What is eDiscovery?
Overview
Electronic discovery, commonly known as eDiscovery or e-discovery, is the process of identifying, collecting, preserving, reviewing, and exchanging electronically stored information (ESI) for use as evidence in legal proceedings. In today's digital business environment, where almost all corporate communications and documents exist in electronic form, effective eDiscovery has become a critical operational necessity for organizations of all sizes.
eDiscovery
Why is eDiscovery important?
Today’s businesses face growing legal and regulatory pressure. Legal teams are no longer just focused on reducing risk—they’re expected to act as strategic partners who add real value.
A strong eDiscovery process helps legal teams stay compliant, manage costs, and lower risk. Being able to quickly find, preserve, and share the right electronic information can make a big difference in legal cases or investigations.
Good eDiscovery practices also help prevent penalties for mishandling data and show that the organization is making a genuine effort to meet its legal responsibilities.
The fundamentals of eDiscovery
The rise of digital communication tools and storage systems have changed how businesses handle their legal responsibilities around collecting, reviewing, analyzing, and sharing digital records—not just in litigation, but in many other areas.
While eDiscovery originally referred to reviewing and producing digital evidence for civil litigation or regulatory requests, it now includes a wide range of use cases: responding to data breaches, handling privacy or subject rights requests, and conducting internal investigations.
eDiscovery covers everything from emails, documents, and databases to social media posts, instant messages, videos, audio files, mobile data, and the metadata tied to them.
Today’s businesses need to process and analyze large volumes of electronic data while preserving its integrity and authenticity. This is no small task—especially given the variety of formats, locations, and access levels.
Too often, teams focus only on the narrow task of sorting data into what’s relevant or not and sending reviewed files (with privileged or sensitive information removed) to opposing parties. But when that’s the only focus, the bigger picture—like uncovering key evidence, shaping case strategy, or reducing risks in investigations—can fall through the cracks.
What is eDiscovery software?
eDiscovery software helps legal, compliance, and IT teams find, collect, review, and manage electronic information that may be used as evidence in legal matters, investigations, or regulatory requests.
It streamlines the process of handling data like emails, documents, messages, and metadata—making it easier to search, filter, and produce relevant content while maintaining legal defensibility and saving time.
What is the eDiscovery Reference Model (EDRM)?
The Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) is a framework that helps organizations plan and manage the eDiscovery process.
It breaks the process into clear stages, starting with information governance (often called the “left side” of the model), and moving through steps like identifying, preserving, collecting, processing, reviewing, analyzing, producing, and presenting electronic evidence (the “right side”).
While these stages are often followed in order, the process can also be iterative and flexible. Each step builds on the one before it, helping teams stay organized, efficient, and legally defensible. Using the EDRM helps ensure a consistent approach to handling electronic evidence—while saving time and reducing costs.
Key components of an effective eDiscovery strategy
Information governance and data management
To stay in control of electronic data, organizations need clear policies on how information is created, stored, used, and deleted. This is the foundation of eDiscovery.
Good information governance helps reduce the amount of data that needs to be reviewed during discovery, cuts storage costs, boosts efficiency, and ensures legal requirements are met.
Legal hold management
When a legal case is expected, organizations in North America must preserve any electronic information that could be relevant.
This means identifying the people (custodians) who may have that information, notifying them to keep it, and stopping any systems that might automatically delete it. Managing legal holds properly requires both the right tools and clear processes to stay compliant.
Regulatory compliance and eDiscovery obligations
eDiscovery often overlaps with complex legal and regulatory rules that vary by location. Businesses must follow guidelines from sources like the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), state-specific requirements, and international regulations.
These rules can set strict deadlines, require certain types of data preservation, and specify how information should be shared. Understanding them is essential to stay compliant during the eDiscovery process.
Cross-border eDiscovery
Doing business across countries adds another layer of complexity. Different regions have their own legal systems, data protection regulations, and cultural expectations. One common challenge is the conflict between U.S. discovery rules and international privacy laws.
