Multilingual Review in the E-Discovery Process

As a result of the increase in global commerce and international corporate disputes, discovery of large volumes of data in litigation is becoming common worldwide. Regulatory enforcement is also growing quickly, leading to a rise in the number of internal investigations and information requests that require large-scale multilingual review and production of documents.

Law firms and their clients traditionally have used a combination of multilingual in-house lawyers and translation agencies to complete these projects, but challenges arise when there are not enough attorneys that speak certain languages available in a specific location.  This can lead to delays and inflated reviewer costs.

Legal technology tools such as concept clustering and predictive coding, sometimes referred to as Technology Assisted Review (TAR) or Computer Assisted Review (CAR), offer attractive options to help corporations and counsel reduce the amount of data that needs to be reviewed during discovery, thus reducing associated reviewer costs. These emerging technologies are becoming important components in dealing with legal matters that cross international borders and include data that is created, transmitted, and stored outside the United States. Besides the technical issues, there are legal strictures that must be understood and observed, including laws that in some cases criminalize movement of data outside of borders

By being informed about advantages and risks, understanding international legal considerations, managing work flows and applying available tools appropriately, counsel will have the information necessary to make complex international review more efficient and less costly.