Culling, Prioritizing and Triage
Culling and searching occur throughout the discovery process and are tightly related components of any solid and defensible processing strategy. Simply defined, culling is the process of programmatically removing content that is irrelevant while searching is the process of identifying content that is most likely relevant and will require review. Together, when implemented effectively, culling and searching will reduce and focus the reviewable content universe—saving clients time and money for higher value downstream activities.
More than 90% of collected electronic content can be non-responsive. When developing a culling and searching strategy, the objective should always be to identify the most relevant content first and move it downstream to the review team. To accomplish this, the discovery team needs to develop a general understanding of the collection. This understanding includes answers to questions such as:
- How much data will we be receiving? How many custodians? What is the average amount per custodian?
- What types of files (e.g. emails, word processing documents, spreadsheets, etc.) will we be receiving?
- How will the data be delivered (e.g. on hard drives, DVDs, etc.)?
There are myriad approaches and technologies for culling and searching. The key is to find the tools that best work for your unique requirements in a particular matter. Prior to selecting a particular culling and/or search technique or tool, it is important to understand what objectives the review team is trying to accomplish.