Predictive Coding May Drastically Diminish Document Review by Attorneys

From a class action suit alleging gender discrimination, emerges a groundbreaking development in litigation. A U.S. Magistrate Judge issued a decision that approved the use of “predictive coding” technology as part of the e-discovery process in litigation.

The pioneering case involved a complaint of gender discrimination in employment which is prohibited by both state and federal law.

Predictive coding is computer-assisted search and coding using a complex algorithms to enable a computer to evaluate the relevance of a large collection of documents based on a reviewer’s coding of a small sample of documents. In other words, a computer may be programmed to tag large sets of electronically documents as responsive, non-responsive or privileged from a small sample of documents already tagged by a live attorney during the legal discovery process.

The issue of computer-assisted e-discovery came before the U.S. magistrate judge in the aforementioned case. Although the parties agreed to use computer-assisted technology, they disagreed about the exact methodology and application. The magistrate judge resolved the disagreement by ordering the use of predictive coding to identify relevant documents from a collection of over 3 million emails from documents in the discovery process.

While there has been a lot of discussion of using computer-assisted technology for document review, the magistrate judge’s decision is important because it is the first court-ordered sanction of predictive coding.

The significance of the decision does not mean that predictive coding will be ordered or implemented in every case. The important factors which encouraged the magistrate judge to order the use of predictive coding are:
1. The parties were already in agreement on using computer-assisted electronic discovery
2. The enormous amount of documents requiring legal review
3. The cost effectiveness
4. The clear advantage of using predictive coding in the case.
5. The transparency of the discovery process as proposed by the defendants

An important point in the decision is that the computer-assisted e-discovery process does not have to be perfect to be accepted in court.

Category: Legal /

Florida’s Prescription Fraud Offenses – What You Need to Know

Florida is cracking down on prescription fraud. In an attempt to decrease the number of Floridians who treat with several physicians to obtain the same prescriptions, police are making more and more arrests for violations of Florida Statutes Section 893.13(7) (a) (8), which makes it a felony for a person to treat with more than one physician to obtain the same medication before a prescription refill is permitted.

Multiple Florida statutes, in fact, have been enacted over the years to attempt to halt fraud relating to prescription drugs. As is reported every day, Florida law enforcement is making the curbing of such fraud a priority. Florida’s Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act makes it is a 3rd degree felony (up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine for a first offense) for one to obtain, or attempt to obtain, prescription drugs by fraud, forgery, or misrepresentation. The actual offense of prescription fraud is a crime of intent and action rather than one of possession. Commonly, prescription fraud is charged in addition to the possession offense.

Florida prosecutors, therefore, must prove that there was no Florida-licensed doctor on a prescription or that the doctor’s signature is forged or that the defendant misrepresented to the doctor the reason for the prescription. For example, the State may charge Defendant Doe, if the evidence shows that Defendant Doe lied to his doctor that he lost his prescription or that the prescription was stolen.

The Act further makes it a 1st degree misdemeanor for a defendant to possess a prescription that has not been signed by a Florida-licensed doctor. There are some exceptions for the doctor himself or herself, or an agent thereof, or a pharmacist or a supplier of the prescription pads. As touched on above, the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had the intent to commit the crime – knew that the prescription was indeed phony.

The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act makes is a felony of the 3rd degree for a defendant to keep information from the doctor – for example, that he or she had the same type prescription written by another doctor within a month.

The problem we often see, from teenagers to senior citizens, is that those most often charged have genuine prescription pill addiction problems and need help as the addiction itself is a sickness. You may remember that years ago, even former Governor Jeb Bush’s daughter was arrested for prescription fraud. Most of the time, the addiction does not start from using the prescriptions to get high, but from a legitimate injury or severe illness.

Category: Criminal Law /

Don’t Ruin Your Life By Making A Bad Decision

Back in the day you could pull off an initial offense with merely a slap around the wrist but with many different states applying more stringent no tolerance guidelines it’s more difficult than in the past to obtain free for any Drunk driving. Even the most effective and many skilled lawyers receive hardly any wiggle room in the courtroom system and with no attorney you may also find yourself with a few incarceration.

Obviously, the penalties for consuming underneath the influence do vary around and for that reason it is essential that you discover the laws and regulations that you is going to be attempted and charged because in certain states the utmost penalty for any first offense consuming underneath the influence charge is probation or community service and often a mix of both. In other states, however, a Drunk driving has a firmer penalty of incarceration, license suspension time put in a rehab setting and so on.

In many states however, with the aid of a Drunk driving attorney someone can probably avoid incarceration for any first offense Drunk driving but realize that the fines and court costs together with attorney’s costs can be quite pricey. If you’re on the limited earnings you are able to usually come out obtaining a court hired attorney to face up for you personally in the court. Although this can help you save lots of money a number of these attorney’s have heavy situation loads in most cases cannot dedicate the time and effort essential to fully handle your case as effectively as you possibly can.

Getting a good Drunk driving attorney will become important towards the results of your situation. Searching on the internet and from our phone book will help you locate some lawyers specializing in dealing using this type of criminal law. When you locate several lawyers in your town specializing in Drunk driving cases you may then want to ensure that you verify their record using the Condition Bar Association too to make certain that they’re up to date and have no complaints pending against them.

After you have verified their status using the Bar Association you’ll be able to begin giving them a call. Most lawyers will offer you a totally free consultation either over the telephone or personally with respect to the office that you simply call. It is advisable to make sure that you speak to a couple of different lawyers and discover what they’re about before you decide to pay a retainer. When you pay your Drunk driving attorney a retainer you are virtually devoted to use which means you best make sure that you choose the very best attorney to your requirements and budget and somebody who you understand too.

Category: Traffic Law / Tags: , , , , ,
Page 1 of 1412345...10...Last »