Legal Document Review
There are many types of documents that are required by the law firms to be reviewed during the discovery process. It is often a challenge to review documents as time becomes a critical factor and stakes can be high. From medico legal to technical documents to web pages the documents have to be reviewed systematically to be useful in litigation.
Earlier when only paper documents were reviewed it used to be a more difficult process. However today it is the electronic age and most of paper documents are scanned and made available on computers. The document review process workflow usually consists of the following basic steps. Once the document is received it is made available for review to a group of people (this can even reach up to 100 reviewers depending on the case) either simultaneously or one after another. Reviewers often will have to interact with each other and discuss the different aspects of a document. They can make changes approve or reject the document. As each reviewer makes his own changes there is the possibility of many versions of the documents on the network. It is important that this should never complicate the situation. A well organized workflow is what is required.
While sharing documents with people from remote locations it may become necessary even to change the format of the document. Some of the earlier methods used during review included talking over the telephone, taking printouts or communications using e-mail. These are not so efficient processes and prone to mistakes and miscommunication besides being highly time consuming.
After the review is done all documents have to go back to the author who must be able to see the original documents and all the different changes made by all different reviewers. Changes have to incorporated and sent for final approval. Any up-dation of the documents may require the review process to be repeated again. Thus we see that with legal document review being an online process has to use the best available tools so that there is more effective collaboration even in real time.
Legal document review is increasingly being outsourced online to special review teams and even to offshore low wage countries like India as it can mean substantial savings in time and money.
About the Author: The author of this article is John Kessel of Managed Outsource Solutions , a US based company that offers services in Legal Outsourcing and Legal Transcription for clients across the US.
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