Handling Audio and Video Files to Meet eDiscovery Requirements

Use Technology to Support Good Workflows and Best Practices
Over the past few years, software providers have developed technologies aimed at reducing the burden associated with processing these data types for eDiscovery. These technologies enable the ability to automatically transcribe, file index, search, and overall facilitate a more complete disclosure review process that provides the benefit of reduced timelines, minimized costs, and increased efficiencies. To provide one point of reference, transcribing 1 hour of audio or video today can be automatically transcribed within 20 minutes.

Of these new capabilities, auto-transcription alone yields significant cost and time savings since alternatives include having reviewers listen to all files at an expensive hourly rate, or having the service provider send files to an external transcription service that could charge an average of $1.25 per minute.

Current technologies available in the market are not only instrumental in simplifying the conversion of audio and video data to conform with eDiscovery requirements and workflows, but they are also innovating by rolling out new features for clients and legal teams. Below are a few relatively new notable features currently available for the management of audio and video files for eDiscovery:

• Time-Coordinated Transcription and Redaction – This new feature enables the redaction of a transcript or transcribed text from an audio or video file, which creates a corresponding white noise or black-out of video on the redacted recording.
• Auto-Detect Visual Objects – This provides the capability to detect general objects such as a vehicle or person and jump right to the object of interest in the file.
• Expanded Detection – This technology enables facial detection and has been expanded to detect the complete visual of a person.

According to Deloitte, the latest eDiscovery technology available for these data types can reduce the time required for transcription by as much as two-thirds, while providing consistent, accurate results. The specific benefits of new audio/video eDiscovery solutions include:

• Improved management and review processes – Modern technology enables legal professionals to deal with the continually growing volumes of ESI generated on different platforms. Automated transcription can speed up and ease the review of audio and video files.
• Auto-transformation of unstructured audio/video content into discoverable formats – Leading eDiscovery platforms leverage automated transcription and video OCR to transform unstructured files into text eliminating hours of work stemming from the sheer volume and complexity of this data.
• Enables informed decision-making – Audio and video communications could contain valuable insights that determine the results of litigation. Extracting facts for further review by legal teams helps eliminate bias and uncover information that may have strategic implications.
• Cost-effective and highly efficient – Advanced integrated functionalities to transcribe and search recordings for evidence help legal teams manage review of audio and video in a systematic and cost-effective manner. Additionally, AI technology has increased efficiencies, cut costs, and facilitated better utilization of time and resources.
• Helps maintain compliance – Efficient use of technology to review and produce unstructured data can significantly reduce costly errors and avoid court sanctions by enabling early case assessment, filtering and review.

The ability to handle audio/video files quickly and efficiently is critical for legal teams. However, this advanced eDiscovery technology is not a replacement for human review and analysis. While it can certainly cut the time and expense of discovery by helping to quickly identify relevant data, the material still needs to be further evaluated for a deeper understanding of its significance. Audio transcription quality depends on audio quality, which can be affected by technical issues such as multiple people speaking at once, similar phonetically sounding words and other factors. Legal transcription outsourcing to a reliable service provider is the best option to overcome these concerns and ensure high quality work product.