Technology-Assisted Review and EDiscovery’s Blank Page Problem

In an eDiscovery Today blog post, Dean Athanasopoulos defines the blank page problem in eDiscovery as the difficulty legal professionals face when starting a document review from scratch. The overwhelming amount of electronically stored information can make identifying the most relevant starting point problematic. Technology-assisted review tools—clustering, data visualization, predictive coding, and search term reports—provide a catalyst for starting your review.

Clustering organizes large document sets by grouping similar content, enabling reviewers to identify patterns and key themes at a glance. It allows legal teams to focus on the most germane document clusters rather than manually reviewing each file and provides a structured approach to analysis.

Data visualization further assists the process by transforming raw data into interactive charts, graphs, and timelines. It helps legal teams pinpoint communication patterns, key custodians, and document types, making it easier to navigate vast datasets. 

Additionally, predictive coding leverages machine learning to efficiently review and classify large volumes of ESI. Predictive coding refines the document review process by learning from human input to distinguish between relevant and non-relevant documents. While it doesn’t provide immediate results, it significantly enhances identifying important data after a short period of tagging. 

Search term reports are yet another TAR tool. They help refine searches by analyzing the effectiveness of keyword queries when initial searches return too many or too few keywords. By analyzing hit counts and trends, STRs highlight key themes within the data, ensuring that searches yield germane results. STRs also quickly help identify the most pertinent documents, streamlining the review process.

Without effective strategies, legal teams may waste time sifting through irrelevant documents. By integrating these technology-assisted review tools, legal professionals can overcome the blank page problem, ensuring a more efficient and insightful eDiscovery process and helping legal teams focus on critical information faster to make informed decisions.