OCR for eDiscovery eliminates the process of manual discovery within the legal industry. Cases produce large volumes of paper-based documents and "flat" image-based electronic documents for which attorneys and litigation support must address in order to perform successful litigation. The high document volume, coupled with inconsistent filing practices makes access to information increasingly difficult and in turn, threatens the performance of the litigators. Attorneys and litigation specialists need quick and complete access to effectively perform their duties. However, many within the legal industry continue to perform manual discovery processes. Given the high number of legal documents and the often decentralized organization of documents, manual discovery is a laborious process that poses many problems for those within the legal field, including:
  • Manual discovery is very time consuming and when using attorneys and litigation support specialists, is extremely expensive
  • Diverts attention of legal professionals from practicing to performing unskilled tasks
  • Manual review can lead to inaccuracy and duplication
  • Misplaced documents can lead to legal penalties
The manual discovery process is inherently prone to inaccuracies, misallocation of resources and excessive time-consumption. OCR technology effectively serves as a solution to efficiently and accurately perform discovery tasks which are paramount with litigation.

OCR for eDiscovery Functionality

OCR software provides technology for eDiscovery that drastically improves the legal discovery process and acts as a software-based litigation support specialist. This server-based solution automatically converts scanned documents or image based text files from many format (TIFF, PDF, or JPEG supported) to searchable content. It performs data recognition and creates fully-searchable electronic text that can be leveraged for archiving, discovery and enterprise search. The OCR software has a ready connection to Microsoft and Google enterprise search systems providing enterprise wide search over the content of image documents. After an OCR server performs the conversion of image based, non-searchable text into fully searchable PDFs, it automatically exports the files for archiving and storage and provides time stamps for full-auditability.

OCR eDiscovery Benefits

OCR conversion for eDiscovery automation streamlines the process of litigation discovery. OCR conversion software transforms the discovery process and enables attorney, paralegals and other highly-trained and highly paid employees to focus on more critical tasks. Creation of fully searchable digital files provides legal departments and law firms with numerous benefits, such as:
  • Improved ease of access to documents, thus improved litigation readiness
  • Faster discovery cycles
  • Lower costs associated with discovery process
  • Increased accuracy
  • Never losing a document
OCR software for eDiscovery dramatically improves the discovery process. Automated conversion of paper-based and static-data electronic documents into searchable content provides a level of litigation support that is more reliable, effective and inexpensive than outsourcing or having attorneys conduct the discovery process.