Document Review

The Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) Project states that document review is, at its most basic level “used to sort out responsive documents to produce and privileged documents to withhold.” Given the voluminous amounts of electronically stored information (ESI), reviewing and sorting each document is almost an impossible task in today’s e-discovery process.

Clearwell’s approach to a more efficient and effective document review process is two-fold:

1. Review only the relevant documents
2. Increase reviewer productivity & consistency

Review Only Relevant Documents

Other e-discovery solutions focus on reviewing case datasets faster. However, improving document review speed won’t help control review costs as effectively as significantly reducing the amount of documents needing review. In one example, Hinshaw & Culbertson’s Electronic Discovery Response Team used Clearwell to reduce the case dataset by 99.9% before review. Under the threat of a Motion to Compel, the Team filed a Rule 34 Response to buy more time in an employee discrimination case. Over the course of a single afternoon, the Team used the Clearwell E-Discovery Platform to rapidly process, defensibly search, and intelligently cull over 76,000 email messages and documents, ultimately identifying the only 18 relevant documents and avoiding the Motion to Compel.

Increase Reviewer Productivity & Consistency

Recent studies from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) show that up to 75% of a company’s intellectual property is in email and that email is the #1 source for legal and regulatory inquiries. Given this, Clearwell has designed several features that increase reviewer productivity and consistency more than other e-discovery solutions. For example, instead of reviewing emails and documents only by keyword hit or by concepts, Clearwell adds the review of email by Discussion Threads. Clearwell’s patent-pending algorithms dynamically link together all related messages into chronological threads which capture the entire discussion, including all replies, carbon copies, forwards, and near duplicates. By reviewing each discussion thread, you can rapidly quickly review dozens of emails at once and apply bulk tags. Decision-Tree Tagging gives reviewers the ability to tag individual or sets of documents using a multi-layer tree structure. This directs reviewers into key decision points, preventing errors and minimizing the number of clicks needed to accurately tag a document. Further, a Related Items Window automatically identifies and displays documents that have related content, such as discussion threads, files, and attachments, to the document being reviewed. Reviewing related documents together improves consistency, eliminates redundant review, and enables bulk decisions.