How to Export and Share eDiscovery Emails: The 3-Step Guide for Your Small Law Firm

15 February 2018 by Anith Mathai eDiscovery email exporting-email tagging production

Need to produce and share eDiscovery emails? Here’s how: (1) Export all your emails and put them into your eDiscovery app. (2) Find and tag relevant emails. (3) Produce and share the emails.

So, your client needs to hand over their emails to opposing counsel for review?

Let’s say all the emails are in Gmail or Yahoo! Mail. And they probably don’t want to hand over all their emails. Just the ones with certain keywords, address, etc. So, how do you find the right emails, send them for production, and share them with opposing counsel?

The right way to share eDiscovery email - using eDiscovery app GoldFynch as an example.

Step 1: Export all your emails and place them in GoldFynch

Exporting emails from Gmail: Gmail doesn’t have an explicit ‘export’ option, but it’s pretty easy to export your emails as an MBOX file - a format that GoldFynch supports. Here’s how:

  1. Go to http://www.google.com/takeout. You’ll see a list of your Google apps, which are ready for export. Apps like Google Calendar, Google Drive, and Gmail.

  2. Uncheck all the apps (by clicking the ‘Select None’ button). Then, scroll down the list, find the Gmail app, and click the box next to it. The box will turn green and you’ll be given 2 options: To export all your emails or only those under a particular label.

  3. Click the option you want and wait while Google prepares your export file. It’ll be an MBOX file within a ZIP file. And you’ll get a link to download the file.

  4. Download the file and drag-and-drop it into the GoldFynch browser. GoldFynch will unzip and organize your emails.

Click here for a more detailed guide to exporting emails from Gmail.

Exporting emails from Yahoo!: Yahoo! works a little differently. Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Within GoldFynch, open the case (or create one) into which you want your Yahoo! emails exported.

  2. Click the help button on the top right. This will open a support request. Enter the following information:

    a. Your Yahoo! user ID

    b. The ‘application password’ generated from within the Yahoo account (for more about this, read a detailed guide to exporting emails from Yahoo!)

    c. (Optional) The name of the email folder you need to be exported. If you don’t specify a folder, all your emails will get exported.

  3. Click ‘Submit.’ This will securely transmit the information to the GoldFynch team.

  4. Yahoo! will start exporting your emails. It can take up to a few hours to complete depending on the size of the emails being exported. The average speed is usually 700 MB/hour (or capped to 1 email/sec). So 1 GB of emails will take at least 1 1/2 hours.

Click here for a more detailed guide to exporting emails from Yahoo!

Exporting emails can get even easier though

It’s time-consuming and circuitous if your client has to manually export their emails and send them to you, and then for you to have to upload the emails to GoldFynch. Luckily there’s a much simpler and faster way: the GoldFynch team can source the files directly from your client’s mailbox for you. This can save both you and your client many hours.

To make use of this service, select the e-mail import add-on service through the GoldFynch web app by following these instructions.

Step 2: Find and tag relevant emails

Finding emails: GoldFynch has a powerful search engine that works the same as Google. Type in a name, an email address, or a combination of keywords to find the emails you want. Learn pro tips for searching your GoldFynch case.

Tagging emails: Think of a tag as a stamp or a sticky note on an email. It helps you categorize and filter individual documents or groups of files. But it doesn’t change the way GoldFynch uses the file. So, you can tag confidential emails as ‘privileged,’ to make sure they stay out of production. And you can tag other emails so it’ll be easier to pull them up for production (covered in the next step). Learn more about how to tag files in GoldFynch.

Step 3: Produce and share the relevant emails

  1. Click the ‘Production’ tab in the GoldFynch browser. A ‘Production Wizard’ will take you through the steps. You can choose the tags you want to produce and the format of the produced emails - native or PDF - depending on what the other party needs. Learn more about how to produce emails in GoldFynch.

  2. Click the ‘share’ button next to the production you want to share (in the same ‘Production’ section as above). Then, enter the email address of the recipient. She’ll get a link to the shared production, which she can access via GoldFynch. (Note: If you share the production with the wrong person by mistake, you can click a ‘revoke’ button which will invalidate the link you shared.) Learn more about how to share productions in GoldFynch.

  3. Remove the entire inbox from your case, if you want. Or leave it in. GoldFynch’s prices are so low it won’t make much of a difference. Learn more about how GoldFynch uses the Cloud to keep prices low.

Does your client want to find and tag emails themselves?

Ask them to export the emails and link you to the file. After that, the steps stay the same. You download their export, drag-and-drop it into GoldFynch, produce it, and share it with opposing counsel.

GoldFynch is more than just email eDiscovery.

It’s a complete eDiscovery package and has some cool features for small law firms like yours.

  • You don’t need to set up anything. It runs in the Cloud, and you use it through your web browser. Plus, your trial case is free. So, you can start working immediately. No sales calls or emails. And no credit card.
  • You can work from anywhere. All you need is an internet connection.
  • It’s easy to use. Just like all the other powerful-but-simple apps you use.
  • It’s secure: Your data is backed up on multiple Cloud-servers with bank-grade security and encryption.
  • You get the best technical support: Its designed, developed and run by the same team. So, the technical support isn’t outsourced. Which means prompt and reliable service.
  • Most importantly, it’s affordable. Just $27 a month for a basic case. That’s much less-every month-than the nearest comparable software. And hundreds of dollars cheaper than many others.

Intrigued? To find out more about Goldfynch:

For more about eDiscovery for small law firms, check out these articles.