UTBMS eDiscovery Code Set

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The LEDES Oversight Committee (LOC) Uniform Task Based Management System (UTBMS) eDiscovery Code Set, ratified in 2011, is based on the EDRM Metrics Code set.

For more information about LEDES, go to http://www.ledes.org/.

For more information about UTBMS, go to http://utbms.com.

The top-level codes are:

Top Level UTBMS eDiscovery Codes

Code Description
L600 Identification
L610 Preservation
L620 Collection
L630 Processing
L650 Review
L660 Analysis
L670 Production
L680 Presentation
L690 Project Management

The complete code set is:

UTBMS eDiscovery Code Set

Code Description Comment Examples
L600 Identification (NOS) “NOS” = Not Otherwise Specified (catch-all, includes the subcategories) Primarily hourly charges.
L601 Discovery planning Includes initial review of complaint, development of data map
L602 Interviews Activities and actions related to the conducting of interviews with custodians, data stewards, or other individuals or groups within the organization.
L609 Quality assurance and control Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
L610 Preservation (NOS) “NOS” = Not Otherwise Specified (catch-all, includes the subcategories) Primarily hourly charges.
L611 Preservation order Activities and actions related to ensuring that data is preserved in accordance with requirements and assist with any efforts to seek relief from preservation order that may be issued by the court. Includes notice letters to other parties.
L612 Legal hold Activities and actions related to a) developing / drafting of appropriate legal hold for nature of litigation and distributing to identified custodians and data stewards, b) tracking and monitoring of responses received from custodians and including addressing any questions, and c) the release of a custodian or data steward from legal hold due to conclusion of litigation via settlement, conclusion of appeal or otherwise.
L619 Quality assurance and control Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
L620 Collection (NOS) “NOS” = Not Otherwise Specified (catch-all, includes the subcategories) Primarily charges on a per custodian or a flat/fixed fee basis.
L621 Collection/Recovery Activities and actions related to the collection and/or recovery of a) custodial email residing on the network, server, home share or enterprise archive or journal, hard-drives and removable media, as well as paper files, b) collection and/or recovery of non-custodial data the network, server, group shares, removable media and paper files, and c) decrypting files, cracking passwords, files restoration and other forensic analysis activity. Includes selective collection, searches and source imaging.
L622 Media costs Activities and actions used to track the actual costs of media used for preservation, collection, production and other activities and actions requiring purchase or additional media or use of existing media resources.
L623 Media/Transfer, Receipt, Inventory Activities and actions related to the transfer, receipt, tracking an inventory of .
L629 Quality assurance and control Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
L630 Processing (NOS) “NOS” = Not Otherwise Specified (catch-all, includes the subcategories) Primarily charges on a per GB, per custodian, or a flat/fixed fee basis.
L631 stage, preparation and process Activities and actions related to staging, preparing and processing . Includes culling, date filtering, key word application, ECA and other related.
L632 Scanning – Hard Copy Includes OCR, production of metadata, and other services involved around scanning
L633 Foreign language translation Activities and actions related to foreign language translation of both electronic and paper documents.
L634 Exception handling Activities and actions related to exception of both electronic and paper documents requiring special handling. Includes decryption.
L639 Quality assurance and control Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
L650 Review (NOS) “NOS” = Not Otherwise Specified (catch-all, includes the subcategories) Primarily charges on a hourly, per GB, per document or per page charges.
L651 Hosting costs Activities and action related to a)creation of the underlying database(s) in which unstructured and structured data which has been processed will reside for access and/or review, b) loading of the processed data into the underlying database(s), c) on-line storage required to store and make the processed data available for access and/or review, d) user access and license fees that provide the user with the ability to access and/or review the hosted data, and e) archiving data from and to on-line storage to a more cost effective for of storage such as near-line, secondary or off-line storage such as tape or cartridge in the event a matter goes dormant for a period of time.
L693 Review Planning & Training Review Planning & Training
Activities and actions related to the development and providing of initial and ongoing training prior to initial document review or periodically throughout the document review. Includes development of review protocol.
L652 Objective and Subjective coding Activities and actions related to unitizing and the objective and subjective coding of basic bibliographic information related to both electronic and paper-based data and documents, including auto-coding.
L653 First pass document review Activities and actions related to performing first pass document review such as determining relevancy, issue coding, tagging, and initial privilege determination.
L654 Second pass document review Activities and actions related to second pass QC of data and documents coded for relevancy, issue codes, tagging, and initial privilege determination during the first pass review.
L655 Privilege review Activities and actions related to performing final privilege review and determination of documents, as well as all privilege log related work.
L656 Redaction Activities and actions related to the development and implementation of a redaction protocol and the actual redaction of data and documents consistent with such a protocol.
L659 Quality assurance and control Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
L660 Analysis (NOS) “NOS” = Not Otherwise Specified (catch-all, includes the subcategories). Activities and actions required by litigation teams to be able to make informed decisions about strategy and scope through reliable methods based on verified data. Primarily hourly charges.
L670 Production (NOS) “NOS” = Not Otherwise Specified (catch-all, includes the subcategories). Primarily charges on a per GB, per custodian, or a flat/fixed fee basis.
L671 Conversion of to production format Activities and actions related to the TIFFing, bates stamping, endorsing, preparation of load files and deliverables to be provided as part of the data and/or document production(s). Also includes any technical time not included in the base production charges.
L679 Quality assurance and control Activities and actions related to ensuring that the process and practices used to perform analysis meet an acceptable level of defensibility.
L680 Presentation (NOS) “NOS” = Not Otherwise Specified (catch-all, includes the subcategories). Activities and actions to prepare and display before audiences (at depositions, hearings, trials, etc.), especially in native & near-native forms, to elicit further information, validate existing facts or positions, or persuade an audience. Primarily hourly charges.
L690 Project Management (NOS) “NOS” = Not Otherwise Specified (catch-all, includes the subcategories). Activities or actions to associated with supervising or managing specific activities or actions throughout the EDRM continuum such as conducting meetings and team calls, developing work plans, budgets, forecasts, reports and other meaningful activities or for general project management not associated with a particular “L” code. Primarily charges on a hourly or a flat/fixed fee basis.