Extract from Ankur Agarwal’s article “How Much Should You Be Spending On EDiscovery Software?”
eDiscovery can be an expensive aspect of any legal case — it accounts for 20-50% of all litigation expenses. As organizations, firms, and service providers look to bring eDiscovery entirely in-house, they must consider the costs associated with it to ensure it meets their budget. How much should you spend on eDiscovery software?
Several factors contribute to costs, and each eDiscovery platform charges differently. Understanding how each of these will impact your expenses can help you better plan your budget. Ultimately, you want to reduce your total spend compared to what you’re paying now, without any compromise in quality, speed, or functionality.
eDiscovery Costs Vary Without Industry Standards.
How do you currently calculate eDiscovery costs? For most of the legal community, it’s a guess with little data to back up the estimate. Benchmarks for eDiscovery costs have been hard to come by, but a new project is hoping to change that. The GW Proportionality Initiative is a collaboration of stakeholders working to create a framework that would include a cost calculator that factors in custodians, burden of retrieving information, and data volume.
That could be helpful going forward. However, the determination of actual costs lies within the price structure of your eDiscovery software. So, what are those specific costs?
