EDRM releases TAR Guidelines (2019)

Guidelines aim to define and demystify technology-assisted review and to encourage widespread adoption of TAR processes

EDRM has released a comprehensive set of guidelines that aim to objectively define and explain technology-assisted review for members of the judiciary and the legal profession.

The goal, editors say, is to provide a wide audience with an authoritative and clear understanding of the reasons to use technology-assisted review, known as TAR, in litigation, and the processes by which TAR works.

A PDF of the full document is available here.

The guidelines define TAR as “a review process in which humans work with software to train it to identify relevant documents.” The process consists of several steps, including collection and analysis of documents, training the computer using software, quality control and testing, and validation. The guidelines say TAR is an alternative to the manual review of all documents in a discovery process that is at least as accurate and far more time- and cost-efficient than manual review.

The 50-page document contains four chapters: The first chapter defines technology assisted review and the TAR process. The second chapter lays out a standard workflow for the TAR process. The third chapter examines alternative tasks for applying TAR, including prioritization, categorization, privilege review, and quality and quantity control. Chapter four discusses factors to consider when deciding whether to use TAR, such as document set, cost, timing, and jurisdiction.

If TAR is still mysterious to you, this sounds like a document you might want to read. You can find the full document here.