Technology gives small and medium-sized businesses the opportunity to meet or even exceed service levels of dominant enterprise-sized organisations. This opportunity exists during the disclosure phase of litigation, where advances in analytics allow solicitors to prioritise review, control costs and gain insights into large data sets.

Managing the costs of disclosure is an ongoing issue, exacerbated by rising data volumes and growing numbers of electronic documents being collected during commercial disputes. The latest attempt to combat these mounting costs is the Disclosure Pilot Scheme, (in force in the Business & Property Courts until January 2021), which aims to phase out costly and dated approaches to disclosure and replace them with collaborative, tech-based methods.

The key for solicitors acting for SMEs who want to give their clients the edge and ensure compliance with the new rules will be to embrace the technology at their disposal. Fortunately for them, price is no longer a barrier to entry.

The eDisclosure journey has entered its second phase. The case for document review platforms has been made and won, but there is work to be done to make use of eDisclosure analytics just as widespread. eDisclosure analytics come in many flavours, but the benefits are undisputed; they enable clients to prioritise review of documents which are most likely to be relevant to a case and they reduce the overall number for review. Analytics can be also used before proceedings are issued to get a better understanding of a client’s documents. Used in the right way, and under the supervision of an eDisclosure specialist, they can result in a significant time and cost saving.

As with all technologies there have been first adopters and unsurprisingly it is those with more resources at their disposal. Some large corporations are ahead of the curve when it comes to eDisclosure and have brought their eDisclosure function in house. Others are represented by major law firms who have dedicated eDisclosure departments. These departments have well-drilled procedures for dealing with electronic data, enhanced by collaborative relationships with eDisclosure companies like us.

On the other hand, there are SMEs who may very well be represented by sizeable law firms, but do not have the appetite to support a full bells and whistles eDisclosure exercise inclusive of analytics. They are using eDisclosure platforms, but in a limited way, which hands the edge to their opponents in cases where they encounter them.

Anexsys act for law firms and companies at both ends of the scale but our aim is to ensure that analytics are available to all. We want to create a level playing field for our clients and we do not believe there should be barriers to entry. Our analytics packages comprise of analytics from market leading eDisclosure platforms, cloud services, text analytics and custom-built solutions.

Our competitive pricing models include bundling of analytics with standard eDisclosure services into a manageable monthly fee. This minimizes upfront investment and spreads costs, allowing clients to avoid excessive fees where matters settle sooner than expected.

For more information email info@anexsys.com