FILTERING
The volume of electronic information associated with a litigation matter can be staggering. Current estimates are that over 97% of business documents generated electronically never are printed to paper for archival purposes. As nearly every attorney now recognizes, a search for responsive evidence that overlooks electronically stored information simply cannot withstand scrutiny.
Conversely, due to the volume of data the days of opening a potential witness's filing cabinet and reviewing every document for responsiveness are long gone. Emails, texts and tweets often are preferred over phones as a source of instant communication, and many people receive hundreds of emails a day from unwanted spammers. Additionally, backup processes can result in an exponential increase in electronic documents, as with the click of a button millions of duplicative records can be created in a new location nearly instantly. The need to narrow and de-duplicate the universe of documents is clear, and methodologies that rely on attorneys reviewing all witnesses' documents for responsiveness often are unduly costly, time consuming and for the reviewers soul-crushingly tedious!
Utilizing sophisticated data filtering techniques, Elijah can substantially reduce the cost and time associated both with data review and e-discovery processing by performing a variety of data filtering strategies. As computer forensic experts we can employ sophisticated tools to screen out "junk" files prior to processing and review. This can include screening out undesirable file types such as system and program files, eliminating files known to be common programs rather than user-generated (known as "de-NISTing") and otherwise limiting the types of files to be processed based on client specifications.
Elijah also can employ data culling strategies similar to, but more advanced than, the types of queries attorneys have employed for years in online research tools., These methodologies can include filtering by keywords, phrases, Boolean expressions, proximity searches, dates, email senders/recipients and custodians. We then can de-duplicate the entire collection, ensuring that your team is reviewing every unique document only once.
Elijah’s experienced e-discovery team also can provide consulting services relating to the breadth of search expressions, catching potential issues before a significant investment is made in filtering and processing costs. Elijah has provided expert testimony regarding the costs, burden and scope of e-discovery filtering and production. In short, Elijah is not just an e-discovery processing vendor — we are your e-discovery experts.
Horror Story Averted
A national law firm recently directed Elijah to filter and process a large volume of data. After performing the data filtering, Elijah observed that the percentage of documents meeting the search term criteria was very high.
Rather than process all responsive data as directed, Elijah alerted the client to the issue, provided an associated cost estimate and delivered a detailed search hit report so the client could evaluate whether to modify or eliminate search terms. The client ultimately elected to proceed on a far more limited basis.
Elijah earned a small fraction of the revenue that we otherwise would have if we had proceeded as originally instructed. But we also earned something invaluable – our client’s trust.
Elijah can provide cost-competitive services in large part because we don’t rely on a huge sales staff to bring in new engagements. We rely on that trust, and so far the phones keep on ringing.