As someone once said, the times they are a changin’. If LegalTech 2010 is any indication, Dylan could have been writing about e-discovery .
It seems that two things have happened – first, document volumes and the corporation’s sensitivity to costs have combined forces to render litigation costs untenable; and second, there is an emerging realization that keyword matching is not a valid solution to the problem.
And people are talking. Here are some quotes from people that I met at LegalTech, talking about the change. Note that the context for some of the comments is Equivio>Relevance, a new software product that organizes document collections by relevance (this is important, for example, in early case assessment, because it allows you to zoom in on the most relevant documents). All the comments were made in private conversations with me, so I am not at liberty to quote names.
Here we go:
“People are litigating less. Document volumes, and concomitant review costs, are forcing people to settle. However, settlement is about negotiation; it does not get justice done. The conclusion is clear: in the absence of an acceptable strategy to deal with the document volumes problem, the courts system and with it, commercial justice itself, are under very real threat.” Ex-attorney, now blogger and Industry consultant.
“I’ve been in litigation support for 30 years, and Equivio>Relevance is the first time I’ve encountered a game-changing technology . Up till now, it was baby steps. This changes things irreversibly.” Litigation Support Manager, Equivio customer, major East Coast law firm.
“Since September 2008, there’s a new lexicon in town. Gone is the talk about the billable hour. Now everyone is talking ‘value for money’ and ‘bang for your buck’. Conversations at the Hilton lobby bar in LegalTech will never be the same.” Attorney, major East Coast law firm.
“Keywords are broken. They are simply not an efficient way to find relevant documents. Everyone knows that but people are in denial. People say, ‘Keywords are the incumbent, and we’ll keep using keywords because keywords are defensible.’ But the truth of the matter is that keywords are inherently indefensible.” Technologist and E-discovery blogger.
“What would I say about LegalTech this year. Fewer vendors. Fewer job hunters. More companies recruiting. More people doing business. Less interest in technology for the sake of technology. More interest in technology to solve the real business problem that will ruin the ediscovery industry if we don’t solve it….more and more and more documents.” Litigation Support Manager, Fortune 100 corporation.
And the consolation prize goes to one of our customers, who just missed out on a top 5 placing: “Equivio>Relevance is the A in ECA.”
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