Reduce eDiscovery Costs by Focusing on Certain Computer File Types
In family law cases, you do not have to look at every file on the computer. Less experienced electronic discovery service providers fail to limit the review to classes of computer file types. Consequently, this is is time-consuming and very expensive for your clients.
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Use the Rule of Proportionality to Reduce Legal Review
Case law promotes proportionality. E-discovery work and cost should vary based on the issues in the case, the amount in controversy, and the likelihood of finding relevant information. Therefore, based on the specific issues in the individual case, we focus on certain file types and data types. For example:
- Property division and spousal support: Quicken, Excel spreadsheets, and online banking.
- Business valuation: QuickBooks, Excel spreadsheets, and online banking.
- Child custody and visitation (abuse or neglect is an issue): Photos, videos, and audio files.
- Common in most cases: Emails and text messages.
Sample Groupings of File Types
To illustrate the broad range of file types, we’ve provided a listing below of many commonly found groups of computer file types. These groupings allow you to focus review to file types based on issues in your case. For example, in a spousal support case, you will want to look at all financial file types. Using this approach, we can limit our search for relevant data to only those file types needed.
Financial Files
- (.md) – Moneydance Financial Data File
- (.mny) – Microsoft Money File
- (.mbf) – Microsoft Money Backup File
- (.money) – Money Data File
- (.q07) – QuickTax 2007 Tax Return
- (.q08) – QuickTax 2008 Tax Return
- (.q09) – QuickTax 2009 Tax Return
- (.qb2005) – QuickBooks 2005 File
- (.qb2006) – QuickBooks 2006 File
- (.qb2007) – QuickBooks 2007 File
- (.qb2009) – QuickBooks 2009 File
- (.qb2010) – QuickBooks 2010 File
- (.qb2011) – QuickBooks 2011 File
- (.qb2012) – QuickBooks 2012 File
- (.qbw) – QuickBooks Data File
- (.qdf) – Quicken Data File
- (.qdfm) – Quicken Data File (Mac)
Spreadsheet Files
- (.numbers) – Numbers Spreadsheet File
- (.ods) – OpenDocument Spreadsheet
- (.xls) – Microsoft Excel
- (.xlsx) – Microsoft Excel Open XML Document
- (.xlr) – Works Spreadsheet
Text Files
- (.doc) – Microsoft Word Document
- (.docx) – Microsoft Word Open XML Document
- (.log) – Log File
- (.msg) – Outlook Mail Message
- (.odt) – OpenDocument Text Document
- (.pages) – Pages Document
- (.pdf) – Portable Document Format File
- (.rtf) – Rich Text Format File
- (.tex) – LaTeX Source Document
- (.txt) – Plain Text File
- (.wpd) – WordPerfect Document
- (.wps) – Microsoft Works Word Processor Document
Emails
- (.dbx) – Outlook Express E-mail Folder
- (.ost) – Outlook Office File
- (.pst) – Outlook File
Database Files
- (.accdb) – Access 2007 Database File
- (.dat) – Data File
- (.db) – Database File
- (.dbf) – Database File
- (.fp7) – FileMaker Pro 7+ Database
- (.mdb) – Microsoft Access Database
- (.ndf) – SQL Server Secondary Database File
- (.xml) – XML File
Photo and Image Files
- (.gif) – Graphical Interchange Format File
- (.jpg) – JPEG Image
- (.png) – Portable Network Graphic
- (.tif) – Tagged Image File
Video Files
- (.3g2) – 3GPP2 Multimedia File
- (.3gp) – 3GPP Multimedia File
- (.asf) – Advanced Systems Format File
- (.asx) – Microsoft ASF Redirector File
- (.avi) – Audio Video Interleave File
- (.flv) – Flash Video File
- (.mov) – Apple QuickTime Movie
- (.mp4) – MPEG-4 Video File
- (.mpg) – MPEG Video File
- (.rm) – Real Media File
- (.srt) – SubRip Subtitle File
- (.swf) – Shockwave Flash Movie
- (.vob) – DVD Video Object File
- (.wmv) – Windows Media Video File
Audio Files
- (.aif) – Audio Interchange File Format
- (.iff) – Interchange File Format
- (.m3u) – Media Playlist File
- (.m4a) – MPEG-4 Audio File
- (.mid) – MIDI File
- (.mp3) – MP3 Audio File
- (.mpa) – MPEG-2 Audio File
- (.ra) – Real Audio File
- (.wav) – WAVE Audio File
- (.wma) – Windows Media Audio File
Compressed Files
- (.7z) – 7-Zip Compressed File
- (.gz) – Gnu Zipped Archive
- (.rar) – WinRAR Compressed Archive
- (.sitx) – StuffIt X Archive
- (.zip) – Zipped File
- (.zipx) – Extended Zip File
Backup Files
- (.bak) – Backup File
- (.gho) – Norton Ghost Backup File