First-pass review of documents for relevance in discovery
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- Against the claims and defenses the lawyer identifies, mark each document as possibly relevant, possibly not, or uncertain, and record the issue it may bear on. Do not produce a document, do not withhold one, and do not put the production set into a public tool.
- What the lawyer must review
- Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(1) provides that, unless otherwise limited by court order, parties may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party's claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case, considering the importance of the issues at stake, the amount in controversy, the parties' relative access to relevant information, the parties' resources, the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues, and whether the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit. Information within that scope need not be admissible in evidence to be discoverable. The lawyer decides what is produced. ABA Model Rule 1.6(a) provides that a lawyer shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent, the disclosure is impliedly authorized in order to carry out the representation, or the disclosure is permitted by paragraph (b). A public generative tool is not a place for a production set.
- Written for / version
- United States versionUS
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | Do not begin AI assistance until the responsible lawyer has defined and confirmed its permitted scope. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Confirm that the actual tool, feature and processing terms permit use of this information, including access, retention, training and disclosure conditions.
- Confirm the output against the client’s instructions and the complete relevant source material, including omissions or contradictions.
- Resolve exceptions and record the responsible lawyer’s approval of the exact output and intended use.
Forms and precedents for this task
| Form or precedent | Kind | AI use | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Litigation hold notice (federal civil) | Notice | AI use Yellow | Notice to a client's custodians to keep documents and electronically stored information once federal litigation is reasonably anticipated, with a counsel log of the steps taken. |
| ESI discovery protocol | Agreement | AI use Yellow | Agreement on preservation, search, and the form of production of electronically stored information in a federal civil case, for use with the Rule 26(f) report or as its own stipulation. |
Signed-in accounts can read the full text of each one. All precedents.