The era of hybrid working is well and truly here, and while the ratio of hours spent working remotely vs working in the office will differ for each organisation, most of the legal sector appears to have settled comfortably into a hybrid state of working. However, when it comes to eDiscovery, the same cannot always be said. Many are concerned about the impacts remote/hybrid working might have on the document review process, but not to worry, we are here to put your mind at ease.
From specialist law firms to in-house counsel, many legal teams are finding that more flexible modes of working continue to create new benefits and challenges in equal measure. While we’re over the hill in many senses, teams in charge of collection and review still have much to refine as far as their eDiscovery processes and practices are concerned. Here are a few ways legal teams can hope to combat the ongoing challenges presented by hybrid working, and refine their eDiscovery approaches to work optimally in the new, hybrid world of work.
Only collect the data you need:
Rising data volumes and sources continue to add to the time and cost associated with eDiscovery projects. The key to keeping these down in the future of hybrid working is to devote more time and effort earlier on in the process to assess what information is needed – rather than only realising the burdensome nature of your document batches once it’s too late. One way to help do this is by leveraging proportionality.
Typically, proportionality is not brought into an eDiscovery strategy until after the data has been collected. However, thought leaders in the eDiscovery space have begun to draw attention to the benefits – particularly for remote and hybrid workforces – of using proportionately early on as a form of collection strategy. Mandi Ross, CEO and MD of Prism Litigation Technology, previously explained it thusly in a webinar on remote eDiscovery:-
“There’s often a gap between the identification and collection where proportionality can be leveraged as a means to right-size discovery early and align it to the merits of the case. Addressing proportionality earlier in the process provides valuable institutional knowledge to the case team, and it also dramatically reduces the volume of content and downstream discovery cost.”
