Looking back at the ABA TechShow in Chicago, one of the things that most surprised me is the still widespread idea that eDiscovery technology is exclusively available for enterprises and the bigger firms. Even one of the journalists visiting our booth, was surprised to see ZyLAB among the exhibitors. Although he agreed with the fact that SaaS makes eDiscovery technology wider available, we as eDiscovery software vendor apparently still stood out from the crowd of the usual ABA-show-suspects providing case and document management solutions for law firms.
Some of the solo litigators and small firm lawyers I have spoken are skeptical of using eDiscovery tools in their practices. Most of them consider the costs to be higher than they can afford or their clients want to pay. But the concept that eDiscovery is a luxury accessible only to big law firms that have the resources to invest in considerable infrastructure is obsolete.
Pay what and when you need it
All firms need to get on board with eDiscovery to help their clients’ cases and significantly lower litigation costs: no firm – not even a small firm – can get around the need for eDiscovery.
The size of a firm does not matter. All clients deal primarily with electronic documents. Each of them send out thousands of emails, store digital documents in different file formats on multiple computer locations and smartphones. The few paper documents that we still use, are scanned to store electronically. Printing for the purpose of review is inefficient and the metadata that comes along with a digital file is lost for the discovery (not to mention that it’s bad for environment).
For law firms of every size and even for solo practitioners handling dozens of smaller cases, having the right technology in place is important for their success. Many eDiscovery platforms are available on demand, without the need for capital investment. Users literally pay for what and when they need it.
Supporting Law Firms of any size
Every lawyer needs a cost and time effective way to review, sort, cull and search to find the relevant data in their clients’ cases, including family law, criminal and civil litigation. Time is money and properly employed technology saves time. So, once more –especially for the smaller firms: ZYLAB ONE eDiscovery as a Service supports the entire eDiscovery workflow of clients from law firms of any size.
With ZYLAB you can upload data yourself and almost immediately start reviewing with your team. You do not need a third party to process the data, nor do you have to make large investments in on-premises hardware and software, which gives you a huge competitive advantage and your client the fast and cost-effective service they expect.
So solo litigators and small firm lawyers, take another look on eDiscovery now. You no longer need to be averse to taking on big cases or processing large volumes of data. eDiscovery costs have reduced significantly and the benefits and ease-of-use have improved dramatically. Use eDiscovery technology to give your firm a competitive advantage, get back to practicing law and in the meantime provide better legal service to your clients.