Your Go-To Guide to eDiscovery Solutions [+ eDiscovery Software Comparison!]

Electronic discovery, often abbreviated as eDiscovery, refers to the process by which legal entities request, obtain and search electronically stored information (ESI) — including email, text messages and social media content — relevant to impending or ongoing litigation.

Discovery has always been vital to the legal process because it introduces incontrovertible evidence to the record, and the nature of discovery has evolved over time to accommodate the shift from paper-based documentation to computer-generated content by expanding to include ESI such as:

• Emails
• Text and SMS messages
• Social media communications
• Digital photos and videos
• Instant messages
• Global positioning data
• IoT devices
• And more

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) established ground rules for eDiscovery in 2006, which were later amended in 2015 in the interest of limiting the scope of eDiscovery requests, expediently resolving disputes and introducing flexibility around penalties.

Under the FRCP, businesses are required to store and manage data in such a way that it can be easily retrieved in the event of an eDiscovery request; most businesses satisfy this requirement by implementing strict data retention policies on all ESI, including emails. Failure to comply with FRCP could result in severe penalties, such as fines and fees or, in some cases, even criminal charges.

Read Our Complete Guide to Regulatory Compliance for Electronic Communications

The key stages of the eDiscovery process, as defined by the Electronic Discovery Reference Model, are as follows:

1. Information Governance: Get your electronic house in order to mitigate risk and expense should eDiscovery become an issue, from the initial creation of ESI through its final disposition.
2. Identification: Locate potential sources of ESI and determine its scope, breadth and depth.
3. Preservation: Ensure that ESI is protected against inappropriate alteration or destruction.
4. Collection: Gather ESI for further use in the eDiscovery process.
5. Processing: Reduce the volume of ESI and convert it, if necessary, to forms more suitable for review and analysis.
6. Review: Evaluate ESI for relevance and privilege.
7. Analysis: Evaluate ESI for content and context, including key patterns, topics, people and discussion.
8. Production: Deliver ESI to others in appropriate forms, using appropriate delivery methods.
9. Presentation: Display ESI before an audience (e.g. at depositions, hearings, trials, etc.), especially in native and near-native forms, to elicit further information, validate existing facts or positions, or persuade an audience.

As you can see, responding to an eDiscovery request can be an extensive process and, in the past, each of these stages was handled manually. For organizations, that meant having to painstakingly comb through massive quantities of data to locate relevant ESI, carefully review materials, ship data, wait for that data to be processed and so on. This approach to eDiscovery was inconvenient, time-consuming and a serious drain on operational resources. Fortunately, businesses can now respond to eDiscovery requests faster and with much greater efficiency thanks to electronic discovery software solutions.

At a high level, eDiscovery software — also known as document review software — takes much of the nine-step process outlined above and automates it, thereby enabling organizations to quickly respond to eDiscovery requests.

At a more granular level, eDiscovery software enables businesses to:

• Define search criteria using specific keywords and queries
• Perform in-depth analysis on metadata, message and attachment content, tags and comments
• Tag ESI based on eDiscovery requirements
• Redact private, protected and privileged information
• Create and automate custom legal holds
• Prepare documents by exporting them in different file formats
• Set permissions to control who can access ESI
• And more

Everything Your Organization Needs to Know About Legal Holds

Cloud-based eDiscovery solutions allow for an even greater degree of convenience because they make it possible to share ESI online, thereby eliminating the need for third-party interference and expediting the process even further.

The best part is that everyone benefits from the use of eDiscovery software. EDiscovery tools make it easy for organizations to locate and produce ESI so that they can remain compliant with FRCP regulations, which in turn makes it easier for legal teams to review relevant materials and uncover valuable evidence prior to proceedings.

When comparing eDiscovery software vendors and solutions, there are some basic criteria for evaluation to be aware of:

• Cost
  • What pricing plans are available?
  • Can I scale usage according to my needs?
  • Does the price of this solution include support?
  • When can I expect to see a return on my investment?

• Features
  • What search capabilities does this solution offer?
  • Can I organize files by metadata field?
  • Can I export search results in multiple formats?
  • How will this solution help ensure regulatory compliance?
  • Does this solution have built-in quality control measures?
• Security
  • How will this solution store and secure my data?
  • Does it enable me to set role-based permissions?
  • Does this solution offer backup and disaster recovery?
  • Does this solution create audit trails?
• Deployment Options
  • What deployment options does this solution offer?
  • Can this solution scale along with my organization?

• Reviews
  • Is this solution well-reviewed?
  • What are some common issues other users have experienced with this product?
    

Logikcull

Logikcull is an end-to-end, closed-loop eDiscovery platform that makes it easy to upload, search and review multiple files and massive volumes of data within minutes. Logikcull’s offers some of the most robust security in the eDiscovery software market thanks to features such as data encryption, two-factor authentication (2FA), permissions-based user roles, virus scanning and malware protection, and it helps ensure compliance with key regulations, including HIPAA, GDPR, SOC2 (Type II) and more. Both versions of Logikcull’s eDiscovery solution come with cloud-based, SaaS and web-based deployment options and are Android and iOS native.

Users Say…

“We are a growing firm with a wide variety of technological skills and comfort levels, and Logikcull has been an excellent fit for us. It is apparent that user design and user experience is at the forefront of decision-making at Logikcull. Whereas some platforms are driven by engineers, and others are driven by enterprise, Logikcull is driven by UX designers. There are some trade-offs in terms of customization, file compatibility, and functionality beyond the document production stage, but I have yet to encounter a more intuitive or user-friendly platform.”

