Government Investigations Data Reduction Case Study

This case study details the process undertaken by Avalon to assist a client in responding to a government inquiry involving a substantial volume of data. The initial data collected amounted to approximately 20 million digital items, totaling nearly 6 TB. Avalon implemented a strategy to reduce this dataset through the application of digital forensic techniques, including deNISTing and custodial deduplication, which collectively decreased the data size by over 35%. Following this, search terms were developed in collaboration with the client and their legal counsel, resulting in a refined dataset of 135 GB and about 351,000 items. Despite initial hesitations regarding the use of Relativity analytics, the client ultimately adopted email threading for quality control, which further reduced the final production to 71 GB and 97,317 items. The cooperation and data provided by the client played a significant role in preventing the anticipated lawsuit, highlighting the effectiveness of the implemented eDiscovery processes.