Recent Survey Reveals Attorneys Biggest Obstacle in Locating Responsive Information

Quickly locating responsive information is the single best way to reduce legal/e-discovery costs. A recent survey of nearly 150 in-house legal/IT professionals identified “locating responsive information” as the No. 1 e-discovery challenge.

Quickly locating responsive information is the single best way to reduce legal/e-discovery costs. A recent survey of nearly 150 in-house legal/IT professionals identified “locating responsive information” as the No. 1  e-discovery challenge.  Survey respondents ranked this issue ahead of tracking legal holds, managing multiple e-discovery projects, and controlling the amount of data sent for attorney review as their most significant problem in the entire e-discovery process.

To dig a little deeper on what makes locating potentially responsive data so difficult for in-house teams, a follow up survey was conducted. This survey assessed what specifically goes into locating responsive data, namely what makes it so challenging. This time around we received more than 200 responses and the results shed light on where corporate teams experience the most difficulty. The results have been compiled into an easy to read report, a portion of which you can see below with the overall survey results.

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The full report (available for complimentary download here) breaks down the results by specific role (attorney, lit support, IT, etc.) and includes some great quotes from the survey respondents on their specific challenges.

A few of the most insightful into the challenges legal and IT are facing when it comes to locating responsive data include:

On searching through large volumes of data, a senior attorney at a large financial services company stated…

“There is so much data, I liken it to finding Bin Laden in Afghanistan.  You know that what you need is there somewhere, but it takes a lot of work and, frankly, some luck to find what you’re looking for.”

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On developing search criteria, a legal director at an energy company said…

“I think it is particularly difficult to develop search criteria for determining document relevancy because searching too broadly can bring up documents that are not pertinent to your issue, but searching too narrowly can exclude results that may end up being relative enough and substantively supportive to your argument. An overly-inclusive search, on the other hand, can leave you with so many results that you may miss something important (the needle in the haystack). It’s difficult to find a balance between the two extremes and to perform a search that provides you with all of the information you could possibly need, without overwhelming you with stuff you don’t need.”

On searching through large volumes of data, a senior counsel at a major non-profit organization explained…

“We have over 20,000 employees with very large volumes of documents and emails retained.  When litigation arises, it can be extremely difficult to locate responsive documents.”

Exterro is currently running a five-part E-Discovery Data Management Webcast Series with each webcast examining a different aspect of searching for potentially responsive data, as reflected in the survey. The webcasts will include best practices for locating responsive data more quickly, controlling collection, processing and review costs, and leveraging technology to develop smarter case strategies.

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Learn more and register for the webcast series here.