With e-discovery costs still skyrocketing, both judges and litigants have sought ways to reduce expense. Some have turned to predictive coding, an advanced form of technology- or computer-assisted review (TAR or CAR), which is gaining acceptance in the courts.

Predictive coding enables a computer to predict whether electronic documents should be classified as responsive or nonresponsive to a discovery request, relying on input by attorney reviewers. In a 2012 FTI Consulting Inc. survey, 54 percent of respondents said they had used predictive coding, the majority in pilot projects.