Electronic discovery is popularly known as E-discovery which is mandatory and a legal requirement during the Hatch-Waxman litigation in USA. It is the legal procedure by which parties are required to exchange the product specific information and evidence with one another in state and federal courts.

Law firms hold important, sensitive information and need to ensure that the client data remains secure for long periods of time, during the pendency of the case in state or federal courts and thereafter for a stipulated time as necessary and required by the law.

Advantages of E-discovery at an early stage is to reduce the cost of litigation, early identification of key documents and issues, and increased accuracy and quality of the review.

The E-discovery process involves the review and detailed analysis of collected documents of the client to determine which documents are responsive or non-responsive to the case, and which documents contain privileged, confidential or other protected information.

Such detail-oriented review is time consuming as well as demands resources and internal legal departments are usually ill-equipped to handle the process in-house.

While new review platforms have greatly streamlined the traditional, linear review model, it is worth noting that review is often conducted by a group of people, commonly referred to as a review team, comprising different levels of para-legal professionals.

• Document Collection: Document collection is the first stage of E-discovery process wherein electronically stored information (ESI) relevant to the litigation is “collected” for further discovery. Collection can be technologically complex owing to the different types of files including, spreadsheets, emails, word files, pdf files and many more. It is important to collect the ESI without modifying the data and metadata of that particular document.
• Search & Filtering: Once documents are uploaded into an E-discovery review software platform, users can run searches using specific keywords, combinations of words, or even concepts to help in identifying the relevant documents much quicker.
• Document Tagging: Tagging is critical during review. Review platforms give users the ability to apply pre-defined tags, so that all reviewers use the same labels for tagging and maintain uniformity throughout the project.
• Redacting: Depending on the type of legal or regulatory matter, and the issues involved, certain information may need to be redacted (deleted or removed or blackened) before a document is produced to the opposing counsel. Many E-discovery review software applications allow users to select words or passages in-text and have them blacked out to help expedite the redaction process.
• Bates Numbering & Stamping: As the case progress, it's important that each side of the dispute has an easy way to reference specific documents in the review and production set. Many review platforms offer a Bates numbering feature that automatically attaches a unique identifier to each document to expedite document identification and retrieval.
• Production: This is the final step of the review wherein the set of documents deemed to be relevant to the legal matter, must be produced to the opposing counsel.