Bottom Line Driven Proportional Review

http://ow.ly/8uKRQ

An article by Ralph Losey, posted on the e-Discovery Team® blog website.

 The article discusses the attorney review process, and provides detailed advice as to how to calculate projected costs for the review.  The article focuses on the establishment of a defined process that looks at the risk involved in the litigation, and helps focus on what the appropriate proportionate costs should be for a review.

 The article states, "The bottom line in e-discovery production is what it costs. Believe me, clients care about that …. a lot! In Bottom Line Driven Proportional Review and Production everything starts with the bottom line. What is the production going to cost? Despite what some lawyers and vendors may tell you, that is not an impossible question to answer. It takes an experienced lawyer’s skill to answer, but after a while, you can get quite good at such estimation."

The article references several other articles, and provides mathematical formulas that can be utilized to assist in gauging the review costs.

As the article states, "The process begins by the producing party calculating the maximum amount of money appropriate to spend on ESI production. A budget. This requires not only an understanding of the ESI production requests, but also a careful evaluation of the merits of the case. The amount selected for the budget should be proportional to the monies and issues in the case. Any more than that is unduly burdensome and prohibited under Rule 26(b)(2)(C), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and other rules that underlie what is now known generally known as theProportionality Principle."

The author provides information regarding formulas that can be used to calculate anticipated review costs.  In, addition, the author warns that numbers cannot just be made up, and that they need to be based on realistic cost estimates that can be established through knowledge of the types of documents that require review. Mr. Losey also provides some interesting statistics regarding typical costs for specific functions.

The article provides 9 essential elements of a proportional review.  This article can certainly be used a foundation for establishing a cost-efficient and defensible attorney review process.