Cloud Profit Making

No one wants to pay more for anything than they have to, especially e-discovery. Here are some cost saving tips to consider.

1. Size Matters: The size of your data set affects three different costs. First, when processing data, vendors usually charge one price for importing data into the processing tool (the “in” charge) and another, higher price for the data exported from the tool (the “out” charge).

The “in” charge usually includes de-duplication, de-NISTing, date and search term filtering and is based on the uncompressed gigabyte (“GB”) size. If you collect a pst in a zip file that is 5 GB compressed, the vendor will extract the pst from the zip file, thereby uncompressing it. This can greatly increase, even double or triple, your gigabyte size and therefore, your cost. So, it is important to consider the uncompressed size for budgeting purposes.

Once the data has completed processing, apply as many filters as you can prior to export since the “out” size will be everything you export for review. Date filters and key word searches are common—you may also consider filtering out certain file types and email domains.

2. Keep 'Em Separated: Once you have your set for review, control the settings on export to keep the GB size down. Export emails either in .mht format or export as .msg files without the attachments inside them. If you export emails as straight .msg files, you are exporting the attachments twice—once as separate records as part of the family, and then again inside the native .msg file.

This raises the cost in three different ways. First, it inflates the size of the export, for which you are bring charged by the GB. Second, once the documents are loaded, you will be paying monthly hosting fees on the larger GB size. Third, if you apply analytics (ex. clustering, threading, near-duplication), you will be paying more since your data set will be larger and this is also usually a per GB charge.

It is important to discuss these options with the vendor up front so you don't end up being charged double for the attachments. Also note that not all processing tools can export in mht format or remove the attachments from inside .msg files so make sure you are dealing with a vendor that can accommodate this request.

3. Keep 'Em Together: Do not extract or export inline images, which are usually those logos and .gif files that you find in email footers. Exporting inline images as separate records will blow up the size of your database.

In addition, if you are paying for managed services with a per document charge for review, these will usually count as a “document”. So for every email with a logo, you will be paying double. Even if you tag them as not responsive, the inline images become unwieldy when you are preparing for depositions and trial, or just setting up searches that include family members. If these inline images and the associated emails are deemed responsive, then you will pay double for tiffing and bates numbering for production as well. Best practice is just to leave them inside the emails.

4. Threading: It's Sew Nice: Propose using email threading to review and produce only the most inclusive emails in a chain. Email threading can cut the review population down by 10-20 percent, which can result in substantial savings on review and production costs. There are fewer documents to review which cuts down on reviewer hours. There are fewer documents to ultimately produce, so you save on tiffing and production costs, and there are fewer privilege documents to log.

If the other side does the same, you will have fewer documents to review from their production to prepare your case. It is a win-win for everyone.

5. “Click of a Button” Privilege Logs: Try to negotiate the ability to produce an automated privilege log. Creating a privilege log creation can be one of the most expensive tasks of discovery. It takes approximately 90 percent less time to create an “automated log.” To create an automated log, you can just produce the metadata for the privilege documents, such as author/to/from/cc/bcc/date/file name/subject. The only thing that needs to be manually reviewed is the file name and subject fields to make sure that they do not contain privilege. This is much faster than writing long descriptions about the contents of a document.

These are all simple ways to cut your costs that can be implemented without much effort.

Partner Anne McCray and Counsel Cristin Traylor are two of the founding members of McGuireWoods' Discovery Counsel Services group and focus their practices on all aspects of e-discovery, litigation preparedness and information governance.