Christopher Skorina Business Law Blog on Lawyers.com

In today’s information age, document review is an essential part of business cases— whether for government agency investigation or civil trial preparation.

How does document review relate to a case?

Document review is the inspection and assessment of legal communications, memos, and documents. Analyzing information helps determine evidence, lines of argument, and legal strategies necessary for winning a verdict or effectively negotiating a settlement.

You can safely say that the extent of documentation review is proportionate to the size of companies involved, the comprehensive nature of the dispute, the degree of case complexity, and the number of parties to the lawsuit.

Much of today’s information is electronically stored information (ESI), which allows for technological sophistication that:

• Categorizes
• Sorts/cross-references through databases
• Annotates
• Redacts
• Assigns bates numbers
• Duplicates
• Allows web-based collaboration of legal team members

Document review is the springboard for all actions that follow in business litigation. Discovery, case strategies, pre-trial motions, courtroom presentations, and the successful outcome of any case rely on the quality of document review.

Vital role of document review

An article in the Business Law Today section of the American Bar Association website reported that, according to accounting firm KPMG, between 58 percent and 90 percent of total (business) litigation costs are document review.

Such statistics put document review in the proper perspective when dealing with business litigation. More and more law firms today are outsourcing document review to ESI vendors that consist of teams of skilled Orange County business law attorneys, trained in data management and document review with legal backgrounds in business areas related to the case. Enormous amounts of data must be evaluated for case relevance along with making sure no privileged information is turned over during discovery. Document review requires thorough legal scrutiny of a tremendous number of documents and technical expertise to organize the data. Review teams are also skilled in culling through hard copy documentation, along with analyzing and prioritizing documents by importance to the case.

Contact an Orange County business attorney today

When considering a business lawyer in Orange County to represent you in a government investigation or business litigation, ask about the firm’s capabilities for document review.