capabilities. The power of such a process must be balanced with clarity and this Guide is a vital step in that direction.”
It is the hope of the SIG that the final version of the document will be approved by the Master of the Rolls and the Civil Procedure Rules Committee.
The current version of the document is available for peer group review and feedback. To be provided access to this document please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
The consultation will close on Friday 20th September 2024, after which the document, with resolved edits, will be submitted to the Master of the Rolls.
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