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Data Filtering
Practical Law Glossary Item 0-521-0516 (Approx. 3 pages)
Glossary
Data Filtering
In e-discovery, the process by which counsel take all electronically stored information (ESI) they collected and isolate for review the ESI that they reasonably expect to be unique and relevant. Filtering is typically part of the data processing phase, which occurs after counsel collects ESI and before counsel reviews the ESI.
Counsel can filter ESI in several ways, including:
- De-duplicating the ESI.
- De-NISTing the ESI.
- Filtering by metadata fields (for example, including in the review set only ESI that was created during the relevant time period or created by certain custodians).
- Performing keyword or concept searches.
Limiting the universe of ESI to be reviewed can significantly reduce:
- The time spent by counsel reviewing documents.
- The cost of hosting documents for review in a document review platform.
Because filtering effectively eliminates ESI from discovery, however, counsel should negotiate the filtering protocol with opposing counsel before implementing it to avoid later challenges to their discovery process.