For example, the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) places strict limitations on the transfer and processing of personal data, which can conflict with broad U.S. discovery obligations. Organizations need smart strategies to follow both sets of rules without breaking either.
Industry-specific considerations
Each industry faces its own eDiscovery hurdles. For example, healthcare providers must protect patient data under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), while financial institutions must meet strict banking regulations. Knowing the specific rules that apply to your industry helps shape eDiscovery practices that are both compliant and effective.
Common challenges in eDiscovery
Managing data volume, variety, and speed
Organizations handle massive amounts of data across many platforms and formats. This includes structured data from databases, unstructured data from documents and emails, and semi-structured data from social media and collaboration tools. The challenge lies not only in processing this data but in identifying and extracting relevant information efficiently.
Balancing eDiscovery with data privacy
Privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA require companies to protect personal data during the eDiscovery process. That means taking steps to secure sensitive information, following rules for data transfers across borders, and staying compliant while collecting and reviewing content.
Cost management
The costs associated with eDiscovery can be substantial—covering tech, storage, processing, and review. To keep costs down without cutting corners, organizations should use smart workflows and tools like eDiscovery AI, which help reduce manual work and limit risk while keeping processes defensible.
How AI in eDiscovery has evolved?
Over the last decade, AI in eDiscovery has come a long way. Early tools relied on basic keyword searches and simple file processing. Then came technology-assisted review (TAR 1.0), also known as predictive coding, which lets legal teams train algorithms on sample documents to spot relevant information in much larger data sets—cutting down manual review time.
TAR 2.0 took things further with continuous active learning (CAL). Instead of needing all the training up front, the system learns as reviewers work—getting smarter throughout the review process.
More recently, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) has transformed how AI supports legal work. RAG allows AI systems to pull in specific documents from a designated set and use that context to generate more accurate and relevant responses.
Now, the latest wave of innovation uses large language models (LLMs) and generative AI. These tools can understand legal concepts, extract key details from complex files, find hidden connections, and even draft early case analyses—reshaping how legal teams handle review, analysis, and preparation.
The future of eDiscovery
Artificial intelligence and machine learning advancements
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and large language models (LLMs) are transforming eDiscovery. These technologies are helping automate routine tasks and improve accuracy—and they’re only getting better. What’s ahead:
- Smarter predictive coding that understands context and nuance
- More natural language processing, so users can interact with systems using everyday language
- Advanced analytics to quickly spot patterns and flag critical, privileged, or responsive documents
- LLMs handling tasks like first-pass review and summarizing documents, saving time and cost
Cloud-based platforms will likely become the norm for eDiscovery, providing organizations with greater flexibility and scalability. They offer:
- Lower infrastructure and maintenance costs
- Easy access for remote teams
- Better disaster recovery and business continuity
- Stronger security and frequent updates
eDiscovery will become more connected with information governance tools, making it easier to manage data proactively. This could include:
- Automatically classifying documents as they’re created
- Real-time compliance tracking
- Smoother data retention and deletion processes
Best practices for implementing eDiscovery solutions
Building a cross-functional eDiscovery team
Effective eDiscovery depends on strong collaboration between legal, IT, and business units. Defining clear roles and responsibilities ensures everyone understands their part. This teamwork helps align technical capabilities with legal needs and overall business goals.
Creating standardized processes
Organizations should develop clear, documented procedures for managing electronic data—from initial preservation to final production. These workflows should include quality checks and chain of custody documentation to protect the integrity of the evidence.
Ongoing training and education
Since both technology and legal rules are constantly changing, regular training is essential. Team members need to stay current on how to use eDiscovery tools and meet legal obligations for handling digital evidence.
Tracking and improving performance
To keep eDiscovery efficient and effective, organizations should track key metrics—like how long it takes to process data, review speeds, accuracy in production, and overall cost per case. Regularly reviewing these metrics helps identify areas to improve and show value to stakeholders.
