E-Discovery: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
E-Discovery Search 101
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
These days, it’s becoming harder and harder to stay on top of the various searching practices that may be applied during the e-discovery lifecycle. While it is universally agreed that search is the best and most efficient way to reduce the mind bogging volumes of data, which also makes it the best and most efficient way to reduce the mind boggling costs of e-discovery, agreement on the best search technology and methodology is vigorously contested. Not surprisingly, where one stands on the topic of search technology and methodology typically falls in lock step with the company one represents. In this article, I will leave the bias aside and simply provide a basic overview and definition of the most common search technologies and methodologies used in e-discovery. Read more…
Web-based vs. Web-enabled
Sunday, April 12th, 2009
About four years ago, when I first began researching and writing the LitSoft business plan, I was amazed to find out that several of the “main stream” hosted ESI review platforms we’re not actually web-applications. Instead, they were traditional desktop applications that were hosted and served over the web via terminal service technology, most commonly Citrix. Popular ESI review platforms that are web-enabled desktop applications include Attenex, CaseLogistix, and Stratify, among many others. Read more…
The Truth About “Native” Review
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
This first post for 2009 centers around the notion of “native” document/ESI review. While I’m not sure who/what company first coined the term “native review”, I do know that the concept really picked up momentum during LegalTech 2005 when Ringtail burst on to the scene with its flagship product — Casebook — a web-based, “native” review tool. The primary benefit of “native” review was that it was no longer necessary to convert all electronic documents to a uniform format (typically either TIFF of PDF) prior to review. Not having to convert every single page of every single document meant huge savings in overall eDiscovery costs, and “native” review almost instantly became widely accepted as a best practice. In fact, so much hype was generated by Casebook that FTI Consulting acquired the Ringtail shortly after LegalTech 2005 for $35 MM (see here for the official press release on that acquisition). Read more…