Find Responsive eDiscovery Files Fast With This Affordable Software

21 June 2021 by Ross eDiscovery

Takeaway: Use eDiscovery software like GoldFynch to find relevant/responsive files and redact privileged or confidential information.

Every attorney asks three questions when reviewing data. Is it relevant? Is it responsive? And is it privileged?

When your client hands over eDiscovery case data, you’re immediately assessing the following three things:

Is this data relevant? That is, do the files contain information that’s useful for your lawsuit, claim, or investigation? The more data you have to review, the more your eDiscovery costs, so you’re incentivized to leave out irrelevant files.
Is this data responsive? Leaving out responsive files from your production can become a huge problem down the line. So, you want to pay close attention to opposing counsel’s discovery requests and pinpoint responsive files for each of them.
Is the data privileged? A lot of the data in your case is likely privileged – for example, documents with sensitive information that needs to be kept between attorney and client. If the data is privileged, you’ll then need to decide if you want to redact parts of a document or exclude it entirely from your production.

You can try and juggle these needs without specialized software, but it’s simply not efficient (and is sometimes impossible).

If you’re new to eDiscovery, you might wonder what exactly makes eDiscovery software worth the cost. Well, just to open your files to see if the data is relevant, responsive, and/or privileged is an ordeal without eDiscovery software. For example, you’ll need a new ‘parent’ application for each file type – Microsoft Word for the Word files, Adobe Reader for the PDFs, Outlook for the emails, and so on. And you’ll have to keep switching between these windows as you work your way through the files. In contrast, eDiscovery software will convert all your files into a common format so you can view them all from right within your eDiscovery software browser. Learn more about why you need eDiscovery software.

With the right eDiscovery software, you’ll get an array of essential review tools.

Here are some of the key game-changing tools the best eDiscovery applications offer:

1. A search engine to find relevant, responsive, and/or confidential information.

Even the most basic eDiscovery software will be able to pull up files with specific keywords. But the latest generation of applications can search for keyword combinations, too. They harness the power of file metadata and complex Boolean operators to let you give a search command like, “Find the emails Harper Lee sent Mary Badham about the Pfizer meeting before 2015.” Your software will first scour the ‘sender’ email metadata fields, looking for the keywords ‘Harper Lee’ and ‘Mary Badham.’ And then it will check their ‘sent’ dates to further zero in on the relevant emails (i.e., the ones sent before 2015). Learn more about advanced searches.

With paper documents, you’d likely group associated files using colored sticky notes. But this would still leave you with a mess of documents you’d have to physically arrange (and rearrange) into piles and put them in boxes. eDiscovery simplifies this whole process. Instead of paper files, you have electronic documents like Word documents, PDFs, and emails. And instead of sticky notes, you have ‘tags.’ These tags are virtual sticky notes that you can use to label a without changing (or adding to) its content. Once you’ve tagged the files in your case, your software will let you pull up groups of documents based on the tags you’ve given them. And all this with a single click. Learn more about tagging.

###3. Notes, annotations, and comments – to add context to your files.

Finding responsive and relevant files isn’t enough because you’ll also want to add some context to them. And good eDiscovery software will have tools for this, too.

Notes: You can type up short notes to guide the next person who reviews a document. A ‘notes’ feature lets you tack on missing information or jot down your thoughts, without changing the document’s content. Plus, you’ll be able to add multiple notes to a single document and record different ideas without breaking your flow.
Annotations: These are notes you add to specific parts of a document to leave targeted insights to individual paragraphs. Later on, when you click on an annotation, it’ll take you right to the text/paragraph it’s connected to.
Comments: These are a convenient way to start a conversation thread without switching to email. You’ll be able to leave nuanced commentary for your team and not worry about flooding their inboxes.

4. A redaction tool to censor privileged information.

With paper documents, you’d cover over sensitive text by running a permanent marker across it. With electronic documents (PDFs, emails, etc.), you’ll use a redaction tool, instead. Now, technically, you could black out text in Word documents using a black highlighter tool. Or you could paste a black box over entire paragraphs and pages. But these DIY solutions aren’t secure. For example, you could cut-and-paste a black box out of a Word document, exposing the underlying text. What you want instead is to ‘burn in’ the redactions more permanently, and you can do that with a proper eDiscovery redaction tool.

At GoldFynch, we know how vital it is not to overlook responsive files. And that’s why we spent so long crafting our review tools.

GoldFynch is an eDiscovery service designed for small and midsize law firms. We’re proud of our search, tagging, notes, and redaction tools, but our customers love GoldFynch for other reasons, too:

It costs just $27 a month for a 3 GB case: That’s significantly less than most comparable software. With GoldFynch, you know what you’re paying for exactly – its pricing is simple and readily available on the website.
It’s easy to budget for. GoldFynch charges only for storage (processing is free). So, choose from a range of plans (3 GB to 150+ GB) and know up-front how much you’ll be paying. You can upload and cull as much data as you want, as long as you stay below your storage limit. And even if you do cross the limit, you can upgrade your plan with just a few clicks. Also, billing is prorated – so you’ll pay only for the time you spend on any given plan. With legacy software, pricing is much less predictable.
It takes just minutes to get going. GoldFynch runs in the Cloud, so you use it through your web browser (Google Chrome recommended). No installation. No sales calls or emails. Plus, you get a free trial case (0.5 GB of data and a processing cap of 1 GB), without adding a credit card.
It’s simple to use. Many eDiscovery applications take hours to master. GoldFynch takes minutes. It handles a lot of complex processing in the background, but what you see is minimal and intuitive. Just drag-and-drop your files into GoldFynch, and you’re good to go. Plus, you get prompt and reliable tech support.
Access it from anywhere, and 24/7. All your files are backed up and secure in the Cloud.

Want to find out more about GoldFynch?

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