Login | April 24, 2024
Cloud-based e-discovery on the way
RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers
Published: September 18, 2015
A recent survey by the Gartner technology advising and research firm looked at 20 e-discovery companies, and found, among other things, that virtually none of them worked in the cloud, and that the few that did, did so in limited ways.
Perhaps those firms are listening to those of us who feel that the cloud, or servers owned by other people which keep confidential client data, is inherently too unsecure gor legal work.
But, in the latest technology race, any business space will find a business model, and there are now a couple of small e-discovery firms dedicated to running their e-discovery platforms as a cloud service.
Simple e-discovery can be as easy as a word search, and can be done fairly easily and without much expense. But complex e-discovery, involving search techniques that are close to artificial intelligence (like predictive coding) are another matter.
Complex e-discovery can be extremely expensive, and entail significant hardware, software and training expenses, or involve very expensive e-discovery specialy firms.
The folks who want to start doing e-discovery on the cloud will be able to do so for considerably less expense. We can only hope they are as secure as they need to be.
Here are a couple of the players in this fairly new field:
Everlaw is a newer company that says it is fast and intuitive. Its pricing structure is connected to data usage. Designed for law firms and governmental agencies, it is used by a substantial majority of states attorneys general, and its proprietary predictive coding program is supposed to be easy to learn and use. Comes with a free trial.
Zapproved developed its architecture with the cloud in mind from the ground up, with the needs of corporate law departments in mind. Potential customers can schedule a live demo on their site.
Lexbe seems to be a more complex solution, offering cloud-based hosting, review, ESI processing, and consultation.
Microsoft may also be coming into the field, by the way, having purchased the e-discovery firm Equivio, with plans to attach it and some other functions to cloud-based Office 365. Microsoft has yet to be able to provide the legal industry with anything beyond word processing, despite its various promises, so we’ll see.