Last month, kCura published this great article that addresses the questions lawyers still get about the value of applying the latest ediscovery technology on their cases. Interestingly, these questions not only come from their clients, but from other colleagues.

Q1: What's so wrong with the way we've always done it?

Q2: Isn't keyword searching all we need?

Q3: How can the benefits of something like technology-assisted review outweigh the risks that the computer might miss something?

Find out the answers by reading the full article on kCura's Blog.

Of course, I had to chime in on this very relevant topic...

Commonwealth Legal's Vice President, Jennifer Johnson, quoted on the AdvocateDaily.com.

"Many in the legal sector are at a crossroads when it comes to next-generation technology — but pioneering law firms see this as an opportunity to drive competitive advantage by delivering efficiency and value to their clients early on in the discovery process, Commonwealth Legal vice-president, Jennifer Johnson tells AdvocateDaily.com

As Johnson explains, one of the key drivers behind the adoption of new technology in law firms is the need to differentiate against competitors, and eventually, to keep up with clients."

Read the rest of the article on AdvocateDaily.com.

Whether you have the Pinto of the review software world, or a fully loaded Ferrari, you need to make important decisions about how you’re going to conduct document review. It’s often said that the Review stage is upwards of 80% of the total cost of Litigation. Without a plan in place, that number can get out of hand very quickly. And as that number rises, so does the chance your clients will have serious questions about your billing practices.

Commonwealth Legal's Vice President, Jennifer Johnson, quoted on the AdvocateDaily.com.

"For law firms, technology can be a powerful tool for process improvement — including the use of document management software during the discovery and review process, Commonwealth Legal vice-president, Jennifer Johnson tells Lawyers Weekly.

As Johnson tells AdvocateDaily, Commonwealth Legal is now a division of Ricoh Canada whose roots are founded in technology innovation. In 1974, Ricoh launched the world’s first high-speed office facsimile machine which brought new efficiency to business communications. The impact of the evolution of technology is relentless and will continue to inform how businesses operate."

Read the rest of the article on AdvocateDaily.com.

As Canadian law firms make the leap to next generation technology, there is a desire to balance the requirements of their average cases with the need for advanced technology that will allow them to position themselves in an increasingly competitive marketplace. This puts more pressure on technology decisions than ever before.

We sat down with Kim Taylor, COO and President of Ipro, to find out what his predictions are for the ediscovery industry, and to gain first-hand insight into how their ever-evolving suite of tools may satisfy and influence our marketplace. 

Cross-role collaboration between the lawyers acting as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), the technology experts and the best-of-breed Technology Assisted Review (TAR) tools, is critical – with all three working in alignment to ensure a successful review outcome. As you work through your case, it is also important to adjust your approach to TAR in the face of Concept Drift if you are going to truly advance your understanding of your case and cascade the insight gained across your data universe.

Technology in Practice speaker alumnus and well-known ediscovery lawyer and blogger, Ralph Losey, discusses this topic in detail in his three-part blog series titled, Concept Drift and Consistency: Two Keys To Document Review Quality:

AdvocateDaily.com reaches out to Commonwealth Legal's Vice President, Jennifer Johnson, for what makes for an effective ediscovery managed services offering.

Rather than just an add-on to its main business, 'managed services' should be at the core of an ediscovery firm's offering, as expertise, flexibility and a well-established technology toolkit are key to excelling in this area, says Commonwealth Legal vice-president, Jennifer Johnson.

In the managed services area — which is a sophisticated combination of evidence management, the cloud, and reactive service needs for litigation, regulatory matters, inquiries or investigations, means that only hands-on experience and a proficient team can set you up for success.

“This is not the kind of business where you can get away with doing a satisfactory job. Infrastructure costs, security risks, an efficient approach to managing the data and enabling your clients to really master the technology is what makes us successful,” says Johnson.

“The reality is that anyone can buy a tool. But we know from experience, and law firms have learned this too as they work to evolve their in-house capabilities, that it takes a village to support these applications and the teams that are using them. There is a lot at stake and highly responsive, first-hand expertise is critical to the successful management of cases in the cloud,” says Johnson.

Read the rest of the article on AdvocateDaily.com.

Remember the game “Battleship”? You would sit across from your brother, sister, or a friend, and blindly try to locate their ships, all with the goal of hearing them say “You sank my Battleship!” 

I wonder if the same could be said of the processes involved in Data Identification and Collection?

We start with a Data Map (the Co-ordinate Grid) and Data (the Ships). We then strategically ask questions and wait for a response as to whether or not the data has been located (a “Hit” or a “Miss”).  Let’s use Email as an example:

The EDRM drafted a Processing Standards Guide in 2015 as a way to collect the ideas of industry leaders regarding various aspects of eDiscovery processing, and provide readers with some guidance to help them make decisions around the many settings and options to choose when processing electronic data. Many people look to resources like this to find exactly which settings to use when they run their documents through software.

The problem with this approach is that there is not a single best practice that fits all cases.

What the processing guide does do is outline some of the common options available to you and explains what they are and what they do. The result is a tool you can use to help make informed decisions about your settings.