In 2013 I wrote a law review article on how the costs of document review could be controlled using predictive coding and cost estimation. Predictive Coding and the Proportionality Doctrine: a Marriage Made in Big Data, 26 Regent U. Law Review 1 (2013-2014). Today I write on how it can be controlled in document review, even without predictive coding. Here is the opening paragraph of my earlier article:

The search of electronic data to try to find evidence for use at trial has always been difficult and expensive. Over the past few years, the advent of Big Data, where both individuals and organizations retain vast amounts of complex electronic information, has significantly compounded these problems. The legal doctrine of proportionality responds to these problems by attempting to constrain the costs and burdens of discovery to what are reasonable. A balance is sought between the projected burdens and likely benefits…