 |
|
Top 5 Takeaways From New Sedona Conference Paper on
Quality in E-Discovery
Contact: Warwick Sharp, Vice President, Marketing
and Business Development, Equivio Inc.
(800) 851-1965 | info@equivio.com |
www.equivio.com
Last week, the Sedona Conference Working Group Series (WGS)
published a fascinating and eagerly anticipated paper
entitled: The Sedona Conference Commentary on Achieving
Quality in the E-Discovery Process. This publication should
be viewed as a follow-up document to the Sedona paper on
search methods in e-discovery, published in 2007. In ten
years time, people might look back and say that this paper
was the watershed line, marking the great divide between how
e-discovery was conducted before and after.
As you may know, the Sedona Conference is a forum for dialog
in major issues confronting the legal system. Sedona runs
the Working Group Series (authors of the paper discussed
here), which is a think-tank group that publishes
forward-looking principles, best practices and guidelines in
areas of the law that may have a dearth of guidance or are
subject to intense change or debate. The WGS is active in
areas including electronic discovery, anti-trust and patent
law.
Here are our top 5 takeaways from this paper:
1. IT CAN'T GO ON LIKE THIS.
The continuing exponential increase in the volume of
electronic stored information (ESI) requires fundamental
changes in way we conduct litigation, investigations and
regulatory activities. This will mean, among other things,
the adoption of techniques and technologies that may appear
novel in the e-discovery arena, such as quality assurance,
statistics and computer-aided review.
2. QUALITY MATTERS IN E-DISCOVERY.
In the absence of quality controls, the e-discovery process,
as we know it today, is likely to:
- Miss relevant and critical data.
- Require the review of huge amounts of
non-relevant data.
- Result in the disclosure of privileged
data.
- Require the wasteful repetition of e-discovery
projects.
- Involve unacceptable levels of error in document
review and incompleteness in responses to requests.
- Result in significant time overruns and
disproportionate costs.
3. IT CAN'T BE DONE WITHOUT STATISTICS.
As Peter Drucker wrote, "If you can't measure it, you can't
manage it." Metrics are necessary to quantify risk and cost.
This involves sampling techniques to assess, for example,
the effectiveness and accuracy of keyword search, or
non-disclosure of privileged information. Measurement is
also critical for learning and process enhancement, both
over time and in real time — metric-based feedback
early in the review process can detect systematic errors
and, for example, facilitate timely adjustments of
guidelines to the human review team. Lawyers and the
judiciary will need to develop a working knowledge of
statistics to operate effectively in this
environment.
4. IT CAN'T BE DONE WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY-SUPPORTED
REVIEW.
Technology-aided techniques are needed to reduce the burden
and cost of human review. These technologies include:
- Traditional technologies, such as keyword
searching, de-duping and spam filters, that are used to
reduce the overall volume of documents targeted for
review.
- Newly emerging review technologies and iterative
techniques that are used to estimate document
responsiveness.
- Grouping technologies, such as clustering,
near-duping and email threading, that are used to
rationalize organization of the review process and to ensure
consistency of document coding and production
deliverables.
5. STATISTICS AND TECHNOLOGY ARE NECESSARY BUT NOT
SUFFICIENT.
Advanced management methods and QA procedures need to be put
in place to ensure the accountability and control of the
e-discovery process. The role of project management will
also be critical in creating the right mix of technology,
human review and statistical sampling to ensure process
quality. And all this in an environment where
one-size-does-not-fit-all — management will be called
on to balance the need for standardized processes and the
tailoring of projects to specific case
circumstances.
If you'd like to review the paper in its entirety, you can
download it from Sedona's website here. It's about 25 pages,
but it's well worth the read.
To learn more about the issues discussed in the Sedona
paper, download Equivio white papers on the application of
new generation technologies.
Sincerely,
Warwick Sharp
Vice President, Marketing and Business Development
Equivio Inc.
5260-G Nicholson Lane
Suite 150
Kensington, MD 20895
(800) 851-1965
info@equivio.com
www.equivio.com
Back to Top
|
|
|
