Canadian Lawyer

March 2012

The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers

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BY DERA NEVIN TECH SUPPORT Getting better search results from an electronic document database Taking simple steps to improve search context can make you a star through more efficient and accurate searches. privileged documents in a quick and cost-effective manner. By taking simple steps to improve the search context, you could improve your review efficiency and accuracy. By search context, I do not mean A database of electronic documents to review presents a number of challenges, including how to find relevant and understanding what the legal issues are (although this is important, too), but rather understanding how the data- base containing the electronic evidence will respond to your proposed search. Search context can be improved with attention to three things: the state of the index; the searchability of the docu- ments; and the bias of the search engine or search feature. First, determine the state of the document database index. Understand- ing what is in the index and how it is built is necessary, because the quality of the index is critical to effective search. In almost every document database, the computer is not actually searching the documents in a literal sense. Instead, the computer is searching the index. The index can be analogized to a table of contents, or a detailed index in the back of a textbook; when a user types a www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com M A RCH 2012 23

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