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e-Discovery conjures up visions of millions of documents and cases that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Although these are the cases that make the headlines, the average litigation typically involves less than 10,000 records, or about one gigabyte of electronic data.
When law clerks describe “a small document” collection, the usual approach is to either print everything out for review, convert everything to tiff images, or review the native files without any special, e-discovery tools. As anyone who reads this blog (and countless others on the net) knows, these are the least efficient, and most costly methods, regardless of the collection size. While it will not cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to deal with a small volume of electronic information, e-discovery methodologies developed for large document cases, including near duplicate and email thread grouping, statistical sampling, predictive coding, and content analysis, can be equally applied to small cases to ensure that the overall discovery cost is as low as possible. For example, a 10,000 record collection would require a review of about 400 records in order to apply predictive coding or statistical sampling. Given the current pricing of the various predictive coding solutions, it would cost under $500 to analyse this data. Combine that with about 10 hours of lawyer time to review the 400 documents, and you would have your records all sorted and prioritized. You can then shave off the ones that are likely to be irrelevant, skip the ones you’ve already reviewed, and probably spend another 10 hours or so reviewing the rest. Compare that to the cost to print out 10 bankers boxes of paper, along with the manual (and tedious) lawyer review, and you can clearly see how this approach can save thousands of dollars and millions of brain cells. Wortzman Nickle can add value to any size case. Call us to find out how. According to a story by Lesley Ciarula Taylor published today in the Toronto Star’s Business section, Atos Origin, a global information technology company, is giving its employees three years to abolish the use of all internal emails.
A shocking prospect? Consider this: Hearing reports that employees were spending hours each evening to manage their email, and that middle managers spend 25% of their time just searching for information, and estimating that only 10% of all emails are corporately useful, the company has taken the position that email “pollutes the work environment and encroaches into personal lives.” The CEO, Thierry Breton, notes that email has been largely substituted by social media solutions – leaving only 11% of young people (age 11-19) using email. In his view, this renders email “outdated”. Breton estimates that within two years, updates to and editing of existing digital information will create more than half of all new digital content. To replace the email, Atos Origin is piloting a variety of social network solutions, most of which allow sharing and updating of information by employees. What’s next? We’ll keep you posted. We at WNPC are avid readers. Whether it’s paper, an iPad, or a digital reader, here’s what we’re reading….
Susan Nickle: “The Rhino and The Mosquito” by Craig Postons. This marketing book shows how to differentiate your business in large and small ways. The premise is – do you believe an action is too small? Consider the impact of a mosquito in your room at night. Susan Wortzman: “Rules of Civility” by Amor Towles. Set in New York City in 1938. I was upset on the plane when my Kindle died…. Luisa Sicilia: “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. I am enjoying the way Elizabeth uses her humor and insight throughout her journey, and I am looking forward to continuing her journey to “pray” and “love”. Chuck Rothman: “Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West” by George F. Howe. It’s a “riveting” story about how the U.S. Army entered World War II in Europe. It’s actually kind of boring….I hope it gets better (I hear the Allies win in the end, but don’t quote that – I don’t want to ruin the story for anyone else). Rachael Chadwick: Just finished “Legal Project Management” by Steven B. Levy. A very practical read. Now I’m reading “Half Blood Blues” by Esi Edugyan, which just won the 2011 Giller Prize. I’m already loving it. |
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