Powered by Lexis+®
Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related Glossary Terms

Glossary detail
CASE STUDY

“Although cost was an important factor, our relationship with LexisNexis, their responsiveness, flexibility, and the integration available with other products were key factors.”

Irwin Mitchell

Access all documents on Concept searches

Concept searches meaning

What does Concept searches mean?
In legal practice, concept searches are computer‑assisted searches that find documents about an idea or topic, not just those containing exact keywords. They use algorithms (for example, natural language processing and semantic analysis) to identify related terms, themes and context within a document set, surfacing materially relevant documents that keyword searches may miss. The expression is descriptive rather than defined in legislation or case law. It is widely used across disclosure/eDisclosure in England and Wales, discovery in Northern Ireland and Ireland, and recovery via commission and diligence in Scotland. Use is broadly consistent across these jurisdictions. Key features and usage: - Common in litigation disclosure/discovery, regulatory investigations, and due diligence. - Often part of technology assisted review (TAR)/predictive coding workflows and early case assessment. - Complements keyword searches and concept clustering to narrow review sets. Practical significance: - Can improve proportionality, recall and efficiency. - Requires a defensible methodology, including testing, sampling and quality control, with clear audit trails. England and Wales: parties are expected to consider appropriate technology under CPR Practice Direction 57AD and to record approach (for example, in the Disclosure Review Document). Similar proportionality and reasonableness principles guide tool selection in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Speed up all aspects of your legal work with tools that help you to work faster and smarter. Win cases, close deals and grow your business–all whilst saving time and reducing risk.

View the related Practice Notes about Concept searches

PRACTICE NOTES
Electronic disclosure glossary: ESI, AI and search terminology for CPR 31/PD 31B and the Business & Property Courts Disclosure Scheme (England and Wales)

Read this Practice Note alongside Practice Note: Disclosure under CPR 31—introduction, or the Disclosure Scheme (Business & Property Courts)—overview, according to the disclosure scheme operating in the court where the claim is being pursued (for further guidance, see: Which disclosure rules apply to my claim—flowchart?). Term Definition Artificial Intelligence (AI) — a technological means that imitates human thought processes, producing either extractive (summarising) or generative (creating) outcomes. back-up tapes — tapes holding preserved data; termed ‘back-up’ because information is copied to them and kept as a contingency. Also covers any method where data is routinely captured and stored separately for risk management. See also incremental back-ups below. bit and byte — electronic information is measured in bits, indicating storage space. 8 bits = 1 byte. 1 byte approximates to one text character; 1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte. clustering — a search approach that automatically finds similar documents and arranges them into groups. concept searches — a search method that uses algorithms to...

Read More Right Arrow
PRACTICE NOTES
Arrest, custody and suspect rights in Scotland: police and regulator powers, questioning, searches, custody limits, reviews and liberation under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016

Temporary justice measures: Temporary measures remain in force across Scotland’s justice system, which may affect the usual practice set out in this Practice Note and its guidance. For further detail, see Coronavirus (COVID-19)—Scotland tracker [Archived]—Corporate Crime in Scotland. Practitioners will recognise the former concepts of ‘detention’ and ‘arrest’ under the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (CP(S)A 1995). Insofar as relevant to this Practice Note, the pertinent CP(S)A 1995 provisions—covering police questioning and access to a solicitor—were repealed by the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 (CJ(S)A 2016), and superseded. The 2016 Act replaced ‘detention’ and ‘arrest’ with a single, unitary concept of ‘arrest’ and set out provisions for police custody, the rights of arrested persons, police powers, police questioning, and release from police custody, accordingly. It also introduced the status of ‘officially accused’ persons recognised in the legislation, as set out in statute therein. Under CJ(S)A 2016, s 1, police constables are empowered to arrest, without a warrant, a person suspected of having committed, or committing, an...

Read More Right Arrow