Logistical Best Practices for Managing a Document Review
Modern organizations, both public and private sector, find themselves needing document services more than ever. Internal investigations, mergers and acquisitions, data breach response, and the discovery process in civil litigation all require the collection and review of electronically stored information (ESI). But as data sources and volumes increase, managing the process efficiently can be challenging.
At the same time, law firms and legal service providers (LSPs) are facing a squeeze. Legal department budgets are tight. Even though discovery is the most expensive part of litigation, corporate clients are demanding more efficient services delivered on leaner budgets. In some cases, they’re bringing the process in-house or demanding a higher level of oversight of the project, timeline, and budget.
Under these circumstances, efficient document review is more crucial than ever for law firms. With that in mind, here are some best practices for document review from Amy Bowser-Rollins, manager and author of the Litigation Support Guru blog:
32 Best Practices for Document Review
- As electronic discovery arrives and data volume is estimated, discuss timelines, reviewer hours, and team size with the lead associate.
- Prepare document review guidelines in the two weeks prior to the project.
- Keep the review team in one room if possible to improve efficiency.
- Set up the review environment in advance, including hardware, access, and logistics.
- Ensure enough documents are available on Day 1 to keep reviewers productive while processing continues.
- Prioritize document review order with the lead associate.
- Use appropriate batch sizes (typically ~500, smaller at the start for quality checks).
- Highlight search terms to provide context for document inclusion.
- Highlight privilege terms within documents as a precaution.
- Configure the coding panel before the review begins.
- Create a communication distribution list for the team.
- Align production specifications early and test with sample outputs.
- Conduct a Day 1 orientation covering case details, guidelines, and tools.
- Provide software training for reviewers as needed.
- Offer one-on-one training for lead associates if necessary.
- Establish clear expectations for work hours and availability.
- Encourage collaboration among reviewers on coding decisions.
- Minimize unnecessary interruptions to lead associates.
- Regularly check in with reviewers about tools, environment, and issues.
- Quickly resolve inconsistencies in guideline interpretation.
- Have the lead associate perform quality checks within the first 48 hours.
- Share feedback with the team to align coding decisions.
- Monitor review metrics and share progress updates.
- Track key decisions and questions throughout the review.
- Identify and correct anomalies in coding through targeted searches.
- Plan production timelines and communicate expectations.
- Prepare a pre-production QC dataset one week before delivery.
- Finalize and submit data for production a few days in advance.
- Perform final quality checks before delivery.
- Maintain a respectful and positive team environment.
- Be transparent about project status and timelines.
- Provide advance notice when the project is ending.
For more tips to upgrade your document review process, check out:
Amy Bowser-Rollins created LitigationSupportGuru.com in 2011 to give back to the litigation support industry and provide practical insight into the day-to-day work of litigation support professionals.
