eNewsletter: November 2007
Addressing the E-Discovery Challenge with Automated Translation
Traditional to Technological
Gone are the days of letter writing and expensive long distance phone calls - digital communication through email, chat or text messaging is the primary method for contact among friends and business associates. In the global market, social media is paving the way for new marketing strategies to include web-based advertisements, blogs, podcasts, and upscale websites. Cell phones, portable computers, GPS navigation, and other electronic devices enable the public to get from point A to point B without a map, buy the latest gadget without leaving the house, communicate without using a phone, and research a subject without opening a book.
What many people forget is that actions processed through an electronic device can be tracked through electronic receipts, confirmations, email messages, chat logs and metadata. Technology provides a trail of "who, what, when and where" and has all but eliminated anonymity. Information that could once be easily destroyed has a much longer life in the electronic world, and left to trained experts or the innocent "Googler," can be easily found by a click of mouse.
While this may seem scary to some, it has opened up more opportunities for business, particularly when it comes to upholding the law.
Electronic Discovery
"Electronic discovery refers to any process in which electronic data is sought, located, secured, and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a civil or criminal legal case" (www.searchsecurity.com). This data includes emails, text, images, calendar files, databases, spreadsheets, audio files, animation, websites, and computer programs stored on a computer network or storage media. It also includes the electronic trail (metadata) the user leaves behind.
In response to the increase of electronic data, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures (FRCP) have been amended to include Electronic Discovery Amendments to provide structure for computer-based discovery. The additions refer to the collection, preparation, review and production of electronic data sought out for the intent of using it as evidence in a legal or criminal case.
Legal and Business Protection
Companies are now making sure they have better control over, and access to electronic information so they can perform e-discovery on their own, or can provide proper access for litigation purposes. Structured procedures such as database archiving and data retention programs are used to better manage and secure data located on servers, hard drives, shared drives, laptops, and cell phones.
While e-discovery is a relatively new concept, the market is starting to feel the demand. The chart below illustrates how e-discovery touches all market sectors. As depicted, telecom, government and financial receive the most requests for e-discovery, with telecom leading the way for the most requests on a monthly basis.
Challenges of E-Discovery: time, volume, and translation
The process of e-discovery can be time consuming. Technical experience is often required to extract metadata and filter the information. Adding to these challenges is the necessity to consider data created in different languages. Law firms are being sought out regularly by companies who have foreign language documents needing review during the e-discovery process. These firms are sending the documents for translation in order to determine which documents are potentially relevant – this needle in a haystack approach to translation for large volumes of data is neither efficient nor cost-effective.
For example: 50 megabytes (less than what 1 CD will hold) contains ~3,700 pages of data; 1 gigabyte contains ~375,000 pages of data. If a firm has to send off multiple CDs for translation of documents that might be relevant, at 15-35 cents per word, that client’s retainer just went up significantly!
In addition, think of the time delay involved in translating 375,000 pages of data at an average rate of 2,000 words per day per translator. With most court cases running on tight deadlines, the time challenge is daunting!
Automated Translation Solution
In order to efficiently and effectively process large amounts of foreign language data during the e-discovery process, automated translation is a necessity.
Language Weaver has been working with organizations, both government and commercial, which need to process information quickly so that relevant information can be routed to the correct people. Our statistically based translation software is typically integrated into a workflow to aid in timely processing of information. The software provides fluent, readable, gist-level translations out of the box; the translations are reviewed and key information is then sent to a human translator or analyst for a complete translation and review -- gone are the days of bogging down translators with translating irrelevant information!
To make searching easier across languages, Language Weaver’s translation software has been integrated directly into search platforms created by Convera and Mitre, SPSS’s Clementine® for text mining, and Janya’s Semantex™ for text extraction. With these types of integration, all data, regardless of the language, can be accessed quickly and indexed, saved, and used as necessary. Other integrations are possible via Language Weaver’s Web Services API.
Language service providers currently providing translation services for the legal industry can also benefit from automated translation by integrating the software into an existing translation workflow system or a translation management system such as the across Language Server or Idiom® WorldServer™. Clay Tablet Technologies also makes it easy to connect Language Weaver translation software to existing content management systems and applications. Over the past year, translation providers have had great success improving translation productivity with automated translation, and we predict that they can provide great support for multilingual e-discovery. For more information about improving translation productivity, click here.
When higher quality translations are necessary, Language Weaver can customize the software to a particular domain or subject area using legacy translations. For more information, please visit the Customization section of our website.
Companies that use automated translation software to translate data for e-discovery can experience a rapid return on their investment. These companies can process more data, identify relationships among the data quickly, and win more cases because they have timely access to relevant foreign language data.
The population using the internet and the number of countries that are "online" are growing rapidly. Not only is the amount of electronic data increasing, but so is the number of languages the information is written in; a shift that is unlikely to reverse. For more information on how Language Weaver can help solve e-discovery challenges, please contact us.
References:
- Amendments Approved by the Supreme Court - Submitted to Congress (April 2006)
http://www.uscourts.gov/rules/congress0406.html - Electronic Discovery: It's not just About E-mail. By Craig S. Mullins
http://technology.findlaw.com/articles/01200/010953.html - IQWEST Launches BabelQwest—the Most Advanced Document Machine-Translation Service for Litigation.
http://technology.findlaw.com/articles/01196/010903.html - Expands Foreign-Language Capabilities for Electronic Discovery
http://www.stratify.com/news_events/press_releases/press_release66.html - The Aftermath: Examining the E-Discovery Landscape After the 2006 Rule Changes. By Eric Sinrod
http://technology.findlaw.com/articles/00006/011010.html - What is E-Discovery?
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci1150017,00.html - Electronic Discovery Law
http://www.ediscoverylaw.com/2006/12/articles/news-updates/ediscovery-amendments-to-the-federal-rules-of-civil-procedure-go-into-effect-today/ - eDiscovery Sanctions - Staying out of Harms . By John Bennett & Gerard Britton
http://www.abanet.org/lpm/ltt/articles/vol1/is6/eDiscoverySanctions.shtml
