Sometimes we can lose sight of the true objective of the discovery process !
The objective of any discovery exercise should be to facilitate a method of getting to the most important information quickly, cost effectively and accurately – to help resolve the dispute.
To achieve this, we do need to be more proactive, targeted and do so much earlier in the discovery process.
Firstly, lets get rid of what we don’t want !
All discovery exercises now involve greater volumes of information than ever before, and this continues to increase at an unprecedented rate. These volumes of information also bring a considerable increase in the amount of irrelevant information.
We can no longer afford to review all documents, or at least ‘eye ball’ every document if we want to get through them quickly (and cheaply). We do not want lawyers investing their time (and the clients’ money), looking at information that may be totally irrelevant for what you are after.
What you will probably find is the amount of key discoverable documents may not be too dissimilar to volumes experienced previously. The challenge is how we get to them !
This starts with getting rid of the information you do not want, so you can devote your energies to looking at the most important information – and do so in a way that is quick, cheap and accurate.
Working smarter
We need to work smarter to find new ways that enable us to get to the most important information quickly and cost effectively.
Options like Technology Assisted Review should be considered, but they will not be the only option. Using TAR, or simply just grouping similar documents together, the technology can help facilitate a more consistent and accurate document review. The irrelevant documents can then quickly and easily be removed from the review set.
As previously mentioned, any option that facilitates getting to the most important information quicker and cheaper, whilst helping to isolate irrelevant material, cannot be a bad thing !
To enable you to get to the information that really matters, it is important to invest time at the outset of the matter to devise the most effective strategy. The time invested at the outset helps us to be more targeted, potentially saving thousands for you and your client !
