The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50801
TECH SUPPORT would be to search through all that. Now it's all stored on computer and accessible at the click of a button." A third system, using CaseMap and TimeMap from CaseSoft lets lawyers link specific documents to arguments and facts they intend to use in court. "It finds the needles in the haystack and stores them in a readily accessible way that makes this million-document pile manageable," says Kuntz. BH&T stores all documents on site, and lawyers can retrieve them from anywhere they have internet access. In the office, they're seeing sub-second re- sponse times. Although it farmed out scanning of its client's paper documents, BH&T does all the optical character reading (OCR) in-house, including that of document images received from the other side. The enabling infrastructure is im- pressive, especially for a firm this size. BH&T uses VMware ESX software from VMware Inc. to manage a virtual- ized server farm: 30 servers running on three high-performance machines. Vir- tualization is an economical, energy- efficient way to generate the computing power needed to run many concurrent processes. This allows rapid production of OCR text and provides full redun- dancy of systems to ensure the data is always available. The firm uses Equal- Logic storage area networks (SANs) from Dell. The network has a storage capacity of 14 terabytes — that's 14 trillion bytes, or 14,000 gigabytes. (A typical PC hard drive has a capacity of less than 250 gigabytes.) BH&T is only using about half its capacity, a "good chunk" of it for the tobacco material, says BH&T manager of information services Dave Ewanchuk. The technology has made it possible TPCanadianLawyer 8/16/06 2:43 PM Page 3 for the firm to manage with a relative- ly small team of nine or 10 lawyers. The Justice Department in the U.S., by way of contrast, fielded a team of 40 lawyers and 30 support staff in its suit against the tobacco industry in the 1990s. "We learned from their mis- takes," says Kuntz. If not for the advanced infrastruc- ture and software tools, Kuntz reckons BH&T would need "hundreds" of law- yers to examine documents to find evi- dence. It would take longer and cost a lot more. "I don't think this case could feasibly go ahead without the technol- ogy," she says. One key to making it an all-electronic case is that the other side was willing to go along. This is, in part, because of the experience in the U.S., where the indus- try was ordered to make text-searchable documents available online after com- panies were caught trying to withhold evidence. But it's also a huge cost sav- ing not to have to produce print copies of the same documents over and over. "It's been a very collaborative approach," says Kuntz, "which is unique I think in tobacco litigation. It shows that if you're willing to work with opposing counsel in using technology, you can really get a lot of benefit." Kuntz and Ewanchuk are happy to YOUR CLIENTS JUST BOUGHT A HOME WITH A DREAM KITCHEN. Protect your clients. Recommend TitlePLUS® title insurance.* TitlePLUS title insurance and you, together we make real estate real simple. Visit titleplus.ca or call 1-800-410-1013 for more information. * Underwritten by Lawyers' Professional Indemnity Company (LAWPRO® ). Contact LAWPRO for brokers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. ® Registered trademark of Lawyers' Professional Indemnity Company. 24 OC T OBER 2008 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com Canadian Lawyer – Pub date: August 28 (Due Date: Aug 16) T oo bad it hasn' t been paid for .