Managing risk and insurance coverage
It’s important to understand how your insurance covers eDiscovery-related risks. This includes checking if your cyber insurance applies to breaches that require discovery, and exploring policies specifically designed to offset the costs of large-scale eDiscovery efforts.
Frequently asked questions about eDiscovery
How much does eDiscovery typically cost?
eDiscovery costs vary widely based on data volume, case complexity, and the tools used. Expenses include direct costs like software licenses, storage, and processing fees and indirect costs such as staff time, training, and infrastructure.
Many organizations find that investing in robust eDiscovery solutions can lead to significant cost savings over time through improved efficiency and reduced outside counsel fees. Efficient tools reduce manual work, speed up processes, and lower outside counsel fees. Choosing user-friendly platforms that don't require extensive certification and come with expert support can also help keep costs down.
What are the consequences of inadequate eDiscovery practices?
Poor eDiscovery practices can result in serious consequences, including:
- Court sanctions or financial penalties
- Instructions to juries that assume missing data would have been harmful
- Reputational damage
- Higher litigation costs
- In severe cases, potential criminal penalties
How can organizations prepare for eDiscovery before litigation occurs?
Being proactive is key. Preparation should include:
- Creating strong information governance policies
- Setting up and testing legal hold procedures
- Training staff on how to manage and protect data
- Building relationships with reliable eDiscovery vendors
- Regularly updating tools and processes to keep up with changing legal and tech standards
The role of OpenText in eDiscovery solutions
The OpenText smart legal platform is a flexible, AI-powered solution designed to support every phase of the eDiscovery process. It combines advanced technology with expert services to help legal teams work more efficiently, manage risk, and meet legal and regulatory obligations with confidence.
Whether deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid model, the platform is built to handle any type of data, at any speed, from anywhere—delivering reliable, end-to-end support across the full eDiscovery lifecycle.
With OpenText eDiscovery solutions, legal teams can:
- Defensibly collect, preserve, and process electronically stored information (ESI), including through forensic methods when needed.
- Quickly uncover key facts to support litigation and investigations.
- Automate workflows to reduce risk and improve accuracy.
- Accelerate document review with advanced analytics, multiple TAR workflow options, and generative AI.
- Gain full visibility and control through integrated, scalable eDiscovery capabilities.
Identification, collection and early case assessment (ECA)
On the left side of the EDRM, OpenText eDiscovery takes care of critical early-stage tasks like enterprise search, data collection, and processing.
Its powerful search tools help teams quickly find and collect relevant information from across systems. Thanks to a distributed architecture, the platform can gather data at the same time from multiple sources—email servers, network drives, cloud storage, and local devices—while keeping a detailed chain of custody.
It can also process hundreds of file types, including complex ones like PSTs and ZIP files, without altering the original data.
Advanced filtering and analysis tools let legal teams zero in on what matters—excluding irrelevant or privileged content. This early case assessment helps teams understand what they’re dealing with from the start, leading to smarter strategies and more accurate budgeting.
Advanced analytics and review
OpenText eDiscovery also simplifies and strengthens document review and analysis through advanced analytics, machine learning, and OpenText™ eDiscovery Aviator GenAI capabilities.
Legal teams can choose from multiple technology-assisted review (TAR) workflows to prioritize documents based on relevance—speeding up review, improving accuracy, and reducing costs.
Visual analytics help reviewers quickly spot patterns and relationships within large data sets, while built-in quality control tools ensure consistency across review teams.
The platform also supports native audio and video file review, allowing users to search, view, analyze, and redact multimedia files and transcripts—without ever leaving the platform interface.
When it’s time to produce documents, OpenText makes it easy to create litigation-ready deliverables in various formats. The platform supports customizable Bates numbering, confidentiality branding, privilege log automation, and load file creation for all major review tools—ensuring compliance with court-mandated standards.
GigaOm Radar for E-Discovery
