Everlaw is a collaborative, cloud-based litigation platform for corporate counsels, litigators and government attorneys from the company of the same name in Oakland. It enables teams to discover, illuminate, and act on information to better drive internal investigations and positively impact the outcome of litigation.
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Nextpoint
Score 7.0 out of 10
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Nextpoint headquartered in Chicago offers their eDiscovery solution, a cloud-based discovery software available with both free and subscription based service levels.
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Relativity
Score 9.4 out of 10
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Relativity (formerly kCura) is a data e-discovery solution supporting litigation, government inquires, internal investigations and data governance policies within a secure cloud platform, from the company of the same name headquartered in Chicago.
When I worked at a large law firm and used Relativity, I found that it was rather difficult to use. It absolutely required an IT staff to run and it was great to be able to e-mail litigation support to help accomplish what needed accomplishing. But, Relativity is really a …
Blow for blow, there is not too much difference between Nextpoint's and Relativity's functionality. I would say that Nextpoint has a more user-friendly and attractive interface, although it does lack a bit of the functionality of Relativity.
Nextpoint's ability to allow users to customize the way they use the system is what sets it apart. You can use Nextpoint in a variety of ways and completely customize the way the system tracks information and data. The ability to set up different searches and data points …
Easy to understand the pricing structure and there are no hidden fees. Modeled on a do it yourself basis which is nice. Less expensive than the other options on the market which makes it client-friendly. It is easily configured to set tags, folders, fields, etc to capture …
I think Everlaw is very well suited for any project where you want to organize your documents, produce documents or review documents produced to you. It's "word processing" features are pretty awful and that makes the Storybuilder functionality less useful. The best workflow for me is as follows: On Screen 1 you have Everlaw browser open. You tag those documents you may use in your story, they show up on the right panel. Then, you open up your word processor on Screen 2 and get writing. If you need to refer to an exhibit in your word processed document, use the #idenitication number from Screen 1 and type it in your document. If you want to review the document, you click the "eye" icon in the right panel on Screen 1 and read it as you are doing your typing on Screen 2. When done with the document, you cut and paste it into the Everlaw Storybuilder "body". You may have to manually search for the #'s to have the documents tagged in your story - You need to have them tagged in the story body so that when you click on "exhibits" you can export all of the exhibits referenced if that is something you want to have done (for example, to upload for e-filing).
Nextpoint is great in a wide range of scenarios. Specifically, it has worked very well for me when we have been confronted with both large and small document productions which need to be reviewed. We have also been able to use Nextpoint to address some other, non-document production related problems. I think Nextpoint is a strong tool to consider in just about any scenario. The only time I would hesitate to use Nextpoint would be in some type of involved document production that needs many levels of organization. The lack of subfolders can be a bit of a challenge and, although the coding options meet the need in my opinion, it is not exactly what everyone is looking for.
In cases involving massive datasets (I.e. regulatory investigations, cross-border litigation), Relativity's powerful search, deduplication, and technology-assisted review features enable fast, accurate identification of relevant documents. For example, we used it in a front-running investigation involving a large asset management firm, where Relativity streamlined data review across multiple custodians. There are multiple use case available.
Not everything is as I would like it to be. For example, while it is easy to copy work product (highlights, issue tags, comments) from one project to another, for some reason they don't allow you to copy "storybuilder" objects. It would be nice if they allowed this. What this means is if you have the same set of documents in two projects, you can carry over the issue tags, highlighting, etc., if you want. But, if you created a deposition outline in "Storybuilder" in Project A, you can't copy that deposition (with exhibits) over to Project B.
The Storybuilder "outline" function is not easy to use and does not export well to word. That said, once you get the hang of it, it really works beautifully for organizing exhibits.
Very powerful tool, but does require a high level of expertise and head count to administer the product.
If hosting yourself, requires investment in servers and ideally is housed in a data center
Providers need to pay kCura a monthly user license fee for every user who has access to the tool. Providers can purchase blocks of users, but with a large amount of users on a case, it's cost that some external clients are not thrilled about
Relativity is a well established tool that continues to evolve and look for ways to improve. Particular focus on Australian workflows is very promising for us and appreciated. There is a lot of scope for improvement in the processing and PDF workflows but it is great to see Relativity being proactive in those areas
The basic package does not include support other than general issues and the help content is not very helpful. The next level has committed and dedicated resources which would provide a better rating here but for the basic package, the support is lacking which makes it a difficult starting option and as a result, you then miss out on the pricing benefits.
I've used something called blade.acorn in a different mass tort case. I did not like it as much as Everlaw. Maybe it was because I used Everlaw first and was used to it. But Everlaw does have a great and organized platform that I think is better and is well-suited for mass tort cases' discovery process.
Nextpoint's ability to allow users to customize the way they use the system is what sets it apart. You can use Nextpoint in a variety of ways and completely customize the way the system tracks information and data. The ability to set up different searches and data points being tracked is extremely helpful.
Relativity contains all the features together in a single platform. And most of all other than Brainspace none of the other tools have document review capability as good as Relativity has.
Unfortunately, I do not have any hard numbers to share. The platform costs what it costs and you either eat that cost or pass it on to the client. The platform certainly makes you a more efficient attorney and saves a lot of time, so even if the monthly fee is kind of high, the client gets a lot of value out of it.
This program pays for itself in time and money saved versus traditional eDiscovery platforms.
For less than $1,000 a month, all databases for all cases can be processed and produced for us with this program. It cuts out the middle man and the hidden expenses, costing the firm and the client far less than other eDiscovery programs.
