Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Background
- Step 1 - Setting up the requisite codes
- Step 2 - Check how many documents you need to review
- Step 3 - Create the initial assignment
- Step 4 - Create the "second pass of non-responsive sample" assignment group
- Step 5 - Create the "second pass privilege review" assignment group
- Step 6 - Create the final check assignment group
Introduction
Our example workflow series illustrates how Everlaw's robust feature set can be leveraged to create workflows that streamline and optimize review.
This sample workflow uses: Search, Codes, Assignments, Binders, Project Settings
Note: There are nuances to creating linked assignments or assignments with very similar inclusion criteria that might result in unexpected behavior. If you want to create such assignments for your case, please consider reaching out to Everlaw, or your vendor's support team, to discuss best practices and expected behavior for the assignments.
Background
Imagine that you are conducting privilege and responsiveness review. The opposing counsel has requested that you produce documents from a particular custodian, John Smith.
Here's a potential workflow we're going to build in Everlaw:
During the first pass review, the assigned reviewers will code documents for responsiveness. Responsive documents will go on to the second pass review, where they will be coded for privilege. Non-responsive documents from the first pass review will be added to another assignment group ("second pass of non-responsive sample"), and a sample of these documents will be assigned out to the appropriate reviewers. If these reviewers notice that there is a large number of responsive documents in their samples, it suggests that you might want to do a more thorough QA of the review product coming out of the first pass review. If, however, the number of responsive documents coming out of their samples is relatively low, you might be satisfied with just catching the few mis-coded documents from the samples, and not thoroughly QAing the first pass review. Finally, documents reviewed in the "second pass privilege review" assignment group will be added to a final assignment group, where pre-production QA can be performed.
Step 1 - Setting up the requisite codes
First, make sure that the proper codes are set up in your case. Codes will be used by reviewers to mark documents as responsive/non-responsive, and to note whether or not a document contains privileged content. You can add codes in the case settings page, under the review tab. To learn more, visit our coding sheet help article. The image below shows some of Everlaw's default production coding categories:
Step 2 - Check how many documents you need to review
Using the metadata search term, run a search for documents from custodian John Smith. To learn more about searches, visit our search help articles.
Click "Search" to pull up a table containing all the documents that your search returns. That should bring you to this view:
Step 3 - Create the initial assignment
Click on the Batch icon in your results table toolbar, and click "Assign." This option will allow you to divvy up the documents among your reviewers. We're going to start by making the first pass assignment group. AJ and Claire will be responsible for doing the initial pass on these documents. They will be required to code for responsiveness.
The images below show the steps taken in the assignment creation wizard to generate the assignment. We're not going to provide a full walkthrough here; please consult our assignment help articles for more detailed information about creating assignments.
Step 1: Name the assignment group
Step 2: Change the review criteria to what is displayed below. This ensures that the reviewers in the assignment group will apply codes from the responsiveness category to each document during review. Otherwise, the document will not be considered "reviewed" for the purpose of progress tracking.
You can select search terms from the various drop-down options in the dialogue box.
Step 3: Select reviewers for the assignment group. Note that these reviewers must be the same as those selected in the Review Criteria step.
Step 4: Configure the assignment. To learn more about these options, click here.
Step 5: Allocate the initial set of documents and enable the optional self-assign permissions. To learn more, click here.
Step 4 - Create the "second pass of non-responsive sample" assignment group
Great! Your first assignment group has been created. Next, we're going to make the "second pass of non-responsive sample" assignment group. Documents from the first pass assignment group that were coded as "non responsive" will automatically be added to this assignment group. Isabela and Ryan will be responsible for reviewing a subset of these documents (they do not necessarily need to review all of the documents). If they notice a high number of responsive documents in the samples they are assigned, you might want to do a more thorough QA of the review product coming out of the first pass review. If the number of responsive documents coming out of their assigned samples is relatively low, you might be satisfied with just catching the few mis-coded documents that Isabela and Ryan come across, and not thoroughly QAing the first pass review.
Similar to before, we're not going to provide a detailed walk-through on how to create this assignment group. If you want to learn more, definitely check out our assignment help articles.
Step 1: Launch the assignment creation wizard from the homepage
Step 2: Create the inclusion criteria to capture the appropriate document. To learn more, click here.
Step 3: Name the assignment group
Step 4: Change the review criteria to the following to ensure that the assignment group works correctly (to find out why, check out our help article about the topic):
Step 5: Choose the reviewers for the assignment group. Note that these reviewers must be the same as those selected in the Review Criteria step.
Step 6: Configure the assignment group. To learn more about these options, click here.
Step 7: Allocate the initial set of documents, if possible (in cases without review activity, there will not be any documents that can be assigned out during this step)
Step 5 - Create the "second pass privilege review" assignment group
Now, let's make the "second pass privilege review" assignment group. Documents from the first pass review that have been coded "responsive" will automatically be added to this assignment group. In addition, documents from the "second pass of non-responsive sample" assignment group whose coding was changed to "responsive" will also be added to this assignment group. Ian and Byron will be responsible for performing privilege review.
Similar to before, we're not going to provide a detailed walk-through on how to create this assignment group. If you want to learn more, definitely check out our assignment help articles.
Step 1: Launch the assignment creation wizard from the homepage
Step 2: Create the inclusion criteria to capture the appropriate document. To learn more, click here.
Step 3: Name the assignment group
Step 4: Change the review criteria to the following to ensure that documents are coded with a code from the privilege category, and to ensure that the assignment group functions properly (to find out why, check out our help article about the topic):
Step 5: Choose the reviewers for the assignment group. Note that these reviewers must be the same as those selected in the review criteria.
Step 6: Configure the assignment group. To learn more about these options, click here.
Step 7: Allocate the initial set of documents, if possible (in cases without review activity, there will not be any documents that can be assigned out during this step)
Step 6 - Create the last assignment group
Now, we can make the last assignment group. This assignment group pulls in all the reviewed documents from the second pass privilege review. Greg and Nathan will be responsible for performing pre-production QA on this set of documents. They can double check if documents are coded correctly and determine if the proper family members are included, among other things. They will be required to add their documents to the production binder. Once all the documents are in the binder, Everlaw will produce them according to the specified production protocol.
Similar to before, we're not going to provide a detailed walkthrough on how to create this assignment group. If you want to learn more, definitely check out our assignment help articles.
Step 1: Create a binder that the production documents will be added to, and only give "edit" permissions on the binder to Greg and Nathan.
Step 2: Launch the assignment creation wizard from the homepage
Step 3: Create the inclusion criteria to capture the appropriate document. To learn more, click here.
Step 4: Name the assignment group
Step 5: Change the review criteria to the following. This means that documents in this assignment group will be considered "reviewed" once they've been added to the production binder, something that only Greg and Nathan can do:
Step 6: Choose the reviewers for the assignment group
Step 7: Configure the assignment group. To learn more about these options, click here.
Step 8: Allocate the initial set of documents, if possible (in cases without review activity, there will not be any documents that can be assigned out during this step)
Remember that you can monitor the progress of these assignment groups in the assignment admin dashboard view.
Congrats - you've created an automated workflow! This production review workflow is designed with multiple checks along the way to ensure that you are producing all the necessary documents and properly identifying and redacting privileged information.
To learn more about assignments and other assignment features not covered in this workflow, click here.
Want to adapt this workflow for your case, or discuss workflow ideas? Email us at support@everlaw.com.
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