Many corporate legal professionals admit that they will benefit a lot if the costs of eDiscovery are reduced. In fact, some of them have consolidated their eDiscovery solutions in a move to reduce the costs while others are in the process of doing so. Other enterprises are looking into a possibility of in-sourcing ediscovery software to help them in their litigation and due diligence endeavors. While that is possible, each legal department needs to find one which is suitable for its needs because, in some cases, litigation profiles are not the same. Therefore, how do you identify the best eDiscovery system?
What is eDiscovery?
eDiscovery entails processing of data in six different phases namely, data identification, secured storage, data processing, data review, data analysis as well as data production to meet mandates put in place by common-law requirements for discovery.
In most cases, a small portion of the available structured and unstructured data is useful to lawyers. Therefore, physically going a large collection of data in a hope to find the relevant information can be hectic. Therefore, eDiscovery tools are available to make work easier for litigation lawyers.
The courts endorsed use of eDiscovery tools in 2012 for the first time. Since then, technology assisted review and analysis have been an important part of eDiscovery processes. Automated reduction technology helps to streamline the screening of responsive data. Additionally, customizable workflows can be really helpful when producing documents. Another essential component of eDiscovery process is reporting. The reports help to substantiate the amount of data collected, culled as well as produced and this goes in a long way to optimize business workflows as well as standards in the next cases.
Search Capabilities
The fundamental feature to look for is an eDiscovery tool with robust search capabilities. Additionally, it should possess powerful search query editor. It also has sophisticated search technologies.
Leverage Metadata
It should have data filtering capabilities such as system location, access time, size, custodian as well as file type. If it can identify patterns. It can also identify anomalies through large data sets, that’s the best tool you can get.
Machine Learning Capabilities
If the tool is inclusive of predictive coding, it will learn what is relevant. And after it learns what is relevant it makes a decision to build a data model to “search more like this”. It can also identify anomalies.
Systems Interfacing
The best eDiscovery solution can be easily integrated to other systems. Therefore, can analyze data from different systems such as fax, chat, emails among others. The integration possibilities are numerous.
Rolling Data Loads
It should be able accommodate new data entries while review process is on-going. This will meet the dynamic needs of investigations. The machine learning capabilities should be robust enough not to be interrupted.
Data Security and Integrity
The eDiscovery solution shouldn’t alter document properties. It should be able to preserve the integrity of data. It can also forensically sound collections.
Audit Trails and Reporting
Your eDiscovery tool should register how data was collected, handled as well as the origin of the data. It also registers important decision records. It also will review workflows.
Comprehensive Capabilities
You should look for eDiscovery solution that has comprehensive capabilities. Capabilities that integrates different components to give you a variety of functionalities. And give you less dependency on third-parties.
