The Challenge
A State Government (Department) requested that we assist them with the review of 88GB of email data for the purpose of an internal investigation. The internal investigation needed to be conducted quickly and accurately for a report that would inform the Department’s response to a Right to Information request.
The number of the documents (747k) required to be reviewed made the traditional approach of printing and reviewing the material in hard copy, within the limited time frame, not a viable option. Further, the internal tools at the Department’s disposal did not have the forensic capability to undertake the interrogation of the documents required in this instance.
As a result, the Department sought guidance from our expert review workflow team as to how best to overcome this challenge.
The Solution
Workflow
1. Process the documents
a. Our technical team would remove all the duplicate documents within the data and make all remaining documents, where applicable, text searchable;
b. Develop effective and accurate key-word searches and apply them to the de-duplicated data. Responsive documents to be given a unique document reference number before upload to the review platform.
2. Review of responsive documents in an online database
a. Database design and setup to suit the Department’s review outcomes including providing training to the review team on navigating the responsive documents;
b. The Department’s team would use Analytics (email thread and near-duplicate detection), along with further key-word searches to review and “tag/code” documents relevant to their issues.
3. Produce a list of “relevant” documents
a. We would produce a hyperlinked list of relevant documents before closing the database and an export file provided to the review team should future review be required; and
b. Hold a post project review meeting to discuss
The Outcome
Our expert review team worked closely with the Department to reduce their reviewable set of potentially relevant documents from 747,000 to 6,500 documents in 48 hours. The responsive documents were uploaded the next day with training provided to the team who, with the assistance of our experts, completed a review of those remaining documents in less than 10 days.
Once the review was complete, our experts undertook various quality assurance processes and provided the Department’s review team with an exported hyperlinked list of documents within 24 hours.
In total, the review of the documents was completed in less than 14 working days saving the Department a significant amount of time and money.
