| Electronic Data Discovery |
Managing electronic data such as emails, edoc collections and other electronically stored
information with efficiency and on budget can seem a daunting task. Especially when
searching for solutions that offer ease in retrieving, reviewing and processing electronic
collections. Depending on the volume, file-type and/or media housing (CD, DVD, Hard-drive,
etc.) and factoring in strict discovery deadlines it quickly becomes apparent that selecting a
vendor with expertise and experience in Electronic Data Discovery (EDD) is vitally important.
The term EDD has become very popular within the legal community and describes the processes
used to convert electronic files into easily reviewed and produced formats such as TIFF or PDF.
Depending on the client preference EDD can take one or more of the following forms:
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Hard-Copy Format: An automated batch printing of the electronic collection providing
"Document Info" slip-sheets denoting Source, Filename, Path & selective meta-data.
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TIFF, PDF or Native: A native with full-text extraction, fielded meta-data and the
necessary load files for conducting the review using electronic images in a database
management system.
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Keyword: A filter (cull) collection using keywords or phrases to avoid unnecessary
processing of unresponsive material. Once the filters are generated, we convert to TIFF along
with providing full-text extraction and fielded meta-data.
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Full-Text: Extraction of, and fielded data from the entire collection using an internal
database management system which filters the collection down to the responsive issues.
Using a DOCID field files are flagged by the client and only files marked for production are
converted
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Hosted: Similar to Full-Text but allowing the legal team to review native files in a hosted
environment, performing a document review remotely and selecting relevant data to produce.
There are many inherent challenges in dealing with electronic data. At Sequential, we start by
assisting you in identifying the general make-up of the collection.
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Email: we generally apply an industry standard of 50-75 pages per/MB for .pst files and 100-
125 pages per/MB for .nsf files. We then conduct a pre-summary process to attain an
accurate count of the email messages and attachments along with the attachment file types.
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E-Doc Collections: Here the task is more challenging, especially when dealing with a
complete hard-drive which contains many files unrelated to the discovery guidelines. We
estimate an e-doc collection based on a gigabyte (GB) basis. For each GB, we estimate 75k
pages or more depending on the type of data it consists of. Similar to our pre-summary
process for email, we run a detailed summary which indicates file type counts for all
supported and unsupported file types in addition to file path if needed.
At this stage in the process, we work with the client to determine the processing parameters
and assist in clarifying any file types that may render important data. Accurately budgeting
processing fees up-front due to indefinite nature of approximating actual page/image count of
electronic collections, Sequential offers clients a fixed pricing model on a gigabyte basis.
This allows our clients to accurately manage costs associated with EDD processing. Below is
a sampling of the services included in our gigabyte pricing model:
- De-duplication of electronic documents and mail stores using MD5 hash algorithm
- Key Word Searching
- Capture of document metadata and full-text extraction
- Maintenance of document boundary composition for email with attachments
- Customized processing features for Excel files omitting blank pages
- Exception logs for un-supported, password protected or corrupt files
- Images & data formatted for end-user database management system
- Fulfilling any export request
- 100% Quality Control of resulting Tiff images
- Conversion of 250+ file types
Other Services:
- Data Collection
- Password Cracking for all Microsoft Applications, Data Compression Files (ZIP or RAR), PST's, and NSF mail files
- Conversion of .OST files to .PST
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