Canadian Lawyer

There is a lot of unintended rework from trying to keep everything ���like paper��� or failing to adapt to technology There is a general fear of working with electronic documents, so people try to convert electronic records to a paper equivalent ��� a .tiff or .pdf format ��� as quickly as possible. Not only does the step of converting electronic records to paper cost a lot of money, overall costs rise when working with a converted paper equivalent rather than an electronic original. There are usually more options available to reduce costs by working with electronic originals, including using technologies to cull document populations through eliminating duplicates and grouping together documents that are similar or share related content. These advanced search technologies generally require you to work with the native versions of the records. Costs also increase if you don���t plan your review well. Starting with the first document and reviewing each in turn gets the job done, but through brute force. Consider using search terms to identify key documents, and then using related words (and further words generated from the first hits) to begin a sequential review of the documents by topical grouping. Most people fail to keep good notes of their review process and can spend considerable time re-checking work. Pricing is a bit opaque and it���s hard to comparison shop Since most suppliers do not disclose their conversion rate, it can be difficult to understand their assumptions, making comparison shopping challenging. Additionally, some of the technical charges aren���t well described. Vendors do not deliberately mean to be opaque but say they aren���t often asked to fully explain the elements of the service charges so may not be aware customers don���t understand how the pricing actually works. E-discovery pricing would be more transparent if there were more metrics such as conversion rates, how long things take to do, and how many resources are required to do them. It is unlikely such information will become available, however, without either industry co-ordination (unlikely) or customer pressure (the ball is in your court). Dera J. Nevin is a Toronto lawyer who practises e-discovery law. The Osgoode Cert eDiscovery, Records Management, Information Governance and Privacy April 16 - May 23, 2013 5 Days over 5 Weeks Osgoode Professional Development Downtown Toronto Conference Centre Day 1 ��� April 16, 2013 Day 4 ��� May 14, 2013 ��� Culling, Analysing, Records Management and Technology Primer Processing and Review of ESI Day 2 ��� April 23, 2013 Day 5 ��� May 23, 2013 Privilege, Privacy and Information Governance Technology and the Law: Forensic Essentials Day 3 ��� April 30, 2013 ��� Preserving, Currently, different stages of the e-discovery process are priced in different units, meaning there is always a conversion required; however, there���s no common understanding of the ���exchange rate��� for this conversion. Often processing is priced in GB units, but review is priced in dollars per hour while production can be priced either per GB or per document. But how many documents are in a GB, and how many documents can be reviewed per hour? There are statistics and conversion charts on the web, but I have found such variation from one data set to another that the exact conversion rate between stages remains a mystery. Program Director Susan Wortzman Wortzman Nickle Professional Corporation Registration Fee: $3495 plus HST Inquire about group discounts, Day 2 (experienced and new member): 7.25 CPD hours (3.25 Substantive, 4.0 Professionalism) Day 3 (experienced and new member): 7.5 CPD hours (6.75 Substantive, 0.75 Professionalism) To Register: www.osgoodepd.ca Or Call: 416.597.9724 or 1.888.923.3394 Or E-mail: opd-registration@osgoode.yorku.ca Osgoode Professional Development, 1 Dundas Street West, Suite 2600, Toronto CLE Priority Service Code: 12-70CL www.CANADIAN sgoode_CL_Mar_13.indd 1 L a w ye r m a g . c o m March 2013 19 13-02-07 12:14 PM

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