Considering Legal Document Review
By Rob Robinson
What is “Review”?
In the realm of electronic discovery, “Review” can be defined as the culling process that produces a dataset of potentially responsive documents that are then examined and evaluated for a final selection of relevant and/or responsive documents and assertion of privilege, confidentiality, etc., as appropriate.
Additionally, “On-line Review” enables the culled dataset to be accessed via PC or other terminal device via a local network or remotely via the Internet. Often, the On-Line Review process is facilitated by specialized software that provides additional features and functions which may include: collaborative access of multiple reviewers, security, user logging, search and retrieval, document coding, redaction, and privilege logging. [i]
Why is “Review” important?
The principal objective of review is to determine the relevancy and/or responsiveness of files for efficient and expedient production and subsequent use. This determination must be accomplished while ensuring that the techniques and processes used are both defensible with respect to clients’ legal obligations and appropriate with respect to cost-effectiveness and expediency.
As the legal review of electronically stored information (ESI) remains the single most financially expensive portion of the electronic discovery process - in fact, depending on one’s source of reference, the cost of review can comprise up to 80% of the total cost of eDiscovery – it is important to understand the major phases of document review, the key characteristics of document review tools, and the key features of document review tools in order to maximize results while controlling costs.
What are the two major phases of electronic discovery document review?
While there are many ways to define, describe, and organize the phases that take place in electronic discovery review, for the purpose of this discussion we will focus on the following two phases of review and how they interrelate:
· First Level Review
· Second Level Review
Document review in the context of litigation is done in two levels. The first level of document review is the discovery phase and first part in any litigation. This process is performed after receiving the legal “Request for production of documents”. During this process the objective is to reduce the document set into a workable and responsive data set. Even though it is common for e-discovery best practices to have reduced a data set by almost 70%, there still may remain millions of documents to be reviewed. This is because the total quantity of documents has multiplied several times over the years. In the second level of document review these workable documents are reviewed more seriously by seniors to ensure relevancy, authenticity, accessibility, and to prevent the inadvertent production of privileged documents. [ii]
First Level Review
The primary purpose of first level document review typically to review documents and determine whether or not they’re “responsive” or “non-responsive” as they pertain to a specific legal case or issue. In essence, first level document review forms part of the discovery phase of litigation. It is performed prior to producing and after receiving documents pursuant to a legal “Request for Production of Documents.” It’s the initial review phase that helps narrow the document set to a responsive and workable data set for later, more senior review.
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[i]The Sedona Conference Glossary, December 2007
[ii] Managed Outsource.com, November 2007
