Clearwell Offers Complete E-Discovery Solution With New Modules

Clearwell Systems has rolled out three new modules for its Clearwell E-Discovery platform. Along with enhancements to its Processing & Analysis module, version 5.0 also adds  optional modules for Pre-Processing, Review and Production. With the new modules installed, the Clearwell platform provides an end-to-end solution for managing e-discovery and legal requests.The new modules not only manage the collection process, but to allow enterprises to review documents for the legal teams involved. Version 5.0 delivers redaction and document visibility, enabling the entire discovery process to be handled within the appliance, avoiding the need to move data between different products at each phase. With several document viewers built in, emails and other documents can be viewed in their native format from within Clearwell's web interface. 

The Clearwell platform is available as both an appliance for in-house operations as well as a hosted solution for service providers. Kamal Shah, VP of Product Management at Clearwell, noted that the in-house appliance option has become an attractive one for its customers, many of whom were facing continually rising costs from service providers. One of Clearwell's customers, a professional services firm that manages e-Discovery internally for a Fortune 20 client, summarizes the advantages of an in-house solution, noting that "With service providers charging per gigabyte, the cost of bringing a solution in house could be covered in a single, large legal case."  Unlike third party services, the capacity of an appliance can be reused when each case ends. An in-house solution also allows customers to maintain the chain of custody on collected documents.There is also an interesting trend developing in the e-discovery market: many customers, after bring an e-discovery tool in-house, ultimately utilize the solution for more than external legal requirements. Internal requests from human resources, for example, which deal with collection of email and other electronic documents, can also be expedited using their appliance.