—    Siobhan D., Litigation Case Coordinator

Everlaw

In the company’s own words, Everlaw is in the business of “finding needles in haystacks.” This powerful eDiscovery tool uploads and analyzes everything from instant messages and emails to audio and visual file transcription, making it something of an innovator amongst its peers. Everlaw simplifies searches by enabling users to color-code queries, making it possible for even novices to find the information they’re looking for without having to worry about regular expression and proprietary search syntaxes. Everlaw is a cloud-based solution, but offers SaaS and web-based deployment options as well.

Users Say…

“Everlaw understands what clients need to do document review in a modern world. Everlaw has a variety of tools that make sense and there are tutorial and sample data sets that allow a user to see a detailed explanation of how a feature works using real data. The explanations are written for professionals, but with a minimum of special jargon, abbreviations, or special ways to get things done. The web interface is easy to use and intuitive.”

—   Tim W., Forensic Examiner

Onna

Onna pulls data from myriad sources, including popular applications such as Slack and Zendesk, and consolidates them within one easy-to-use system, so you can search through countless files within minutes. Onna integrates with dozens of cloud apps (and is adding more to the list every day), offers robust security features such as 0Auth 2.0 and data encryption and uses containerization to scale along with your business. Onna offers three versions of its discovery software — Pay as You Go, Discovery and Enterprise — with private cloud, public cloud and on-premise deployment options.

Users Say…

“This tool is very helpful for collecting difficult and/or new non-traditional ESI data that does not yet have an efficient compliance tool built into the software. I also really like that [with] post indexing, no additional ESI processing is required; collected data can be exported to a load file, which makes review very efficient.”

—   Lauren D., Practice Technology & eDiscovery Project Manager

Intradyn

Intradyn is sort of an outlier on this list because it isn’t purely eDiscovery software. Instead, Intradyn rolls email, social media and text message archiving, legal holds, eDiscovery and advanced analytics and reporting all into a single, powerful platform. Intradyn’s eDiscovery solution was designed with the EDRM and FRCP compliance in mind and enables legal teams to use analytics-based tools to rapidly search through relevant content without the risk of data spoliation. With three deployment options to choose from — cloud-based, virtual appliance and physical hardware — Intradyn is ideal for organizations of all sizes. Those interested in putting Intradyn’s eDiscovery capabilities to the test are encouraged to enroll in a 30-day free trial.

Users Say…

“It works day after day without intervention, [and] locating and exporting emails is fast and easy. End users like the ability to search their emails based on date and specific content without having to manually scroll through long lists. Very seldom have to contact support but, when needed, their support rocks. Has to be the best I have encountered in my IT years.”

—   Kevin S., IT Administrator

Nextpoint

Nextpoint’s cloud-based eDiscovery software enables users to drag and drop unlimited amounts of data, rapidly review and share productions with just the click of a button and collaborate to build winning cases. Built on the principles of the EDRM, Nextpoint expedites the traditional discovery process by reducing it to the span of a day. Best of all, Nextpoint’s unlimited data uploads come with zero import or hosting charges, making it a cost-efficient option for smaller organizations.

Users Say…

“Nextpoint has been such a value add to our firm. The interface is very intuitive. We have had a higher user adoption rate since migrating our data away from our previous on-prem solution. We are utilizing Nextpoint as an enterprise-level solution. We migrated 180 databases and are now up to close to 250. We give Nextpoint a workout daily and are happy with its performance and general ease of use on both the user and the administrative sides. It was a big decision to make to migrate our databases, but it was very much worth the work! We have happier users and admins as a result.”

—   Amy K., Litigation Support Services Manager

Digital WarRoom

In addition to standard eDiscovery software features such as automatic document processing, advanced search and filtering and an automated privilege log, Digital WarRoom boasts that every user is “part of our family” thanks to its built-in eDiscovery onboarding and training program. Digital WarRoom offers “just, speedy and inexpensive” eDiscovery services at an incredibly affordable price and promises guaranteed FRCP compliance for organizations of all sizes. Digital WarRoom offers three deployment options: DWR Pro Software (desktop), DWR Single Matter (hosted) and DWR Private Cloud (cloud-based).

Users Say…

“DWR Pro is shockingly affordable for the capability it offers, especially when compared to the often-inferior competition. DWR personnel are also very responsive to any technical issues we have had as heavy users of their software. DWR has even worked with us on several occasions to incorporate features we needed in DWR Pro software updates and offered licensing arrangements that met our small business needs. We couldn’t be happier with the company or their software.”

—   James T., Law Firm Partner

Relativity

Relativity has made its name in the eDiscovery software market helping corporations, law firms, government agencies and more perform rapid discovery using the RelativityOne platform. RelativityOne is an open platform, meaning users can extend its functionality as needed using custom-built or developer-made applications from the Relativity App Hub. In addition to the standard eDiscovery features, Relativity offers robust security through its dedicated security team, Calder7, so users can rest easy knowing that their sensitive data is protected. RelativityOne users have their pick of on-premise, cloud-based or hybrid platform deployment.

Users Say…

“Relativity allows for efficient and thorough document review. All documents on the database can be searched through any combination of Relativity’s search matrices. Searches can easily be saved, copied, edited, and saved again. As well, it is easy to organize these saved searches into categories, each referring to a specific individual or a specific aspect of the search. This allows for users to easily pull exactly the documents that are specific to their needs.”

—   Casey J., Legal Assistant

Want to learn even more about eDiscovery? Talk to the eDiscovery experts at Intradyn today — or watch our free on-demand demo to see Intradyn’s eDiscovery capabilities in action.