Debunking Popular Myths About eDiscovery

Being a legal professional means you must collect and review relevant information in the shortest amount of time possible. But, how is it possible
to achieve this without shelling out a
lot of money from your organization’s pocket?

The answer is eDiscovery Software. Investing in the best eDiscovery software means you have a repository for all critical data required during litigations, investigations, or data privacy responses stored safely and readily available in a matter of a few clicks.

Despite all the myths surrounding eDiscovery Software, today’s successful lawyers are using it to their advantage and consider it to be a trusted resource that assists them with their complex litigation, investigation, and compliance challenges – both big and small.

In this post, we will debunk some of the most common myths about eDiscovery and explain how it can greatly benefit attorneys in the short term and the long term. We will also exemplify why investing in eDiscovery software, like Casepoint, which is by far the most feature-rich in the industry.

As an attorney, you know time is money. When you have a mountain of data containing millions of documents to review, spending time to review them all can take away from other aspects of a case such as case strategy and developing a timeline. This is when leveraging advanced eDiscovery software can greatly reduce the number of documents, and therefore time spent on review.

Think about this; why squander away countless hours reviewing irrelevant documents, when an eDiscovery solution can remove the irrelevant data for you? Giving you more time to devote to other aspects of a case.

According to a study conducted by Allen & Overy this year, attorneys who use eDiscovery software are not only able to organize humongous data sets efficiently, but also cut discovery-related costs and time by finding and retrieving relevant documents faster than ever.

Lawyers who opt out of buying eDiscovery software use their Associates to locate documents. They will be spending more hours on menial tasks, which would otherwise be done in less time with an eDiscovery Software. If the billable hours are too high, the firm might lose clients.

Lawyers need to weigh their options. Even though eDiscovery software comes at a cost, it improves efficiency rates by multifold. Advanced eDiscovery software, like Casepoint, does so much of the work for you, and it not only saves time but ensures accuracy that is unmatched by any other software.

Adobe Acrobat is a popular redaction tool used by lawyers who have not yet purchased eDiscovery Software. However, this process is not immune to errors as it requires a lot of manual effort.

Similarly, Bates numbers can also be added using Adobe. The issue with this is it limits you to producing documents in PDF format. You will have to manually create a load file which makes producing metadata difficult. Adobe is not a repository for documents and it is difficult to search across a large number of documents, even if all of your documents are in one PDF portfolio. Also, there is a size limit to the PDF portfolio.

Once again, this can be costly and time-consuming for any legal professional.

There are instances where metadata might change after a client browses through legal documents and forwards them using Outlook. This means that a digital document is making changes on its own without anyone editing it.

Searching for documents using Outlook is often snail-paced as the platform takes time to retrieve information from its index. Yet again, the attorney is losing valuable time here and is indirectly costing them money.

By using eDiscovery software, you not only save time and money, but it can also save a law firm’s reputation from being damaged by technical errors.

It is a popular misconception among many attorneys that metadata requires little to no attention. They are disillusioned when the court realizes that there are issues with the metadata.

As discussed earlier, metadata may be altered by accident during the identification and collection, especially when opening emails on a different computer from where they were originally created.

Using eDiscovery will eliminate these concerns because metadata is preserved during processing and can be easily produced in a load file.

Analyzing electronic data effectively can take time and, possibly inaccurate if done incorrectly, especially when there is a ton of data pertaining to the case. Analyzing data using “search terms” in eDiscovery software will save you a lot of time. Some people are reluctant to believe that technology does a better job of reviewing documents related to litigation. Even though it’s been years since technology-assisted review came into existence, the legal industry has been slow to accept it. They are reluctant to replace their proven methods, even if they are outdated. A few of the reasons for this is the lack of transparency, the learning curve, and costs. The truth is that technically-assisted review gets the work done faster and ensures fewer mistakes. It is worth the upfront cost you will be spending to set it up.

Contrary to popular myth, eDiscovery software, like Casepoint’s Legal Discovery Platform, is not hard to use at all. The initial setting up of eDiscovery might seem like a colossal task, but in the long run, it will save you a lot of time and help avoid embarrassing mistakes. That’s why it’s essential to learn how to use eDiscovery before you start representation for any legal matter.

With eDiscovery, you can quickly and easily load documents and tag them appropriately, saving a great deal of time in the process. eDiscovery software systems support email threading, assuring the attorney that all the similar documents are grouped together. Lawyers can sort and tag email documents making it easier to locate them.

Documents, images, and metadata can be easily accessed once uploaded and indexed. eDiscovery software has seen many advancements in recent years, making it user-friendly and easy-to-use.

eDiscovery technology can save attorneys time and money, no matter how small or large the case. Technical issues caused by using less sophisticated technology, such as Adobe or Outlook can be costly to any law firm.

The potential for mistakes and loss of important data cannot be ruled out when they are handled manually. There are thousands of documents stored on computers. Going through every document is a waste of time and money.

eDiscovery software is the best solution to avoid unforeseen delays that can affect efficiency. With Casepoint, you can rest assured that all the documents are stored in one secure place to avoid being lost or tampered with.

You no longer have to worry about exposing a client’s personal information that is included on legal and personal documents. Only authorized persons can access these documents, and the rest are kept out of reach by the secured platform. There are professionally trained consultants at Casepoint assigned to support legal professionals like you who use eDiscovery. They are available to answer any questions you may have. Having a team to support you will make eDiscovery easier to use while searching for important documents.

In addition, every legal professional knows how much time they spend searching for documents in preparation for litigation. Some cases are opened and closed quickly, but not all are.

Attorneys who miss important data or have inaccurately produced data may see the opposing counsel filing a motion to compel. Not only can this put an attorney’s reputation at risk, but it can also be time-consuming and expensive.

Using eDiscovery software cuts down on errors caused by storing relevant data inaccurately. Having eDiscovery will allow you to save not only valuable time, but money as well.