Litigation Preparation - Document Management
The Challenge
Initial conversations with our adversary have
been difficult and we are preparing for a tough
legal battle looming on our calendar. As we
begin writing another brief, we catch a glimpse
of a large ‘data storage’ delivery truck pulling
into our parking lot and starting to unload box
after box of documents and guess what? They’re
headed our way!
We get a frantic call from the front desk. Our
receptionist wants to know what to do with the
20 boxes of paper documents. We tell her to
put them in Joe’s old office – the one we’re
paying $45 a square foot per month for – and
there the boxes sit, waiting... enjoying the view
that Joe once had.
We’ve been to records
management seminars and know that each
box probably has about 2,000 pages in it. We
do the quick math and realize that we will need
to review over 40,000 pages.
With critical
So starts another day in the life of Litigation
Preparation - an all too familiar one. Paper has
been around for a long time. But the amount of
paper in today’s litigations is staggering. Even
though a portion of the review process will
be Electronically Stored Information (ESI) –
information that resides as bits and bytes on
hard drives - we can’t turn a cold shoulder to
paper. We can however, use recent developments
in scanning and Optical Character Recognition
(OCR) to apply new technology to age old legal
challenges.
V-Rooms ™ Virtual Data Rooms deliver
top-tier secure document management
and review solutions, which address
the information paper chase and provide
you with the ability to collect, filter
and review infor mation and quickly
segregate privileged, responsive and
non-responsive documents in order to
meet those looming deadlines.
V-Rooms™ Virtual Data Rooms contain all
relevant case information which resides in a
secure, online repository that is outside of the
deadlines looming – what are our choices?
law firm’s firewalls and other obstructions,
providing the legal teams and the courts with
24/7/365, password protected access. As
pleadings, depositions and exhibits are generated, they are added to the existing case material.
Those participants with the correct permission level are then automatically notified via email alerts of
the new information. Administrative audit/tracking reports show you who has accessed each of the
documents and allow you to better manage your experts and the case in general.
A Better Way
With V-RoomsTM we have saved our client thousands of dollars in printing costs alone, as well as
getting Joe’s old office back – which we needed since we’ve hired a new attorney - and we are
moving forward as this complicated world of document management and review becomes clearer.
We don’t need to shudder when we see all that paper. We don’t need to shudder when we see those
hard drives arrive. The V-Rooms™ Solution is dedicated to solving age old legal challenges with
cutting edge technology and wrapping it up in a cost-effective package.
A Case Example
Step 1 – Data Collection – Organizing the Information
After the “meet and confer” session about document
and data handling for the case with opposing counsel,
V-Rooms TM arranges for scanning the paper documents.
Each document is scanned and an electronic image file
created (PDF). Next the electronic files are routed through
Optical Character Recognition (OCR), which is just that As the picture of the document is taken a corresponding
text file is created that contains all of the text recognized
on each page. Why do that? Well think of the advantage
of being able to instantly search 40,000 pages to find the
who/what/when in your case.
Step 2 – Document Review - Culling the information
Now that we have a handle on the bulk information,
whether it is in ESI or recently scanned paper, we can start
to categorize the responsive information, setting aside the
privileged documents. We continue to eliminate duplicity, toss
out junk, and get rid of non-responsive we’ll-see-you-at-theball-game documents that have no business in court. It is not
unusual to see the document set reduced by 50-80 percent
during this stage.
Step 3 – Case Management – Using the Information
With a much smaller data set, we now begin the process of creating witness folders, privilege sets, and
organizing the data in conjunction with our go-forward case strategy. Our legal team now begins to evaluate
our data set and make decisions on how we will use this information. With the V-RoomsTM tool, documents
now reside in a secure password protected data site that can be accessed from any computer with an
internet connection. Imagine having a breakthrough thought on a Saturday and not having to drive into the
firm to expand upon the idea. Besides having powerful search capabilities, V-RoomsTM allows you to tag
documents to reflect your team’s strategy.
V-RoomsTM is completely customizable – no need to try to squeeze into an inflexible system.
This is your case. And this is your solution – V-RoomsTM. Maybe it’s time to think outside the
litigation box and give us a call – we excel in solving age old litigation challenges with the next
generation’s solution.