New reviewers often express frustration about the number of rules involved in document review. Review attorneys are generally quite intelligent and hardworking people – being told what to wear or what to do seems, for many, insulting. Rules are necessary, though, because not everyone conducts themselves in a way that respects everyone working around them. …
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November 7, 2013
Internet Archive Scanning Center Fire – Donations Needed
The internet provides an amazing ability for immediate change. As new information is available, sites can be updated, documents republished and content refreshed to reflect new information. I first encountered the Internet Archive when I needed to be able to demonstrate what had been removed from a website. Fortunately, the Wayback Machine was ready and …
Read MoreJuly 22, 2013
Django for Reporting
Generating reports and logging data is a common but necessary task for all project managers. When dealing with eDiscovery, the task can quickly grow out of hand. Populations, progress, errors, deadlines, billing and all sorts of other information must be easily accessible to those managing the matter. Without the right data, you can’t work efficiently. …
Read MoreJune 26, 2013
Criminal and Governmental eDiscovery
Justin Murphy of Crowell & Moring in D.C. recently published an article on dealing with electronically stored information (ESI) for criminal defendants, prosecutors and defense attorneys. He notes, as have many working to produce information to the government, that some of the protections against discovery abuses found in the civil context have not yet developed …
Read MoreMay 27, 2013
Draw The Boxes Straight
Redaction is one of the most complicated eDiscovery tasks to complete. In addition to the task not lending itself to verification by technology (though this is changing), the work often requires a significant amount of attention to an exceedingly tedious task. The goal of a redaction project, though, is absolute consistency. Each person applying redactions …
Read MoreMay 11, 2013
Flexibility Is Key
It’s Saturday at 3pm. Over a dozen members of my review team have been in the office since 8am, helping to complete a population of documents that are urgently needed for Monday. While we had a bit of advance warning, we received approval for weekend work less than 24 hours ago. Most of the team …
Read MoreApril 30, 2013
Minnesota Updates Discovery Rules
In July, recent changes to Minnesota’s Rules of Civil Procedure take effect. These rules made significant changes to Rule 1 and Rule 26, pushing for proportionality, enhanced disclosure and greater collaboration. Brendan Kenny at Law Technology News has a useful update. The addition to Rule 1 is particularly important: It is the responsibility of the court and …
Read MoreApril 23, 2013
Respect The Reader
Today, Sam Glover appeared in a couple of promo videos for the upcoming Lawyernomics conference. The key message of his videos? If your blogging is motivated by marketing, instead of a desire to provide enjoyable and informative content, it’s going to suck. He did this, of course, in videos that are actually nothing but marketing …
Read MoreApril 10, 2013
Handling Hot Docs
In every document review, there are certain important documents that will one day find themselves attached to a filing, blown up and used as an exhibit or endlessly picked apart in a deposition. A well-designed coding layout will provide an opportunity to easily tag and identify these documents as a priority for further review. Every so …
Read MoreApril 9, 2013
Tools: Time Tracking with Toggl
I just noticed a post from Robert Ambrogi about a tool called “Attorney Timekeeper“. Simplifying time tracking goes a long way toward ensuring accurate and complete billing. The “Attorney Timekeeper”, however, costs $50 per month. That’s more than excessive. I long ago found Toggl. It does a wonderful job of tracking time and, in its basic …
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