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Spotlight Search Functionality Targets Critical Evidence with Unparalleled Precision This issue's Spotlight column features an interview with Scott Nagel, Director of Client Solutions at Applied Discovery. The Client Solutions Group is made up of Account Managers with a variety of professional backgrounds, including former practicing attorneys, paralegals, litigation support professionals and experienced IT managers. Each Applied Discovery client has a dedicated Account Manager who is responsible for every project related to that client, ensuring one consistent point of contact for client training and support. The Orange Pages™ (TOP): Scott, we've heard that the Client Solutions Group has been busy training clients on some features recently introduced in the company's Online Review service. Tell us what's new. Scott Nagel (SN): The most exciting new features are related to our search functionality. Our clients have always had the ability to search the complete content of their documents using Boolean searches, and have been able to search documents according to date ranges, document custodians, etc. Some new developments in our service go beyond traditional search methods, however, and make it possible to search by a document's complete meta data and the so-called "parent-child" relationships between email messages and their attachments. From a searching perspective, this opens up a whole new world of possibilities. TOP: We hear a lot about meta data these days —and most people understand what meta data is—but can you tell us what this means in the context of searching documents? SN: Unlike text, which is visible on the document when printed, meta data is the information behind the face of every document that is lost when an electronic document is reduced to paper. A document's text tells you what it says, while meta data tells you about the document's behavior—what it did. For example, every Outlook email message includes over 90 fields of meta data that are transparent to the user. This includes the identity of carbon copy and blind carbon copy recipients, date sent, date received, original author, etc. Searching on meta data, Applied Discovery's clients can now locate documents with unprecedented accuracy. Consider the implications of being able to search by very detailed criteria, including: file type; email subject line or document file name; original file path; document author; email distribution (including to, from, cc and bcc); document custodian; and date ranges (including date sent, date received and last modification date). Search results can then be sorted by various criteria, including document custodian; file path; last modification date; document identification number; parent-child relationship; number of pages; and file size. This kind of functionality can be critical in the review process. For example, when reviewing documents, it is often as important to know where the document "lived" in the custodian's computer files as it is to know what the face of the document said. Sorting documents in various ways can also provide a clear picture of how certain evidence fits together in a case. TOP: It sounds like powerful search technology, but doesn't that kind of information harm your clients as often as it helps them? SN: That's a common misconception. But the ability to search document meta data is equally important in building both sides of a case—whether a party is asserting or defending against a claim. For example, a party may need to quickly search for all email messages authored by certain company executives during a particular time period. Meta data searches enable just that. We've all read the recent headlines about things said in email messages that shouldn't have been said. If the attorneys from those companies had the benefit of quickly conducting these searches at the beginning of the case, they could have planned their defenses accordingly. As they say, knowledge is power; knowing who did what—and when—is critical to a defense team. More importantly, by locating the critical documents very early in the proceeding, they have a chance to review and analyze potentially revealing information in advance. Meta data searches can save a lot of headaches down the road. TOP: It makes sense when you think about it that way. You also mentioned new tools for searching documents for parent-child relationships. How does that work? SN: This feature provides the ability to narrow "family group" searches to locate only the "children" or "parents" in email and attachment relationships. This enables users to quickly sort through groups of email messages separate from the attachments. Conversely, users can opt to locate all documents contained within a family group as part of a single document search set. For example, a search for the word "performance" could return the whole family of documents related to that word—not just email messages that included the word "performance," but also any documents attached to the messages. TOP: And what is the practical benefit to clients here? SN: Here's an example. Many of our clients prefer to review document family groups as a single document. The new family group search functionality will return all documents in a family group, providing at least one document meets the search criteria. This allows the reviewer to quickly consider all the documents in the family group, including those that did not specifically contain the search criteria, when deciding how to classify a document. This can be very important when making decisions about how to categorize a particular set of documents for privilege, responsiveness, etc. TOP: How are clients responding to these changes in Applied Discovery's search functionality? SN: The response has been very gratifying—clients really appreciate the time it saves them in the review process. Recently, there has been some confusion about so-called natural language search engines that claim to have a "human-like" ability to understand written context. These engines claim to be able to respond to fuzzy, abstract search criteria. While this sounds great on paper, our clients have stressed that they would rather pinpoint the critical documents in the case than expand the universe of potentially relevant documents with vague search criteria. Our state-of-the-art search functionality gives them virtually endless ways to mix and match search criteria to pinpoint exactly the documents that are important to their case. TOP: Thanks for the information Scott. Who should our readers contact if they have any further questions or want to see a demonstration of the search functions you've described? SN: They can contact me directly at scott.nagel@applieddiscovery.com. |
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