Where litigation and technology make sense

An award-winning boutique eDiscovery consultancy collaborating with clients to provide innovative solutions, exceptional service and value for money.

At eDiscovery Collab we want to be the best in the market.

Every day we turn up to:

  • Deliver the best and most innovative solutions for our clients
  • Be the most efficient and friendliest team our clients work with any day of the week
  • Provide cost effective services that support each and every client’s litigation journey.

With over 30 years of experience in providing eDiscovery and litigation support services in law firms and with other eDiscovery providers, we know our technical expertise and knowledge is unrivalled.

As we evolve from Enhanced Litigation Management Solutions (ELMS) to eDiscovery Collab, we will strive to deliver continuous technical improvement, superior client focused service and solutions that set us apart from our competitors.

How we help

Today, huge volumes of data are generated by people and organisations every day.

Studies in 2020 found that:

  • 1.7MB of data was created every second by every person during that year,
  • Every day 306.4 billion emails were sent
  • 95 million photos and videos are shared every day on Instagram
  • 5 million Tweets were made every day.

2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced by humans every day – to put that in perspective, a quintillion is a billion billion.

It is estimated that 463 exabytes of data will be generated each day by humans as of 2025 – an exabyte is one billion gigabytes.

Today it is nearly impossible to find relevant documents without using the rapidly evolving tools developed for eDiscovery and litigation support. But it is not just the volume of data that is challenging, it is finding where the data is located and stored.

No longer restricted to paper or even electronic files, data can be stored in a variety of places such as work or home computers, laptops, phones, social media accounts, external disc drives, cloud storage solutions, voicemails, text messages, instant messaging chats and more.

Despite corporate processes and procedures requiring staff to save documents in particular systems, there are still documents saved on desktops, personal computers or even printed out and stored in paper files. You definitely need to know where to look.

Once you have found the relevant data and documents, care needs to be taken not to corrupt the metadata of each document.

Given the complexity and potential downside of getting it wrong, why wouldn't you engage an expert?

Whether you have 100 documents or 10 million documents, eDiscovery Collab has a product and solution that will help you.  

Frequently asked questions

When should I use a litigation database?

There is a technical solution to assist with document management in disputes of all sizes, whether litigation, mediation or arbitration.

Option 1: Under 1,500 Documents (including emails and their attachments)

When the volume of documents is this size, eDiscovery Collab recommends a fully hyperlinked Excel spreadsheet solution, and a fully text searchable PDF solution.

We will be faster than you every time indexing documents thanks to our tools and expertise. Our fixed fee pricing means this solution is both time and cost effective for you and your client.

Also, our hyperlinked document will give you more advanced functionality to:

  • filter and sort documents in Excel, and
  • text search across the set of documents with the PDF solution.

We are always available to demonstrate ways you can get the best out of this solution.

Option 2: Over 1,500 Documents (including emails and their attachments)

Whenever you have more than 1,500 documents, we recommend using a litigation database to manage the documents because it will always be more efficient and cost effective.

When should I engage an eDiscovery Provider?

Of course we are going to say as soon as possible, but it makes the most sense to engage eDiscovery Collab when you begin identifying documents that might be relevant to your case so that we can help you:

  • understand your clients technical infrastructure and the software they utilise to locate other document sources where more relevant documents might be hiding
  • identify and mitigate any risks associated with the documents, including the key and costly risks of:

–      altering metadata on collection,

–      identifying if the software used alters metadata on archiving

–      identifying if the software separates emails from their attachments, and how that relationship can be restored with minimal cost.

It is important to consider these risks and find a solution prior to collection so you avoid having to invest time and money in the manual objective coding process that restores metadata at a later date.

One of the most important benefits of involving eDiscovery Collab early in the process is our ability to work with the IT and legal teams to translate IT speak to legal speak, and vice versa.

This helps to avoid any miscommunication or misinterpretation, and ensures that everyone is on the same page and understands the technical issues.

As an Inhouse Counsel, should I engage an independent eDiscovery Provider or the provider recommended by my law firm?

There is no right or wrong answer to this one.

If you engage your eDiscovery Provider directly, they will work closely with your external law firms and you to manage the litigation document management process in the same way they would if engaged by your law firm.

The service is the same.

The advantages when Inhouse Counsel engages the eDiscovery Provider include: 

  1. your eDiscovery Provider will get to know your technical infrastructure and software which will streamline the identification of relevant document sources and collection, saving time and money
  2. your eDiscovery Provider can identify any risks associated with your documents which could increase the cost later in the process and then assist your IT team to mitigate those risks and reduce the cost of document management in litigation
  3. you can negotiate better document storage and hourly consulting rates as your volume of data is all in one place giving you bargaining power
  4. your eDiscovery Provider gets to know your systems and can recommend ways to streamline internal processes to create efficiencies
  5. your eDiscovery Provider can work with all the law firms you engage so your documents are managed in a consistent way
  6. your eDiscovery Provider can assess your internal legal systems and processes, and recommend solutions where needed
  7. using one eDiscovery Provider across your external law firms will enable them to educate the legal teams about your document management processes and how they interact with your software to gain a better understanding of the document landscape
  8. eDiscovery Providers bring a depth of knowledge that adds to the strength and experience of your team – the eDiscovery Collab team are also great people who are fun to spend time with and calm in all high pressure situations.

