Below are a few common QC approaches used by attorneys involved in a document review project. These QC concepts are all designed to make sure fewer reviewer errors occur and to create a repeatable and effective quality control process.

1. Random Sample/Reviewer Based QC

a. Create a one out of ten random sample of looking over reviewer documents/batches.

b. Create mandatory protocols to review all responsive potentially privilege documents not tagged privilege in the reviewer’s batch. Include other mandatory reviews of specific tagging sequences (further review, tech issue, etc.).

 c. Once a reviewer consistently receives a passing grade, we then sample 1 out of 25 documents, then 1 out of 50 documents. This process is coupled with a grading system to graduate reviewers to the next levels that require lower levels of sampling.

d. Potential issue can be the lack of oversight of potentially privilege responsive documents. There is no automatic set-up of a mandatory re-review of potpriv responsive documents.

2. Keyword search, utilization of technology, and re-review of presumptively privileged documents that were marked responsive but not marked privileged.

a. The general approach is to create queries based on identified hot documents and key terms, as well as running searches for presumptively privilege documents tagged both not privilege and responsive.

i. Depending on the volume of hits, you can modify the potpriv searches to be either more or less inclusive.

b. Utilize advance tools of platform

i. Run Searches for similar docs/dupes/near dupes to confirm if one of the documents has been marked privilege or confidential then all of the documents have been marked privilege/confidential

ii. Similar approach for redactions

c. The utility of this process is two fold:

i. Identify documents reviewers may have missed during the initial first level review that are key to the case.

ii. Add an extra layer of privilege protection.

d. The tradeoff in utilizing this approach is that it may decrease visibility into reviewer performance. However, use of a history tool should highlight if a specific reviewer is repeating key mistakes.

3. Mixture of keyword and random sample

a. Another and more thorough approach to the quality control process would be to merge the two above.

b. This gives an overall feel of the general quality of each reviewer, while focusing in on key issues and privilege.

c. Tradeoffs with this approach are the possible volume of quality control, and the added costs of conducting both levels of scrutiny.

Inconsistent Tagging

In addition to the three approaches mentioned above, the Vendor, reviewer, or project managers should run an inconsistent tagging search over the population of reviewed documents. This way you will find documents that have misclicks and can be fixed before production.

By Aaron Fluss, Esq. Director of Project Management, Essential Discovery

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