The Document Review as a stage of EDRM
Document review is one of the processes performed during the discovery process in various areas of law. Mostly, the job is performed by document review attorneys that help produce and organize needed documents. Attorneys are sworn to confidentiality under the federal rule of evidence. The information produced during a discovery process is subject to a claim of privilege and protection as it is confidential. Attorneys also see to it that there is no spoliation of evidence. That means evidence should not be altered in any way or destroyed. They are legally responsible for evidence and can be accused of negligence if spoliation occurs.
Attorneys might need to use inspect computer files, screen e-mails and other electronic documents. This is where document review software vendors come in. They provide valuable software, such as Relativity, Summation, and Introspect as helpful means of electronic discovery, research, and organization of electronic documents for the document review process.
Document review work is often done in teams. In this case besides lawyers the team may consist of IT folks and paralegals. Paralegals are employed instead of lawyers in order to minimize cost and they help with organizational issues and help review documents and sort them for the attorney. Sometimes the volume of documents to be reviewed is so big that additional help from a paralegal is required. Paralegals can also help with document coding before loading the files into a litigation database. This is done in order to narrow the quantity of document files down to the only relevant ones. Producing documents that should rather be excluded could irreparably damage the client’s case, producing a “smoking gun” document. This can refer to documents that contain trade secrets and other confidential information that should not be revealed.
IT professionals help manage the electronic documents and document review software. IT folk have administrative control of electronic files and documents, which makes them data custodians of that particular database. They assist with the electronic discovery. They help load files onto the electronic databases, perform data collection for the discovery process, and pull ESI data off of the servers using forensically sound data collection methods.
References:
Kane, Sally. “Document Reviewer – Career Profile.” The Balance, 25 July, 2016, …
