The Unsung Importance of the Legal Document Reviewer

by | Nov 23, 2017 | Legal Services

Few professionals are as important – or as arguably undervalued – as that of the legal document review provider. Let’s look at the services they provide, and just how much they have become the cornerstone to our legal process.

Reviewers: What Do They Do?

Legal document reviewers are the backbone of the modern American legal field. These professionals are well-trained, experienced readers of all manner of legal documents, whose sole task is to examine and analyze paperwork to find information pertinent to the legal cases they are working on. While they are not typically directly involved in any court proceedings, their work directly influences the outcome of litigation, as what they help to determine as disclosable or not will often change the shape of the overall case at trial.

Who is Doing the Reviewing?

While some lawyers do provide their own legal document review – especially on high-profile or highly sensitive cases – this task is typically delegated to a paralegal, or a designated legal document reviewer. People who are hired to do this job specifically may review hundreds of documents daily, including printouts of email conversations, memos, letters and more. Because of the way our society works in modern times, most of these documents are digital versions of their original forms, making this task more organized and therefore slightly less tedious for the person charged with reviewing them all.

When You Don’t Have the Staff In-House, Hire Out

Many modern law firms use third-party providers of legal document review and other services. These legal outsourcing companies hire professionals both domestically and abroad to help make the process of document review quicker and more cost-effective for everyone involved. Additionally, these companies may use artificial intelligence computer programs to extract information and make reviewing documents that much faster and less laborious, further reducing overhead costs. It’s just one more way that these under-appreciated but vitally important service providers are making litigation a little less painful for everyone.

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