There are, we know, still many lawyers using some rather basic tools to undertake eDiscovery exercises. Adam Rubinger of NightOwl Discovery, in an article called A Method to the Madness tells of organisations using spreadsheets and emails to collect and search the raw data of eDiscovery / eDisclosure. Go ahead; make my day, as their opponents will perhaps be saying as they stand by to bring applications or motions to compel proper disclosure / discovery.

I was told recently of an English law firm who was proposing to make searches in Outlook, and to record the results in Excel or Word lists for what sounded like a fairly substantial case in which disclosure was critical. The other side was intending to use a combination of Nuix and Relativity with the aid of an external services provider. The start-up costs of the latter approach will probably not be trivial, but…