Is it Really Possible to Accurately Review Close to a Million Emails Over a Weekend?

February 6, 2023

Q: Is it really possible to accurately review close to a million emails over a weekend?

A: It depends.

In connection with an ongoing controversy about alleged inappropriate emails sent from the Premier’s office to the provincial prosecutorial service (ACPS), the Alberta government recently confirmed that it had identified emails from over 900+ email accounts and caused almost one million emails to be searched by provincial government employees in an effort to establish that the alleged emails had not been sent. All this was said to have occurred within three/four days of the Premier’s direction that the review be conducted.… Read More

Towards More Efficient and Cost-effective Discovery

Crystal O’Donnell

Chief Executive Officer and Senior Counsel

November 3, 2021

Discovery is typically the most time-consuming and expensive aspect of any legal dispute. This article provides some practical guidance and key tips for minimizing risk and cost for enterprises involved in disputes or regulatory matters that require the production of electronically stored information (ESI).

The most effective way to minimize eDiscovery cost and risk is to start with good document management and retention policies. While document management and retention are substantive and complex areas, there are a couple things that do not require software or expenditure that can make a substantial difference. … Read More

eDiscovery Preparedness – Review Technology

Candice Chan-Glasgow

Director, Review Services and Counsel

October 4, 2021

The discovery process is typically the most time-consuming and expensive aspect of any legal dispute. Fortunately, by adopting appropriate technology and best practices, parties can achieve significant cost savings in the review process. This article will outline functionality that is available and should be used in every discovery project involving electronic evidence.

Email Threading

Email threading is now considered a basic tool that should be employed on every discovery project. Email threading groups the conversation that happens back and forth in email and identifies the “end points” (or “inclusive emails”). … Read More

No Matter is Too Small – the Case for Email Threading

Wendy Cole

Director, Project Management and Counsel

November 5, 2018

Consider for a moment the last time you had to review email messages for discovery, or pay counsel to do so on your behalf. The endless toil of slogging through random fragments of email threads that appear to be in no particular order. After a while it starts to feel like a terrible case of déjà vu. Haven’t I seen this email before? Why am I looking at this again and how did I code it when I saw it an hour ago? Did this part of the thread come before or after the portion that I viewed yesterday? … Read More