TechnoLawyer: Litigation/Discovery/Trials

Years ago, discovery involved a very well-known item — paper. Today, discovery encompasses much more than paper so a litigation team needs to adopt a multifaceted approach as they adapt to this ever-changing world. Fortunately, George Socha and Tom Gelbmann's landmark Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) lays out the major steps in eDiscovery. But what do these steps mean in terms of the day-to-day grind for Joe or Jane Litigator? For help we turn to trial attorney and legal technologist Bruce Olson who has written what we think will become a much-discussed three-part series on the most important components of Socha-Gelbmann's EDRM. First, he covered Collection and Processing. In this second article, he tackles the review process.

Coming October 30, 2007 to TechnoFeature: Years ago, discovery involved a very well-known item — paper. Today, discovery encompasses much more than paper so a litigation team needs to adopt a multifaceted approach as they adapt to this ever-changing world. Fortunately, George Socha and Tom Gelbmann's landmark Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) lays out the major steps in eDiscovery. But what do these steps mean in terms of the day-to-day grind for Joe or Jane Litigator? For help we turn to trial attorney and legal technologist Bruce Olson who has written what we think will become a much-discussed three-part series on the most important components of Socha-Gelbmann's EDRM. First, he covered Collection and Processing. In the second article, he tackled the review process. In today's final installment, Bruce discusses analysis and production.

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Coming October 25, 2007 to Answers to Questions: Wandal Winn discusses password risks and provides some tips, Brett Burney explains how to link exhibits to transcripts, Rob Howard explains how to set up Amicus Attorney to sync with Palm Treo, Rudy Ramsey reviews Port Authority2 USB 2.0 to SVGA adapter, and Miriam Jacobson discusses how she immediately captures her time and archives her client email. Don't miss this issue.

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Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming October 18, 2007 to Answers to Questions: Neil Packard discusses the task of selecting an eDiscovery vendor, Pamela Coleman provides detailed instructions for annotating PDF files with Acrobat, Sandra Adams shares her insight on choosing a practice management solution, LexisNexis Product Manager Alan Tuback responds to a recent question about the link between PCLaw and Time Matters, and Peter Bender reviews the accounting capabilities of Amicus Small Firm. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming October 16, 2007 to TechnoFeature: Years ago, discovery involved a very well-known item — paper. Today, discovery encompasses much more than paper so a litigation team needs to adopt a multifaceted approach as they adapt to this ever-changing world. Fortunately, George Socha and Tom Gelbmann's landmark Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) lays out the major steps in eDiscovery. But what do these steps mean in terms of the day-to-day grind for Joe or Jane Litigator? For help we turn to trial attorney and legal technologist Bruce Olson who has written what we think will become a much-discussed three-part series on the most important components of Socha-Gelbmann's EDRM. In this first installment, he covers Collection and Processing.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a litigation document review application (see below), a new legal accounting and billing program, and an online service that helps you schedule meetings more efficiently. Don't miss the next issue.

Your Ticket Out of the Document Gulag
By Taeho Lim

Back in the day, law firms that handled document-intensive cases would often lease an entire floor just to house the documents. Associates would dread being assigned to such cases as it meant spending all their time in these document gulags instead of in their plush offices. With the advent of eDiscovery, these floors have gradually disappeared, but document review remains a dreaded task because the number of documents has increased.

Inspicio from Altep aims to streamline the document review process. Inspicio is a Web-based solution that enables you to review documents from anywhere. According to Altep, Inspicio features high-level navigability, flexibility, and powerful analytical tools that help ensure accurate and efficient review.

Inspicio features a spacious "data repository" in which you can store document collections for multiple matters. Inspicio supports hundreds of different file formats so you can open files right away in their native format without having to convert them.

As you review documents, you can use Inspicio's tagging technology to organize them. For example, mark a file with "Responsive," "Privileged," "Jones Deposition," etc. You apply tags by simply checking a box. You can apply a tag to one document at a time or multiple documents simultaneously.

Inspicio also enables you to search across all documents in the application for any matter. You can use "Basic Search" for simple searches and "Query Builder" to conduct more complex, custom searches with the Inspicio interface.

Inspicio's advanced reporting helps you keep track of document collections and progress on projects and matters. The ToDo List function enables you to plan a review and assign its components to members of the team.

Regarding security, Inspicio features "user domains" and "access levels" to determine who can see, create, access, or edit certain files. In addition, you can track every user action in any part of the application. Finally, Inspicio has its own messaging system so you can communicate with other users. Messages stay within Inspicio to preserve confidentiality. Learn more about Inspicio.

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Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming October 09, 2007 to TechnoFeature: In the past, preservation meant simply asking a client to set aside a pile of paper documents. In today's world, attorneys need to impress upon their client, the client's employees, and the client's IT professionals to remain constantly vigilant in the preservation of email, electronic documents, and a whole host of other potentially relevant digital data collections. In this article, eDiscovery expert Brett Burney explores the broadening responsibility associated with the preservation of electronic data. Brett's advice is so good, you'll want to get started by preserving this very newsletter.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a comprehensive eDiscovery suite (see below), a new case management program for small law firms, and a Web-based intranet/extranet application. Don't miss the next issue.

All-In-One eDiscovery and Document Review
By Taeho Lim

Wouldn't it be nice to tap into every type of document analysis or search tool available today? If you want to do that with your eDiscovery cases, you have two choices — use multiple single-function programs and hope you can get them to integrate with one another, or use a single multiple-function program that does everything. If the latter approach sounds better to you, check out Discovery360 from InterLegis.

Discovery360 aims to streamline the eDiscovery process by providing the functionality of multiple eDiscovery applications in one convenient package. Its functionality includes: eDiscovery culling and processing, document attribute and conceptual clustering, natural language search, Boolean search, similarity matching, metadata filtering, email threading, proactive relevancy alerts, native or TIFF review, real-time reviewer reporting, on-the-fly productions, bulk issue coding, and more.

With all these tools in one application, Discovery360 simplifies each of the steps in the eDiscovery process, enabling you to cull and process documents, store, manage, analyze, review, and produce them as needed.

For example, the new "DataMapper" module enables case administrators to cull relevant documents using a wide range of criteria — keywords, custodian, date ranges, concepts, relevant metadata, or just about anything else you specify. Culling can eliminate 20-80% of irrelevant files depending on the situation. DataMapper can find and eliminate duplicates, and can also run "What If" scenarios so that you can get a sense of how many documents a certain decision would remove before actually doing so. DataMapper provides real-time reports throughout the process, all the while giving you control of your data and saving money too.

Once you have your data set in place, Discovery360 makes all document attributes searchable, including keywords, concepts, all metadata, timelines, and document relationships. During this process, Discovery360 also places documents into concept folders, identifies and groups email threads and similar documents (near duplicates), etc. — all aimed at reducing your workload. You can also add relevant paper documents to the mix to maintain a single, normalized database. Learn more about Discovery360.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

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Coming September 25, 2007 to TechnoFeature: One of the definitions of "concordance" is agreement  — something all litigators hope to gain from judges and jurors during trial. Fittingly, a year after acquiring Dataflight, LexisNexis has released Concordance 2007. In this review, litigation support expert Paul Easton evaluates Concordance 2007's significant new features and minor tweaks  — and of course rates it using our TechnoScore system.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.