Reducing The Haystacks To Find The Needles

As in other Common Law jurisdictions, one of the distinguishing characteristics of litigation in England and Wales as compared to its Civil Law (or "continental") counterparts is the availability of document disclosure. Referred to as "document discovery" in US procedure, this is the requirement on one party to litigation to provide to the other the documents and materials in its possession that are (or may be) relevant to the case.

So, a party to English proceedings can gain access to relevant documents of its opponent in a manner-un-available to parties to litigation in continental (Civil Law) European countries. The downside, however, is the cost and time for each party to search for and review potentially relevant documents for disclosure. With the increase in the capacity of document storage technologies and the sheer volume of electronic documents generated and retained on a daily basis in modern commercial life, this task becomes ever more challenging. And