eDiscovery involves the process of reviewing electronically stored information. It is a legally accepted process that mirrors the usual legal discovery procedure but comes with an added complexity of handling electronic documents.
eDiscovery services help in the process of collecting, reviewing, and processing such electronic information for use in litigation. It increases efficiency by organising the data and ensuring accuracy.
How the eDiscovery software works:
After the initial stages, the software starts scanning files. It proceeds to identify and separate relevant and non-relevant information. The former is placed securely in a digital space. After this stage, humans undertake the process. Paralegals, lawyers, and other relevant personnel review the documents. This process is called a document review.
Specific files are also converted to different file formats, such as pdf, to disallow editing and redactions of certain privileged information. It also helps to hide irrelevant information that is not necessary for viewing.
Once the relevant files have undergone review, they go through a specific document production procedure. This step denotes getting the files ready for presentation in court. These come under the governance of a whole set of directives dealing with the production of electronic information. After generating them, they are ready to be presented in court.
How it began:
eDiscovery software was initially in use for a small aspect of the process. As technology eventually became more important, both in life and business, these solutions also expanded to other territories. The comprehensive solutions have increased in number over the years.
The legal system has also increasingly started accepting electronic files as evidence, and this scenario has boosted the market. The eDiscovery market will be approximately worth over 17.5 billion by the year 2023.
The Significance of eDiscovery services:
The process may seem tedious at best, but it is of utmost importance in courtrooms today. Entire ruling and case results could come down to the contents of an email sent by an executive.
More information is stored electronically than ever in today’s digital-data-driven world. The admissibility of such information could make or break a ruling for the prosecution or the defence.
The ultimate goal of this process is to compile a reliable base of relevant and admissible documents. It could help either of these parties to build their case at the end of the day.
eDiscovery Benefits:
It provides viable solutions for legal departments and law firms, along with other benefits. It improves the whole discovery process rendering it more efficient, cost-effective, and improves accuracy rates while identifying relevant documents.
Role of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in eDiscovery:
Over the years, AI has occupied a fundamental position in the whole process of eDiscovery. AI applications, built on predictive-coding parse massive data streams, stores a lot of data as knowledge and information about document relevance.
It applies the existing data to filter out relevant documents for the case at hand. In simple terms, this is the relationship between AI and eDiscovery. “Predictive-coding,” “technology-assisted review,” and “machine learning”, are all terms used for this same aspect of AI-based eDiscovery.
Conclusion:
As the years go by, the relevance of technology-assisted eDiscovery is only going to increase. Lawyers will be largely reliant on such software because of their efficiency and minimum margin for error. The capability of the AI algorithms, coupled with the efficacy of lawyers, can determine whole rulings. The outcomes will continue to depend on the result of electronic and eDiscovery data.