Bringing E-Discovery Processing Back In-House

Cost control is a number one issue for most company and organization legal departments, and their litigation budgets – specifically data management and e-discovery – has become a primary focus for cost-savings. Bringing e-discovery processing in-house is one important option for reducing costs. Favorably priced data analysis and processing solutions now on the market can help organizations make the determination.

Document review is often the costliest step in the pre-trial discovery process. If organizations can control the amount of data that needs to be reviewed during the initial stages of e-discovery, they will be positioned to realize major cost savings. Proper training and guidance from the software manufacturer are necessary to ensure proper integration with existing workflow and that best practices are documented and followed.

Not all organizations should opt for an in-house solution. It’s important to determine if this approach will in fact result in lower costs and make overall business sense. If the number or size of cases is substantial, the in-house option should at least be explored. Even what seems like a relatively small matter can sometimes require sifting through hundreds of gigabytes of data.

Creating an in-house processing capability with the appropriate tools and personnel can result in better control of e-discovery challenges and costs. The prospect for enormous cost savings can’t be ignored, but whether this is the right approach for any given organization can be answered only after thorough review, analysis and discussion.