A groundbreaking digital tool, EDRM Message ID Hash (EDRM MIH), has been launched to tackle the long-standing issue of identifying duplicate emails across different eDiscovery platforms. Developed by a global team of industry experts, the tool eliminates the need for costly and time-consuming reprocessing of emails. Launched in February 2023, EDRM MIH promises to revolutionise email duplicate identification, offering substantial time and cost savings for legal professionals.
A Better Way to Identify Cross Platform Email Duplication
Have you had to find duplicate emails quickly after receiving an opposing party’s production but couldn’t because the opposing party used a different software platform to process their emails?
If what you received was processed by a different digital tool or “cross platform”, your only option has been to reprocess these emails using a single eDiscovery software platform. This method is expensive, time consuming and stressful, especially on a tight deadline. Your lawyers or client probably wonder why it takes so long and costs so much.
Now there is a better way to approach this. Introducing a new groundbreaking digital solution, EDRM Message ID Hash (EDRM MIH).
The Challenge: Unravelling the Cross-Platform Puzzle
Many are not aware electronic discovery software platforms use very different algorithms to calculate email hash values. These values differ when calculated cross-platforms. This means duplicates cannot be automatically detected unless reprocessed or identified manually, which is expensive and time consuming.
At the 2016 ILTA conference, Beth Patterson, Director, ESPconnect and Adjunct Professor (Industry), UTS Faculty of Law, and Craig Ball, Texas trial lawyer, computer forensic examiner, law professor and noted authority on electronic evidence realised this issue effected eDiscovery worldwide. Their discussion sparked the foundation of the EDRM Duplicate Identification Project in March 2021. With the world in a pandemic lockdown, they gathered eDiscovery’s Global thought leaders via Zoom to solve this problem. https://edrm.net/edrm-projects/dupeid/
Backed by the EDRM, the independent eDiscovery thought leadership organisation, Beth led the project with Craig’s support. A multidisciplinary Dupe ID Project Team of 30 global thought leaders was brought together to address the challenge. It included lawyers, technologists, and business leaders, with representation from law firms, corporates, product vendors and service providers. This team included Law In Order’s Chief Digital Officer, Murali Baddula.
Driven by a shared desire to create a solution, competitors collaborated to benefit the entire industry. Along with Relativity, Product vendors included EDT, Nuix and Reveal.
The solution was not to replace existing deduplication methodologies, which are unique to each platform and work well for single platform deduplication. The team needed to pioneer a cross-platform methodology for email duplicate identification.
The Solution: The EDRM MIH
After a 30-day market consultation period and over two years of collaboration, the team rigorously tested the selected idea. Murali Baddula developed the Relativity application and as a dedicated member of Dupe ID Project Team, was instrumental in the development and testing of the EDRM MIH solution. It complies with the EDRM MIH Specification to generate EDRM MIH values. The Project Team was thrilled to launch the EDRM Message Identification Hash Specification 1.0 in February 2023.
Getting Started with the EDRM MIH in Relativity
Learn how to use the app including how to use the EDRM MIH in Relativity workflows by simply visiting the Relativity Community site:
The creator, Law In Order’s Murali Baddula, offers valuable guidance:
"A crucial initial action to consider is incorporating the EDRM MIH as a metadata field within your load files when submitting Requests for Production. I also advise my clients to make EDRM MIH a mandatory component in their Exchange Protocols when engaging with external parties or regulatory bodies. Embracing these two minor adjustments today can yield substantial long term advantages.”
To learn more about the EDRM MIH, visit the EDRM website https://edrm.net/edrm-projects/dupeid/ .
The EDRM MIH can be used for various purposes, including grouping email duplicates to enable a more efficient review process or deduplicating a cross-platform email dataset. Relativity users will now have a way to utilise this new method of cross-platform email duplicate identification within the Relativity ecosystem.
This simple, powerful solution will save time, money, and effort while enhancing the consistency and accuracy of email duplicate identification. Get started today by simply contacting our team at [email protected]