Saving Money

Review LessSM offers a variety of services which reduce electronic discovery costs.  They are broken down below under the following headings:

Consulting Services

Technology Expertise

Machine Assisted Review Expertise:  Until there is a court decision agreeing that Technology Assisted Review is defensible, many lawyers have been wary of exploring in detail how these tools impact document review work.  There are perceived risks in adopting newer review approaches which also result in less review revenue for service providers.  Review Less has moved beyond that point and we have been able to talk with most of the vendors in this growing space to better understand workflows and strategies for using their tools.  If you want some general consulting on how these tools can assist you, we are one of the first electronic discovery organizations offering consulting on why the tools make sense and how they should be worked into your workflow today with or without a court decision.  The only two risks are either having to do more review (which we are prepared to do efficiently), or grossly overpaying for your document review work.  If you don’t believe that we make a compelling case, click this link and read what the eDiscoveryJournal had to say about our training methods.

Using Technology in Litigation

Workflow Support:  We are comfortable creating unique workflows that fit the needs of your project with the technology you are using.   We work with litigation attorneys with backgrounds in engineering to develop intelligent workflows.  We can also identify key metrics and supply updates to keep all stakeholders informed in the status of a project.

Early Case Assessment:  One example of workflow done well is doing effective early case assessment document reviews also known as “deep dives”.  Leveraged technology provides the best opportunity to assess the risks in a case quickly.  This is different from data culling which is also often called Early Case Assessment, ECA or Pre-CA.  No doubt, reducing data volumes for review is a critical step to reduce the costs of review, even when working with Review Less and smaller review teams.  But one example of a Review Less ECA project involved successfully reviewing 350,000 documents from six senior custodians in 6 days and identifying 1,100 important documents and 300 hot documents spread across 7 issues for a flat fee at a price point that equaled less than $.45 per a document.  This step can also be used as a pre-seed step for arming a predictive coding or machine assisted review tool.

Data Remediation: This is another example of leveraging technology to reduce data volumes.  The workflow is important to make the data remediation defensible instead of a future charge of spoliation.  This requires careful thought, well designed process, detailed documentation, and picking the right tools.  We have partnered with companies who focus in these area exclusively and are able to bring the right solutions to the table for our clients.

Document Review Expertise

Document Review:  What makes Review LessSM unique among electronic discovery experts is we are designed to provide smaller review teams to leverage the use of a wide range of technologies.  Our experience in the staffing world, cutting edge recruiting software and national reputation as electronic discovery experts makes us a unique partner for doing electronic discovery on a fixed fee or hourly basis.   We also were pioneers in developing the contract attorney model and believe the next generation of review is where the seasoned review attorney partnered with the right software will create a much better model for both the reviewing attorneys and their clients.

Sourcing Document Reviewers:  We analyze review attorneys based on our extensive background building review teams for document review and leveraging a predictive model to assess resumes as a first pass for suitable skills for document review work required for the more cutting edge review tools on the market and a second pass Review RightTM evaluation to provide smaller teams of skilled reviewers who can be managed by our clients or by us.  Even if you let your associates handle your document review work, why not test their ability to do document review?  Human variability in making decisions on documents is one of the leading causes of poor document review projects.  We offer tools that address putting the wrong lawyers on document review projects.

Sourcing Off Shore Reviewers:  Why would an organization bullish on predictive coding also provide expertise with off shoring review?  The reason is review does not disappear when technology is leveraged.  It just becomes more focused on relevant electronic documents.  There are many instances when risks are low, project management is strong, and clients are interested in total cost savings.  When those factors are present, it is wise to consider off shoring as an option for some of the review work.  The economic advantages are compelling and the number of reviewers which can be sourced is virtually unlimited.  Review LessSM has relationships with offshore review companies who can become part of the review workflow.

Dedicated Review Space:  We can provide review space in most major markets and can start projects in approximately a week in facilities throughout the Midwest.  Instead of picking a space based on where the project is, we pick the space based on where the best reviewers are located from a sampling of document review tests given in a number of markets.  Using this approach, your project is not hurt by other large projects in a single market which periodically reduce the number of excellent document review attorneys in any one market.

Training Document Reviewers:  As part of our commitment to project management, we believe projects must start effectively out of the gate.  There is no such thing as a machine led review.  Attorneys train technology to do review.  As a result, having the best reviewers, less of them to reduce inconsistent reviewing, and then training the reviewers and testing them on what they are looking for are critical aspects to having a review done effectively.

Special Master Expertise

Special Master Services:  One of the challenges in electronic discovery is coming to agreement with an adversary on how data should be searched and produced.  A growing trend to address this problem was incorporated into the federal court system for the W.D. of PA.  We are certified Special Masters in this innovative program.  A special master can be used to assist the parties and judges who may not be familiar with how technology can assist in reviewing ESI come to reasonable decisions on how to access ESI and what should be produced to respect the needs of both parties while keeping principles of proportionality in perspective.  With our training as Special Masters and Mediators and overall E-Discovery experience, we can assist in resolving these disputes.  We are certified as Special Masters in the innovative Special Master for E-Discovery initiated by the federal court in the W.D. of PA.

Free E-Discovery Training Expertise

Free E-Discovery Training:  Given the gap in e-discovery knowledge present in the legal community and the reality that there is only so much money that organizations have to train expertise, we have committed substantial resources in time to provide a number of free options for sharing knowledge in electronic discovery. ESIBYTES is the leading national podcast on electronic discovery.  With well over 150 free podcasts and growing every week, you can hear the ideas of nationally known judges, The Sedona Conference Members, Technologists, attorneys and others on a wide range of topics.  Visit the website for more information and to subscribe on ITunes.  Then download shows and listen to them when you have 40 – 55 minutes to listen to an expert talk about the field.

The other option is to help a local community’s electronic discovery members to meet every 3 months with judges and talk about trends, tough issues, and share knowledge amongst themselves on what works and what doesn’t.  If meet and confers are to truly work well and Cooperation is to take off, then basic knowledge has to be shared.  In Pittsburgh, PA, I started a networking group with Judge Joy Conti and Judge Nora Barry Fischer’s support called Friends of EDiscovery which has been extremely successful.  The model is based on a networking group which Pete Pepiton started in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio with Tom Allman which have also been successful.  I created a website to help others learn what works in our networking groups and to share past topics on a calendar if others are interested in replicating this group in their local markets.   We average 25 attendees at a meeting and are going strong.  I am happy to facilitate helping other cities start similar networking groups, of any name.  However, while this is an open source education initiative, its success is based on your local community agreeing to meet and conduct meetings and it is not about outsiders such as myself, telling you how to handle electronic discovery.