Search results for: m2a

A couple of years ago, we were overjoyed to learn that our very favorite old-fashioned Broadway musical was being revived. The lead role – a famously brassy female character – was being played by a famously brassy singer and sometime-actress we believed was perfectly cast.   We bought tickets the day they went on sale, and…

Congress authorized multidistrict litigation “for the convenience of parties and witnesses” and to “promote the just and efficient conduct of such actions.”  28 U.S.C. §1407(a).  As we’ve documented in many posts in our MDL topic, the reality – at least in product liability mass torts involving prescription medical products – is so far from…

Predictive coding (also called “technology assisted review” (“TAR”)) involves the use of computerized artificial intelligence to extrapolate from attorney coding of small (and repeated) sample document sets ultimately to govern huge document productions. This technology has appeared (to us) probably the most promising development in discovery since that subject went electronic … and promptly ran badly off the rails due to exorbitant cost. Nothing else we know of – short of significantly tighter legal limits on discovery − has the promise of reducing ediscovery costs to the extent that predictive coding can. Thus, we’ve blogged about it several times since 2012, when the first cases contemplating its use were decided.

But we haven’t said much recently.

Eighteen months can be forever on the technological frontier, so we decided to take another look at the case law to see what had happened to predictive coding since the first three cases in 2012.

The case law has exploded. Where only a handful of cases existed back then, now we find dozens. Substantively, we’re happy to report that courts don’t seem to have anything bad to say about using computers to undertake relevance review for documents subject to production in litigation.Continue Reading Courts Have Nothing But Good Things To Say About Predictive Coding

Let’s see whether it works: Discovery!  Are you excited?  How about this: Technology Assisted Review!!  Nothing yet? How about: Predictive Coding!!!  We gave you three exclamation points for that one.  Are you pumped yet?

Yeah, neither are we. But we’re going to discuss these things anyway, in particular the way in which the court addressed them in a recent MDL decision in the hip implant litigation.  In re Biomet M2A Magnum Hip Implant Prods. Liab. Litig., 2013 WL 1729682 (N.D. Ind. Apr. 18, 2013).  Why?  Because it’s important for anyone whose practice involves discovery of massive amounts of electronically stored information (ESI) – and mass torts certainly qualify – to understand the potential cost savings for clients presented by technology assisted searches and the legal viability of implementing them.

We’ve blogged about predictive coding before.  Look here.  In short, predictive coding software “learns” from the user’s selections or preferences and identifies – with greater accuracy as it learns – what the user wants to find.  It’s used for many things on the Internet, and it’s now being used to identify electronic documents for production in litigation.  The process involves an initial interaction between the software and reviewing attorneys, but at some point the software should be able to take it from there alone (for the most part).  Here’s how the MDL court described the process that Biomet used to conduct it review of the 2.5 million documents it selected for review:

Under predictive coding, the software “learns” a user’s preferences or goals; as it learns, the software identifies with greater accuracy just which items the user wants, whether it be a song, a product, or a search topic.  Biomet used a predictive coding service called Axelerate and eight contract attorneys to review a sampling of the 2 .5 million documents.  After one round of “find more like this” interaction between the attorneys and the software, the contract attorneys (together with other software recommended by Biomet’s e-discovery vendor) reviewed documents for relevancy, confidentiality, and privilege.

Id. at *1. While it can reduce costs, things still aren’t cheap.  The review cost Biomet $1.07 million, and Biomet projected that its ultimate costs would total $3.25 million.  But a manual attorney review would have cost much more, and what plaintiffs were asking the court to order Biomet to do would have cost millions more.Continue Reading Plaintiffs Discover Risks of Refusing to Participate in Predictive Coding Discovery

Drug & Device Resources

Bexis’ Book

FDA-regulated products now account for an estimated one-fifth of overall economic activity in the U.S. They have also been the focus of a litigation explosion. This timely guide covers all aspects of litigation involving drugs, medical devices, vaccines and other FDA-regulated prescription products.
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