Managing review volumes through reduction and prioritisation

With the dramatic increase in volume and sources of data, it is important to find a balance in the selection process. Often, the net is cast either too wide or too narrow. Both outcomes can present different challenges.

Due to inadequate rules and regulations governing how an organisation might create, store, and retain data, it is often difficult to easily narrow the data set to exactly what you are looking for without engaging in an eDiscovery process.

Should an organisation aim to limit their scope without specialised technology, it risks missing critical documents or not complying with its legal obligations. There are several ways in which a lawyer and their client can, using eDiscovery technology, reduce what they might need to review and prioritise important documents for immediate review.

Consider

• Targeted collection that involves prioritising key dates, stakeholders or data sources and collecting those as a priority. Secondary sources should also be identified but only collected if necessary and proportionate.

• Removing system files that relate to when whole server or computer data is extracted. The system files that run the computer and its programs should be removed before review as they will likely never be relevant for most matters.

• Removing junk files that are typically contained in all data sets such as extracted images, signature blocks, and spam email. These files can be removed from the reviewable set before review begins to reduce the reviewable data size.

• Excluding irrelevant information from a review set with reference to dates, key words, and stakeholders. There is some risk when applying this method and caution should be taken.

• Identifying priority information with reference to dates, key words and stakeholders that can be allocated to the team for immediate review.