The document review process is an integral part of the legal world. Lawyers know the importance of getting the documents right in order to prepare a well-drafted contract, increase the chances of case-win, leading to better discovery workflow, improved reputation in the market, and pleasanter relationships with clients.
Here are five best document review practices law firms and corporate legal departments can adapt to bring the best results out of legal discovery.
Strategize Your Plan of Action
Your legal team should always start the discovery process with having a plan in hand. Strategizing a discovery plan includes setting the scope, creating a schedule, and evaluating the resources available. Each member of the document review team should comprehend what their individual role is in the process. Therefore, it is vital to define their roles and responsibilities prior to starting discovery.
Planning is not only helpful for the review team to enhance their workflow; it will also help you get a clear picture of the document review costs and create an estimated budget for clients.
Set and Develop SOPs
Legal document review takes a lot of time and can become stressful too. That is why it will be best to define your standard operating procedures (SOPs) so that a smooth and detailed document review process can be carried out. Evaluate and document the process your team follows to complete a review successfully, then make that process definitive for all members. Every time you learn a new, better practice, make sure you make improvements and do changes to your SOP.
This will ensure your team remains updated with the best document review practices in the industry.
Assess The eDiscovery System You Use
When evaluating your eDiscovery system, ask these questions to yourself;
Does it have multilingual capabilities?
Can it manage multiple forms of electronically stored information (ESI)?
Does it ensure quality control?
Does it provide functions such as duplication detection, built-in version control?
Does it offer features like technology-assisted review (TAR)?
For project management, does it enable both internal and external resources?
Ask these questions to evaluate your current system's efficiency and determine whether you need to upgrade to a more cost-effective, reliable, all-inclusive, discovery solution.
Perform Native & Image Review
Native Review: Reviewing electronically stored information in its native source format is called a native review. Page counts of native files will be different in accordance with different computer settings.
Image Review: Image review incorporates the conversion of ESI into image format. Converting all ESI data into images for review used to be common for document reviewers. However, as data volumes are large nowadays, this practice (which was standard practice) has become costly and outdated.
As an efficient and cost-effective approach, you may start with native review and request images only when you know they will create value.
Get the Right People Work for You
eDiscovery is a time-consuming process; thus, you want to hire people having unique skills that will boost productivity. These people will play a key role in helping you meet deadlines imposed by a court. As it is usually challenging to find and hire people with the required legal experience, subject matter expertise, project management, and multilingual skills, you may consider outsourcing legal document review services to a reliable and reputed LPO firm.
Such firms can provide you with all you look for in a legal professional before hiring.
Conclusion:
Besides these practices, you may also consider using technology to enhance your law firm or business's discovery process. Using the right tools will help you bring better collaboration and more accountability. This will reduce the time taken for completing discovery projects. Use technology if you want your firm to become a formidable competitor in the legal landscape.
