| Coding | The process of extracting information from a document and entering it into an electronic system. The extracted information may be bibliographic coding, comments or a list of issues relating to a document. |
| CPR | Civil Procedure Rules: the ground rules under which litigation is conducted in the UK. CPR 31 is of particular importance since this is the rule governing the disclosure process. |
| Disclosure | The process formerly known as discovery by which documents are exchanged between parties in litigation in England and Wales. Technically the process has three phases - a) disclosure - making it known that the documents exist by providing the other party with a list, b) inspection - allowing the other party to look at the documents c) the provision of copies. Typically all three phases are dealt with together. Unlike the US, production of documents is initially driven by "push" i.e. there is an obligation on a party to disclose their documents which are material to the case. For full details see CPR 31 and PD 31. |
| Discovery | The process of providing documents to an opposing party in US litigation. Unlike the UK, the US process is driven by "pull" i.e. a party needs to specify the documents they want each opposing party to produce. |
| DPA | Data Protection Act: this act implements a European Directive which among other things protects privacy and sets limits on what can be done with an individual's personal data. In particular, it places limitations on the transfer of such data between jurisdictions. |
| ECA | Early Case Assessment: a widely abused term in which corporate data is sifted and categorised with a view to determining an organisation's exposure in the context of a dispute. The best ECA systems allow the sifting to take place within a corporation's own data store and can be used to drill down rapidly to identify the most pertinent evidentiary material and to facilitate decisions whether to litigate or settle. |
| EDD / Processing | Electronic Document Disclosure/Discovery: the process of preparing electronic documents for loading into a Litigation Support System. This involves extracting individual emails from mailboxes, unzipping zip and other archive files and extracting the metadata from them. Metadata is often then inserted into a Load File to allow the data to be input into a litigation support system. |
| EDRM | Electronic Discovery Reference Model: one of a number of industry initiatives to provide a common framework of terminology to describe the entire document lifecycle in the context of litigation. |
| ESI | Electronically Stored Information: this is an all inclusive term referring to conventional electronic documents (e.g. spreadsheets and word processing documents) and in addition the contents of databases, mobile phone messages, digital recordings (e.g. of voicemail) and transcripts of instant messages. All of this material needs to be considered for disclosure. |
| Litigation Support System | One of several types of database which holds both a copy document and information about that document. Most systems will hold the full text of the document and allow searches to be conducted against the text and /or any additional information that might be present in the database. The most sophisticated systems can group documents into categories based on their content and even predict their coding by reference to specimen coding provided by a lawyer. |
| Load File | A standardised file used for loading metadata and other information into a Litigation Support System. Such files generally contain metadata in a delimited format together with information used to load a copy document into the system.A standardised file used for loading metadata and other information into a Litigation Support System. Such files generally contain metadata in a delimited format together with information used to load a copy document into the system. |
| Metadata | Properties of an electronic file, some of which will be internal and some external, not all of which are necessarily visible when viewing that file. |
| PD | Practice Directions: these are official adjuncts to the CPR and provide mandated guidance for practitioners in conducting litigation. |
| Proportionality | The overriding objective of the CPR is to enable the court to deal with cases justly (CPR1). Specifically this is stated to include "dealing with the case in ways which are proportionate.." and it then goes on to list factors which need to be considered to determine what is proportionate. Taken together these factors are generally referred to together as Proportionality. |
| Scanning | The process of creating an electronic image of a paper document, usually for the purpose of loading into a litigation support system. |