What Small Law Firms Need to Know About eDiscovery

The most important thing that small firms need to know is that if they aren’t using eDiscovery properly, they are missing key evidence. Why? I have seen opposing counsel hand over documents in PDF format where the metadata has been altered. This happens when the opposing counsel doesn’t understand the eDiscovery process. There are several eDiscovery document review services available in the market to do this job. But many lawyers delegate this task to legal professionals in house who lack the knowledge to do eDiscovery properly. The paralegal or other legal professional in the office may just be copying the documents on to a drive to produce them.

Why is metadata so important?

Metadata is the data that shows when a document was created or altered including dates and time stamps. For example, a city produces a copy of its policy on disciplinary action that is key to your case. Looking at the metadata, I would be able to see the date and time that the document was first created. The document shows that the policy was first created on 4/3/2022. The client was subject to disciplinary action on 2/12/2020. The case at first glance looks like the city was following its own policy, however, the metadata shows that the policy was created after the fact to fit their own needs in the wrongful discharge.

Let’s get back to Native format: It’s a standard practice to produce documents in Native format. Native format is the format that the documents are kept in during the normal course of business. Simply copying a document into PDF format on a drive and turning it over, is not Native format. The process for producing documents always needs to be done where the metadata for the document stays unchanged. This means that someone with technical knowledge should be extracting the documents (while leaving the metadata intact) into an eDiscovery platform prior to running search terms.

Why is this essential?

A search of documents outside of the eDiscovery platform will miss documents. In fact, this type of search will miss tons of relevant documents. eDiscovery platforms were created to search for relevant documents. The opposing counsel’s lack of knowledge in this area means that your case may be missing the evidence needed to win. With your knowledge of eDiscovery, you can force opposing counsel to produce documents properly.

PDF’s in Adobe are not efficient to search for key words. They just were never set up that way. Think of the time and effort needed to pull up each document and go through it with multiple searches then move to the next one, re-opening another document. eDiscovery platforms allow you to search through all of the documents at once, pulling only the documents that have key word hits that you determine with the search function.

In summary, never accept documents that are not in Native format. Make sure that the documents produced were extracted into an eDiscovery platform prior to key word searches. Use an eDiscovery platform to review your documents. Educate yourself on eDiscovery project management best practices.

What you don’t know about eDiscovery can be hurting your case. It’s essential to keep up with technology and case law in this area in order to get the evidence you deserve for your clients.