When entering the discovery phase of litigation one of the most pressing issues is forecasting your document review budget.
The first step is calculating the amount of electronic stored information (ESI) you have, and subsequently determining document and page equivalencies. This allows you to estimate how many contract attorneys a project will require within a given timeline.
Below are some general conversion guidelines and definitions to help start you down the path of figuring out document review project scope and cost.
How many documents and pages are in my legal document review?
|
ELECTRONIC DATA
(ABBREVIATION) |
EQUIVALENCIES |
NUMBER OF DOCUMENTS |
NUMBER OF
PRINTED PAGES |
| Bit |
The smallest measured
amount of data. |
1 doc |
< 1 page
(usually 1-2 words) |
| Byte (b) |
8 bits |
1 doc |
< 1 page
(approximately 15 words) |
| Kilobyte (k) |
1,000 bytes |
1 doc |
1 page |
| Megabyte (MB) |
1,000,000 bytes |
5-10 docs |
75 pages |
| Gigabyte (GB) |
1,000 megabytes |
7,500 docs |
75,000 pages |
| Terabyte (TB) |
1,000 gigabytes |
7,500,000 docs |
75,000,000 pages |
Note: These are approximate conversions. Figures can vary depending upon the number and type of files being reviewed.
How do my file formats affect page counts?
|
FILE TYPE |
NUMBER OF EMAILS |
ATTACHMENTS |
NUMBER OF
PRINTED PAGES |
| 100 MB .PST file |
900 |
300 attachments |
1,350 pages |
| 400 MB .PST file |
3,500 |
1,200 attachments |
5,250 pages |
| 600 MB .PST file |
5,500 |
3,000 attachments |
8,250 pages |
1 GB
.NST file |
9,000 |
3,000 attachments |
13,500 pages |
Note: These are approximate conversions. Figures can vary depending upon the number and type of files being reviewed.