Should law firms having their own internal eDiscovery team, or outsource their eDiscovery requirements?

This depends on the volume of eDiscovery work a law firm generates.

An eDiscovery team, their ongoing education and the software and infrastructure they require is expensive, so a team needs to be fully utilised and productive to be profitable.

Depending on the amount of dispute and litigation work undertaken by a law firm, a better solution is likely to be engaging an external eDiscovery Provider who is an expert in eDiscovery and document management.

The goal should always be to have the right people doing the right job whether they are internal or external to your law firm.

When a law firm outsources their eDiscovery, we recommend using the same eDiscovery Provider so they become an extension of the law firm’s team.

The law firm can access the services of the eDiscovery Provider when needed without carrying the significant costs during quiet times.

At eDiscovery Collab we regularly work with the same law firms and teams.

We have built strong relationships that benefit all parties by:

  • understanding the workstyles of individual lawyers
  • being trustworthy and reliable
  • exceeding expectations whenever we can so lawyers don’t feel compelled to check the detail of our work – they know if there is an issue, we will bring it to their attention
  • reducing their workload and stress levels because they know we are proactive, responsive and supportive.

What should you expect from your eDiscovery provider?

At eDiscovery Collab we:

  • will listen to your request and deliver the best and most cost effective solution for you
  • are technical experts who understand what happens behind the scenes of the databases, as well as the specific advanced functionalities of the eDiscovery softwares so we can deliver solutions that make things better and easier for you
  • talk in plain English and interpret and translate technical language into simple terms
  • understand the litigation process so we know what you need before you need it
  • can anticipate when a lawyer asks for something but they really need something else
  • are responsive to your requests so you don’t have to follow us up
  • understand pricing models and will actively help you reduce costs whenever possible
  • are honest and accurate in our delivery predictions and deadlines so you can manage your own deliverables
  • have a dedicated lead consultant who you deal with every day except when they are on leave – then we transfer knowledge through an extensive handover process so you are not impacted
  • openly share our knowledge whenever it can help reduce your workload
  • are easy to communicate with, nice people and great to work with.

If you are looking for another level in client service and expertise, contact us today to see what the eDiscovery Collab can do for you and your clients.

The eDiscovery Process

News and Awards

The Importance of Exceptional Client Service at eDiscovery Collab

At eDiscovery Collab, we know the work we do is not unique. Our competitors and in-house consultants have exactly the same eDiscovery products to deliver the same outcome. There are three areas we focus on to set the eDiscovery Collab team apart

Ciara becomes a Business Owner

Congratulations to our very own Ciara Cooke who has become a part-owner of eDiscovery Collab. Ciara first joined eDiscovery Collab in 2019 and has gone from strength to strength – admitted as a lawyer in 2021, promoted to Head of Consulting in five short years, and now adds business owner to her list of achievements.

2023 Innovator of the Year (Company) Finalist

At the upcoming Lawyers Weekly Australian Law Awards, eDiscovery Collab is a finalist for “Innovator of the Year (Company)”. The award recognises firms and legal departments that have successfully implemented innovative projects and/or strategic initiatives during the past 12 months.

2022 Service Provider Award

ELMS (now known as eDiscovery Collab) was recognised as a Service Provider of the Year by Australasian and NZ Lawyer. The award promotes providers delivering the most effective and transformative solutions, and we are proud to have been recognised as a winner in the Legal Services Category.

Testimonials

A superior service

eDiscovery Collab has a deep knowledge of the mix between both the IT and legal processes in litigation. They provide a superior service and are expert at getting into the systems and extracting data quickly. The team is very proactive and always willing to help.

Wendy Barker,
former Senior Legal Counsel, Arup

Know exactly what they are doing

Working with eDiscovery Collab was a very satisfying experience. Their service standards are outstanding, being those to which we aspire ourselves. They are highly skilled in eDiscovery. The team knows exactly what they are doing and deal with everything calmly, quickly and professionally.

Stephen Thompson
Partner, Colin Biggers & Paisley

Service is second to none

No-one else is as adept as eDiscovery Collab in the management of documents in litigation. Given today's nature of electronic communication, eDiscovery is vital. eDiscovery Collab delivers meaningful benefits to me, my team and most importantly my clients.

Getting the team involved in a matter as soon as possible ensures that metadata integrity is maintained, efficiencies are created early, and costs are controlled. eDiscovery Collab's service is second to none.

They have great depth of knowledge around legal processes and the Court system than any other provider, and work with me to provide flexible solutions.

Millie Russell
Partner, Russells Lawyers

Speak my language

eDiscovery Collab provides exceptional service. Kate and the team speak my language, understand the challenges I face and understand what I need better than anyone else.

They are practical problem solvers and cognisant of the time pressures I face, always responding quickly and accurately.

Nothing is too much trouble and, above all, the team is lovely to deal with.

Nicholas Andreatidis KC
Barrister, Level 27 Chambers

My preferred eDiscovery provider

eDiscovery Collab is my preferred eDiscovery serivces provider. Not only is their platform easy to use and understand, their client service is excellent. The team is thorough and responsive. They get things done quickly and give me the answers I need in the way that I want. I also appreciate that they are alive to the sensitivity of confidentiality.

Lachlan Boughton
Senior Associate, Colin Biggers & Paisley