Whether it is your first time embarking on an electronic disclosure or you are a veteran of hash values, concept clusters and negative proximity operators, more than ever, there is a huge amount to consider. To avoid worrying about getting it ‘right’ and to help with the planning and execution of your next eDisclosure project, we’ve put together this handy list that will help make you an eDisclosure Superhero!
- Plan ahead and engage your eDisclosure provider early: It seems obvious, but the sooner you engage with your eDisclosure provider, the sooner you will benefit from their extensive knowledge and advice. Build a plan and update it often as the requirements evolve. Engaging too late will always put you on the back foot and create further issues down the line.
- Consider all of the material: Build a data map. To avoid missing critical information, you should consider all potential sources of potentially relevant data, including emails, office documents, chats and messaging apps, social media, and cloud-based data storage. To ensure critical evidence is never missed, start with ‘who’, then understand ‘what’ you need from each custodian, and finally establish ‘where’ you will find it.
- Understand and investigate your data with an Early Data Assessment: Getting to the heart of your case and identifying the core information is critical to your project. Keywords, date ranges, and data analytics utilised early on all have a role to play in ensuring that at the review stage, you are focused on the core material relating to your case and not wasting precious time and resources.
- Engage with the opposing parties: You should try to communicate with the opposing parties to agree on information such as search terms, date ranges, and the scope and format of the disclosure. Not only can adopting this approach avoid unnecessary disputes and delays, but it will also ensure that you receive all the required information in their disclosure and at the first time asking.
- Understand and use the technology available to you: You won’t always use full-blown technology-assisted review and machine learning in your project. Often a straightforward, linear review, tagging documents for relevance can be the best, most appropriate approach. However, your understanding of the benefits that functionality like concept clusters, bulk redactions, and predictive coding can bring will help you and your eDisclosure provider to plan and work together to achieve the optimum outcome.
- Streamline and accelerate your document review: Assuming you’ve identified the key documents, now is the time to review them for relevance for your disclosure. A combination of technology and a scalable review team can make all the difference here. When we speak about ‘Intelligent Document Review, ’ we are not simply relying on machine learning or other TAR technologies. An experienced review manager will utilise the extensive management information available to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement in the workflow, down to individual reviewer performance. A combination of intelligence, artificial and otherwise, is vital here.
- Finish your review in plenty of time to complete the production: Parkinson’s Law says work shrinks or expands to fit the time available. But with your disclosure, your deadline isn’t really your deadline. You will need to ensure that your work is complete at least 48 hours before your disclosure is due to ensure the productions are created, tested, and quality checked, and any changes made in plenty of time before it is delivered. Stick to this final and critical rule, and you will always be an eDisclosure Superhero!
Whether it is your first eDisclosure project and you are looking for a partner to guide you through the process, or you are an old hand looking for an upgrade in technology or quality of service, Legastat provides a range of services to support your next project. Our fixed-cost, fully inclusive range of Forensic Collection, Early Case Assessment and eDisclosure services are designed to provide total cost certainty and transparency for both you and your client. To find out more, get in touch with a team member today.