Excel files often contain critical data in litigations and investigations. The volume of information contained in a single spreadsheet can be extraordinary; however, the amount of responsive or privileged content in that document may be very minor. Isolating only the responsive or privileged data in these files can be an excruciating task for attorneys and their review staff. But there are solutions to the challenges of dealing with this file type, and today’s technology offers the ability to better streamline their production in some popular review tools.
Pain Points in Redaction of Excel Files
As the discovery phase of litigation has evolved from being entirely paper-based to predominantly electronic, legal professionals have navigated an array of challenges. Among the issues attorneys and legal technologists have vigorously discussed and debated is when—or whether—to include native file formats as opposed to files that have been converted to TIFF images. This is particularly relevant to Microsoft Excel files, which pose obstacles that other file formats do not present.
