Reprinted with permission from In-House Defense Quarterly, a publication of DRI, Summer 2009

The costs incurred by companies in responding to document requests in litigation have skyrocketed in the last decade. Document review has more than overtaken depositions as the leading single cost driver in litigation. It was recently estimated that $40 billion per year is spent on document review services, while 70 percent or more of a litigation budget is typically dedicated to discovery and related motions practice. This is a stunning amount of money, especially to nonlegal executives less familiar with the cost drivers in litigation. The incredible expense of document review requires both in-house counsel and law firms to implement more cost-effective methods of managing and staffing document-review projects, while maintaining the highest level of review quality and risk management. Unfortunately, effectively controlling these costs may require more hands-on management by in-house counsel than is often practical. However, most in-house litigators will find some value in examining, even if only at a high level, the staffing and workflow factors that drive the costs of document review. High-quality, high-value document review does not happen accidentally.

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