Since the FRCP rules took effect December 1st, formally recognizing ESI, the legal landscape has been virtually blanketed with educational materials, press releases, and e-promotions from hundreds of vendors marketing software and other e-discovery solutions. The truth is, when it comes down to it, when you have projects stacked on your desk, deadlines to meet, and a staff to manage, you want to cut to the chase and just get something in place that is reliable, performs what you need, and doesn't cost you an arm and a leg. Wave Software understands, because we've been in your shoes and to make it even easier, we are going to focus on EMAILS—PSTS AND NSF FILES. Let's give you a scenario in a typical litigation matter under the new rules:
Discovery has begun. Both parties have to develop a plan as a part of the pretrial process on the format that ESI has to be preserved and produced, while taking into account claims of privilege and work product. The case deals with multiple custodians across multiple departments with sets of backup tapes at issue. After considering undue burden, cost, and reasonable accessibility, it is agreed that the ESI will be produced in any format that is searchable and manageable, whether in its native format or in TIFF.
I'VE IDENTIFIED CUSTODIANS AND I'VE GOT MY THE PSTS/NSF'S. NOW WHAT?
Reduce the scope of information that is to be produced or reviewed for production. I know what you're asking: Is this allowed? Aren't I manipulating the data? The answer is, it depends on how you are reducing your scope. If you are opening up emails in Outlook to review and parse out, then yes...spoliation has occurred within the metadata. You could certainly Tiff the entire set of PSTs for all the custodians, but remember 1 gig printed out equals 30 boxes of documents...you got time? DEDUPLICATE. Just take all the PSTs for all of your custodians and deduplicate (globally or per-custodian) all at the same time. And don't worry, deduplication is based on a defendable algorithm that takes into consideration all the necessary fields to make sure that just the duplicates are removed, but if you want to be sure...a report with all the duplicates found can be available for your review. On average, deduplication can reduce your data set by at least 60%!
I'VE DEDUPED; WHAT NOW?
Take the deduped set and import it into your review software to tag the emails for privilege, confidentiality, relevancy, etc., and determine what responsive emails can be produced. Remember, the deduped set of PSTs does not mean you have lost your original set of PSTs; you've simply created a deduplicated set that is organized either by custodian, by PST, or just lumped into one PST so that you can review!
I'VE DETERMINED WHAT IS RESPONSIVE; NOW WHAT?
Create a PST with just what you've tagged. Just like you parsed out the duplicates, take out the emails that are not part of the responsive set so that your PST is now just the set you need to produce. GENERATE A NEW PST. Simply creating a load file of the entry IDs that you tagged as responsive can process against the set from which you tagged to create a unique PST—the culled down PST with just the emails you want to produce all the while preserving it in its native format. No spoliation. This unique PST can be organized by custodian or by source PST, or it can all be put into one PST.
OKAY, SO I'VE GOT THIS RESPONSIVE PST; WHAT NOW?
That is up to you: TIFF it out, keep it in its native format, or do both! Really, it is up to you. What you can be assured of is that you've parsed out what you need while preserving native format, and you've got all the records, logs, and reports detailing the entire process from start to finish.
WITH SO MANY APPLICATIONS ON THE MARKET, WHY YOURS?
All we can tell you is the facts:
Trident generates at a speed of 1 gig every 10 minutes. What this means to you is that you don't have to babysit your projects because, honestly, you have better things to do. You don't have to dedup and generate one custodian at a time...just put all the psts in, and the software does the rest. Trident does not require training. The interface is so easy to understand that you see it once and you've been taught. $100/gig with $500/year maintenance. Just buy the gigs, we cut you a key, and you're ready to go. Need more gigs? Give us a call at any time, and we'll give a key for more.
Experience and Support. Each member of Wave has worked in the legal space from attorney to litigation support, and we work the hours you work. You will always be able to reach us.
