CDS offers more than 20 leading legal technologies, including DISCO eDiscovery, a SaaS solution for data processing, hosting, review, and production. Cloud-native platforms like DISCO offer advanced features and lightning search speeds. Reviewers of all experience levels can benefit from getting to the finish line faster with DISCO’s finely tuned search functionality.

Through our partnership, CDS clients can take control of their data using DISCO’s self-service features, while also receiving support from CDS’ best-in-class professional services team.

“While I had previously found review platforms to be somewhat opaque and difficult to master, the CDS team was incredibly helpful in training me to use the DISCO platform on my own. They helped me craft intelligent searches and cull data in ways that became intuitive, and I was surprised at how quickly I was able to run with it. This is particularly valuable in my area of practice, which necessitates efficient, cost-conscious, yet thorough document review. I really feel like I have come away from this experience with new skills and a better ability to manage the next review project.”
 – White collar criminal defense practitioner

DISCO Search Builder

The ability to quickly create and run complex searches is a core function of all end-to-end eDiscovery platforms, and often among the most challenging and time-consuming aspects of the eDiscovery work process. Legal practitioners unfamiliar with platform-specific search syntax and functionality will frequently require lengthy training and certification or in-depth professional services support to ensure accurate and consistent results. DISCO uses Lexis Nexis/Westlaw style syntax which makes running searches easier for most legal professionals already familiar with this style of searching. 

Additionally, DISCO has incorporated an intuitive and easy to use search builder function allowing users to choose metadata and attributes extracted during ingestion to build simple to complex searches without having to manually create search strings. Search builder constructs the search syntax and calculates results according to specified criteria, giving users a view into results without requiring them to execute the search.  

Overcoming Review Hurdles in Days not Weeks

In a recent DISCO matter, the CDS Professional Services team enabled a multi-party joint client case defense team to narrow a review universe for production. The client case team was tasked with applying searches but had little-to-no prior experience with eDiscovery review tools. In one week, with several trainings and support from CDS, the case team confidently and competently took over the search work process and successfully reduced the review universe by more than 75%. 

In another matter, the CDS professional services team trained 11 parties to a class action lawsuit to independently handle most search related activity in their DISCO workspace in less than two weeks with a combination of team and small group training sessions. 

DISCO Search Visualization 

Data visualizations – like charts, graphs, and heat maps – can help review teams make fast progress on complicated matters with large, varied data sets. Case teams can leverage data visualizations to drive crucial decisions, smarter workflows, more efficient classifications, and better QC. 

CDS has been a market leader in leveraging advanced data visualizations in the platforms we offer and proprietary products we develop, like CDS Vision. The CDS Professional Services team frequently recommends the use of DISCO’s Search Visualization feature as a powerful early case assessment tool to gain a better understanding of large complex data sets at a high level. 

Custodial Data 

By providing a visual representation of the hosted data, DISCO search visualization allows case teams to build point-and-click searches and view potential gaps in collections or in productions received by opposing counsel. 

In one recent example, the CDS Professional Services team helped a client efficiently QC received third party productions. Using DISCO Visual Search, we quickly identified significant gaps in the requested production document date ranges before review began, saving valuable time and money in the review phase of their matter. 

DISCO ECA – Topic Clustering, Filters, Term Testing and Reporting

Often, parties select search terms they believe will be relevant to an eDiscovery matter without having a deep understanding of the data topics and concepts in their collection, resulting in false hits, and added review time. 

With DISCO Topic Clustering, AI creates an index of topic clusters that reviewers use to drill down to the most intriguing topics in their datasets. As documents are ingested, the platform automatically identifies the topic relationships without additional setup or administration. Topic Clusters inform more targeted, accurate search terms and culling techniques before the review phase, and act as a handy reference for documents containing relevant topics in the review universe. 

DISCO Search Term Testing and Reporting

Speed to evidence is of crucial importance in almost all eDiscovery matters. Most eDiscovery practitioners have felt the pressure of rolling productions to meet tight discovery deadlines. Opposing parties frequently lose valuable time in the iterative process of agreeing to and testing potential search terms. 

DISCO uses elastic search, which is a distributed search and analytics engine, capable of returning search results at lightning speeds. Facebook and LinkedIn also use elastic search within their platforms to take advantage of its robust scaling capabilities and speeds. With DISCO, clients can either work with their CDS project managers or work independently to execute search terms and receive results in real time.

Opposing parties can review search term reports together via a screen share to review, revise and agree on search terms, avoiding the back-and-forth exchange of spreadsheets. DISCO Search Term reporting enables review teams to build searches, import search terms, and correct any issues with search syntax as identified by the platform. Search terms reports may be saved as a PDF or excel spreadsheet to share with internal and external teams. 

By taking advantage of DISCO search functionality and CDS project management expertise, eDiscovery practitioners can get to the most critical document sets quickly, and turn their focus to other necessary work. To learn more about the DISCO eDiscovery platform and the integrated services provided by CDS’ DISCO-certified project managers, connect with us via email at .