PSA: Our firm just hit 50,000 pages in a single discovery request...

We're working on a big breach of contract case and the other side just dumped a document set that's over 50,000 pages. It's mostly internal emails from the last three years. What's the best way to sort through a pile that big without missing the key details?

3 comments

3 Comments

angela_dixon3mo ago

What tools are you using to handle that many emails?

river_bailey23mo ago

I hit about 200 emails a day and my setup is pretty basic. I rely on Gmail filters to auto-sort client inquiries into specific folders. For follow-ups, I just use a simple spreadsheet to track who needs a reply and when. The key for me is batching, so I only check that main folder three times a day. Without those filters, I'd be completely lost in my inbox.

-1

diana_flores251mo ago

50,000 pages in a single discovery request" - been there, done that, still have nightmares. We had a similar mess last year, all internal emails from a merger case. What saved us was grabbing a cheap ediscovery platform. Nothing fancy, just one with basic keyword search and date filters. Then we split the team into chunks. Each person got a date range. We'd tag emails as "hot," "maybe," or "trash." Also set up a shared spreadsheet for the hot ones. Everyone added a one-liner about why it mattered. Kept us from rereading the same email ten times. Batch the work too. No one touches this stuff after 3 PM. Brain turns to mush and you miss the key stuff.