CBA Bits & Bytes November 2018

Better eDiscovery via Analytics By JR Jenkins

With enterprise data volumes continuing to grow at a rapid pace and more than 267,000 civil suits filed in U.S. district courts in 2017 (plus another 77,000 criminal cases) legal teams are under constant pressure to improve their eDiscov- ery process. Whether focused on early case assessments, in- ternal investigations or “bet the company” litigation, the legal team that can most quickly identify and analyze key facts and fact patterns is rewarded with important tactical and strategic advantages during the matter. Most document review projects rely almost exclusively on search engines and place an unhealthy emphasis on keywords and keyword search. Search results are then often displayed in a simple relevance-ranked order, based on the number of hits in each document, and attorneys then go “doc-to-doc” in a linear fashion to determine if the documents are relevant to the matter. This process is slow, time-consuming and expensive. More importantly, potentially relevant documents that do not satisfy search parameters can remain completely hidden from view for the length of the matter and whose late discovery can have disastrous consequences. To help address the limitations of keyword search, eDiscovery software vendors have developed a variety of data analytics intended to work both with and without keywords to reduce the guess work and improve the rate and quality of the re- view phase of eDiscovery. Since these analytics are commonly built from keywords and metadata found in the electronically stored information itself, they can eliminate a legal team’s expensive guesswork. Increasingly then, data analytics are being used in law firms to address the following tasks: • Assess the scope and effort required to review the docu- ment collection • Analyze the quality and accuracy of keywords in advance of document review • Analyze communication patterns across individuals and networks • Identify key concepts and terms found inside the document collection • Identify and isolate key periods of activity during the matter • Identify foreign languages found in the case documents • Assess and report on the progress of the review team In addition to data analytics, many eDiscovery applications offer visualization capabilities that allow it to present data graphically. A visual approach to analytics can help attorneys rapidly determine what is and what isn’t relevant to a case. Legal teams can visualize trends, summarize data, see mul- tiple decision points, and drill down and out of data quickly and dynamically to identify an issue’s key factors. In fact, visualizing data in lawyer-friendly ways is one of the most compelling advances in analytics software used in eDiscov- ery—and a great boon to firms with limited or constrained financial and human resources.

Some of the more compelling use cases include: Custodian and Social Network Analysis: This involves analyzing the communication flow between individuals and organizations by zooming, selecting, and isolating targets within a legal matter. Visual analytics can help show what is beyond the dates and documents, including with whom this person communicated, which is often critical in fraud and in- vestigations which try to answer the “who knew what when” question. Date Range Analysis: This provides rapid insight into areas of interests in an investigation or litigation event. Visualizing document or communication frequency against date ranges is an effective way to isolate peaks and ebbs of communica- tion. A team can quickly focus on days, weeks or months that might be critical to an investigation (such as fraud or theft of intellectual property). Concept Analysis: We’ve discussed the limitations of keyword search as a standalone approach to interrogating the docu- ment set. Infinitely better is to have the documents “describe themselves” through visual analytics, which can assemble groups and clusters of documents based on concepts found within the documents. The attorney is now reacting to a known lexicon of terms and can chose his or her own starting points based on the merits of the investigation or matter details. In each of these examples the addition of visual analyt- ics quickly reduces the burden on the legal team, result- ing in faster, better decision-making. Given the number of mission-critical objectives that rely on this knowledge–from better document review and internal investigations to more informed retention polices–data analytics and visualization should be part of your everyday eDiscovery toolkit. Happily, data analytics and visualization tools are increas- ingly being integrated or bundled into eDiscovery software platforms, as opposed to the former practice of selling them separately under different licensing and pricing arrange- ments. The rapid expansion of cloud-based applications means law firms of all sizes can evaluate and license these products much more cost effectively than before. The bottom line is that the benefits of using analytics far out- weigh traditional keyword search-based eDiscovery methods, reducing both the time and expense of preparing a case. Today, for small to midsized law firms particularly, it may very well be the key to creating new services which can help expand their client base and grow revenues. JR Jenkins is the Head of Marketing for Ringtail eDiscovery. Learn more about Ringtail’s advanced visual analytics, award- winning user interface, and flexibility and scalability at www.ringtail.com