Visual analytics: a new way to manage data deluge in e-discovery.

• Author: Lemieux, Victoria L.
• Position: TECH TRENDS

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E-discovery (also known as e-disclosure or electronic data disclosure) is the process of locating, securing, and searching through electronically stored information (ESI) with the intention of using it in legal proceedings. Lawyers involved in corporate litigation and regulatory investigations face a growing challenge: how to undertake this task in the face of a deluge of data in a growing number of formats and locations arising from the shift from paper to electronic records creation and storage.

Jason Baron, an expert on e-discovery and director of litigation at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, has observed that it is not unusual for lawyers to confront the task of having to sift through millions of fries contained on electronic media of all types, from databases and online networked systems, websites, and disaster recovery backup tapes, all for the purpose of performing their searches for relevant evidence.

Challenges of Searching, Retrieving ESI

In the throes of a data deluge, lawyers increasingly struggle to locate ESI in the face of requests from litigants and regulators to provide "any and all relevant documents"--a standard legal phrase used in e-discovery requests. Many well-publicized cases, such as Zubulake v. UBS Warburg, highlight how shortcomings in organizations' records and information management practices have contributed to the problem.

Another reason lawyers struggle to meet the e-discovery challenge is that their search and retrieval techniques no longer seem to be up to the task. The most common methods currently used in e-discovery--keyword searching and line-by-line review of the content of documents--are increasingly ineffective for the massive volumes of data that must be sifted through for each case.

There have been a number of studies highlighting the limitations of existing search and retrieval techniques. In 2007, The Sedona Conference[R], a legal non-profit think tank, issued its Best Practices Commentary on the Use of Search and Information Retrieval Methods in E-Discovery in which the limitations of keyword searching were described:

Keyword searches work best when the legal inquiry is focussed on finding particular documents and when the use of language is relatively predictable. For example, keyword searches work well to find all documents that mention a specific individual or date, regardless of context. However, the experience of many litigators is that simple...