London-based Hobs Legal Docs has strengthened its relationship with FTI Ringtail and now has five Ringtail Certified Services Technicians – apparently the largest headcount outside the US.
Managing Director Terry Harrison is also enthusiastic about IPRO’s eCapture which Hobs uses for EDD processing – the only user in Europe, it seems. Terry says of one job, which began with 7Gb of data and 370,000 pages, that “the whole process took just a few hours and the law firm, as well as their clients, were delighted at the time and cost saving.” Hobs now provide IPRO’s eReview application either on a hosted basis or for purchase for in-house use.
I mention this really because any lawyer facing 370,000 pages, or anything like it, who does NOT have the data handled electronically in “just a few hours” might like to think about whether the alternative – presumably printing the ages, copying them a few times, and setting some lawyers to reading through them – is consistent with the duty owed to either the client or the court. You might just do it by not recording much of the time spent on it – but that is not really consistent with the duty owed to your other partners.
Judges are starting to want to know about the comparative speed and cost of different ways of skinning the electronic data cat. It would be hard, I think, to show that the “print, copy and read” approach will stand scrutiny.
