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Defensibly Reducing Cost and Time in Electronic Discovery
Early Case Assessment Services from Iris Data Services
 
Mitigating the costs of electronic discovery is a challenging—yet crucial—aspect of every matter. Early case assessment efforts can dramatically reduce the cost of electronic discovery by reducing the amount of required processing and document review to increase the utility of every dollar spent. Iris delivers early case assessment through a series of services designed to defensibly reduce the document population prior to processing and review. 
 
Iris’ Early Case Assessment Services Minimize Exposure by
  • Empowering case teams to limit the scope of discovery requests 
  • Improving accuracy by limiting reviewer energy spent on extraneous items
  • Enabling case teams to devise strategies based on detailed analyses and reporting
  • Shortening discovery timeframes reduces risk of missed deadlines
  • Providing solid documentation to ensure defensibility

Iris’ Early Case Assessment Services Minimizes Expense by
  • Reducing the amount of data to be processed and hosted
  • Reducing the number of documents to be reviewed by legal professionals
  • Reducing the number of billable hours needed to plan and manage discovery
  • Pre-categorizing to speed review processes downstream
Iris’ Early Case Assessment Services defensibly reduce document population by applying the following disciplines:
 
De-Duplication and Near-Duplicate Analysis
Perhaps the simplest and most common method for reducing document populations is removal of exact duplicates. Iris performs de-duplication by calculating the SHA-1 hash value of specific fields of metadata. The fields used depend on the type of data contained in the collection in order to maximize efficacy and defensibility. De-duplication may be performed either horizontally (across the entire collection) or vertically (by individual custodians), or on a media-by-media basis. Iris’ unique capabilities allow clients to use a broad de-duplication strategy across large, potentially redundant data sets and a narrow de-duplication strategy on more relevant, specific data sets simultaneously on the same matter. 

Iris recognizes the unique circumstances associated with processing emails containing Bcc:’s (blind copies); any email containing a Bcc: in the metadata can be excluded from the de-duplication process so all Bcc: documents will be processed for inclusion and review by the review team. Attachment relationships are never compromised.

Emails (along with their attachments) that are designated as duplicates are removed from the active batch in Iris’ processing database and placed in an inactive batch with a duplicate identifier. This allows clients to set aside duplicates early in the process and save time and money by reviewing a smaller set of documents. The duplicated documents can then be re-introduced in advance of production if necessary.

Iris also performs near-duplicate detection that forensically reduces the number of documents needing to be reviewed, in turn lowering costs and saving review time and allowing legal teams to focus on the critical data they need to win cases.
 
Forensic Pre-culling 
Forensic pre-culling reduces the amount of data that must be acquired and searched from custodian hard drives.  The standard “forensic pre-cull” involves the elimination of system files and other extraneous files such as items contained in the Program files directories or IT User accounts.

For example, the PC may contain a profile which is merely used for IT administrative purposes to store a backup of the installation set or standard package of applications, utilities and shortcuts to resources that are deployed for all users within their organization.  Iris individually can confirm each such case and omit them from the data extractions where appropriate. Typically, less than 50% of the data remains to be forensically extracted.  
 
File Filtering
Iris can remove unnecessary files by filtering on any number of data points such as: 
  • File Location and/or Custodian. Filtering by file location can remove much unnecessary data and is especially useful when dealing with backup tapes of server data, which often contain mostly non-responsive data. Additionally, a high volume of irrelevant data is typical from given custodians and/or workgroups and can be isolated and preserved for future reference if needed, but withheld from the review database. 
  • File Type. Iris filters files by type, eliminating files that are unwanted or assuredly non-responsive. Clients are left with only the files that may contain relevant information. 
  • System and Application Files. Iris quickly and defensibly identifies and removes system and application files as these files can be quite large and expensive to process and almost never contain relevant or even useful information.
Searching
Iris executes customized searches based upon client objectives and jointly developed terms to filter and categorize documents prior to full-blown processing. Iris’ searching capabilities include more than fifteen Boolean operators and are used to identify documents for inclusion in—or exclusion from—the processing and review population. 

Iris provides reporting to allow the legal team and Iris’ eDiscovery Consultants to devise effective modifications to search terms to increase the overall accuracy and value of the searching. As Iris’ system provides audit tracking for all processes, the keyword hits can be used for categorization or highlighting purposes in order to prioritize and accelerate the document review process downstream.

Iris also filters by date range(s) as defined in discovery requests or negotiated in meet-and-confers. 
 
Categorization
Grouping similar documents can facilitate a more efficient review. Iris can categorize documents in any of the following ways:
  • Near-Duplication 
  • By Custodian/Source
  • Chronologically
  • By Media
  • By Workgroup/Office Location
  • By Existing Data Folder Structure
  • BY ANY COMBINATION OF THE ABOVE
Grouping like documents allows the most important documents to be reviewed first, legal teams to build the database according to their review strategy, reviewers to hone in on consistent issues, and more. Additionally, reviewers can review similar documents simultaneously, increasing accuracy and speed. 
 
Iterative Reporting 
Iris generates detailed inventory reports of the data stored on all media, consulting with our clients to identify locations of potentially responsive data. Once that is done, all early case assessment services are chosen in concert with the legal team. Iris will advise on the impact of every step, but the ultimate decisions lie with our clients.

Iris can report on the results of each process in terms of its impact on types of files, sources of information, date distribution, keyword responsiveness of data and more. Our clients get a detailed overview of the size and nature of the data set after each step in order to ensure optimal data reduction.
 
Iris’s flexible reporting protocols also support an iterative, stepwise decision making process. We provide clear reports in response to every step, allowing us to coordinate with the legal team to change, tweak or even undo the previous process and appropriately plan the next step.  
 
Iris: One Company, One Solution
Iris clients can rely on one provider for all areas of litigation support. Iris has expertise in all phases of discovery, and has experience and proprietary technology for steps that other providers outsource such as computer forensics, filtering, culling and online review. All of Iris’ technologies include flexible interfaces and are scalable enough to handle any size matter, reducing both cost and risk since data need not be transferred between providers. As a truly international provider—with operations throughout the U.S., Asia and Australia—Iris can handle projects in any language or any international complexity. The result is a single company with a single integrated solution to handle any litigation support need, anytime and anywhere in the world. Iris Data Services: One Company, One Solution.
 

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