In my previous blog posts How to trim eDiscovery costs part one: Laying the groundwork, and How to trim eDiscovery costs part two: Review fewer documents and review efficiently, I discussed reducing eDiscovery costs by taking the time to set the stage before documents are exchanged, and by leveraging analytics to send fewer documents to review.

In the next few weeks I will share more of our practical tips in this series of short articles. Here is Part 3 - Leverage technology by adding tools and apps to your review. These tips will help gain efficiencies in your review project and save on review costs.

1. Active Learning

(Also referred to as TAR, CAL, assisted review, predictive coding, machine learning.)

Active Learning can greatly reduce the number of documents requiring eyes on review. The technology learns from the human reviewers' decisions and ranks the documents in the data set accordingly. With the help of a knowledgeable administrator, Active Learning is easy to use and can result in significant savings on eDiscovery costs by reducing the number of documents going to human review.

2. Language Identification Analytics

Identify documents where the primary language is other than English. Use this information to assemble a review team with appropriate language skills and plan and budget for translations. Sending foreign language documents to an English-speaking review team wastes valuable reviewer time.

3. Machine Translation

Machine translation can be frustrating and has its limitations but it can be a relatively inexpensive way for your review team to decide that a document is not relevant. This means fewer documents going to a more costly human translation or a foreign language review team.

4. Native Redaction Tools

Redacting spreadsheets manually is a time consuming task and can result in errors and inconsistencies. Using one of the native redaction applications on a large redaction project can save you time and improve the quality of your production.

5. Chat Formatting

If you have ever tried to review chat or other instant messaging in a traditional review platform you will understand that an app that assists with chat formatting can save you money in review time and can improve the quality of your review.

6. Contract Review

Corporate transaction and regulatory response projects involve reviewing documents that are textually similar. Contract review apps can streamline that process.

7. Widgets and Dashboards

Widgets and dashboards can be used for tracking metrics such as review progress at a glance.

These are just some of the tools and apps available that could help save money on eDiscovery costs. There are so many exciting innovations on the market. When we have a problem that we can't find an app for we have often been able to have a developer create something for us at a reasonable cost or we have customized something ourselves.

My next post will cover tips for a successful and efficient review team. Please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] if you have questions or comments.

If you would like to read the entire How to trim eDiscovery costs series, the posts can be found here:
How to trim eDiscovery costs part one: Lay the groundwork
How to trim eDiscovery costs part two: Review fewer documents and review efficiently

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.